After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Their goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy.

    • Steeve@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      21
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Lemmy users: We need more housing, walkable cities, public transport, and renewable energy

      Developer: Plans to build more housing in a new walkable city with public transport powered by renewable energy

      Lemmy users: Not like that!

        • Steeve@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Where do you get the impression this is built “for the ultra-rich”? Why would they be taking public transport over their personal jets and private cars? Why would they live in an urban area with tens of thousands of other residents instead of their personal mansions on acreage? This is definitely an investment for upper-middle to upper class residents.

          As for farmland, article itself says “bad soil that only contributes 5% of the county’s agricultural production”. When you need housing, housing needs to go somewhere.

          Your government isn’t going to build the cities the climate needs, if tech investors want to with their own cash I say go for it.

          • Mirshe@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            17
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            While I don’t fully disagree with you, these towns being funded by the ultra-rich, usually by people who already have shady business practices, are looking awfully like company towns. Amazon’s already trying to build company-provided housing near a lot of their hubs, which is bad in that now your healthcare AND your shelter are directly tied to your employment. Imagine if they get their way with building a whole micro-city that runs on that idea - where every last bit of wealth an employee might spend goes STRAIGHT back to your company. Their utilities get dealt with by Amazon-built power and water plants. Their food is provided by Amazon grocery stores or deliveries. Your healthcare is provided by Amazon, and your housing is at the whim of your employer. All of this is provided at jacked-up prices, of course, so you’re effectively just a debt slave until you die or the company decides to kick you to the curb.

            • Steeve@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              It’s being built by an investment firm though, doesn’t look to be company housing, just looks like an investment to me.

          • Swedneck
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I get that impression from this little thing called the title of the post