Imet Gabriel Metcalf, the urban planner hired to design a new California city backed by tech billionaires, while we were mincing garlic and herbs at Burning Man. The New York Times had just blown open the mystery of who was secretly buying up more than 50,000 acres of farmland in Solano county, about 50 miles north-east of San Francisco.
The buyers turned out to include a who’s who of Silicon Valley investors who had thrown their weight behind an ambitious plan for a new “California dream” city with walkable neighborhoods, climate-friendly infrastructure, green energy jobs and affordable homes.
Many are deeply suspicious of tech elites throwing their money around, thinking they can solve everything. And the way in which California Forever, the investor-backed corporation, went about it – by quietly buying up nearly $1bn worth of land without the knowledge of local residents and officials – hasn’t warmed people to the project either. In the months since the project’s announcement, residents, officials and environmentalists have raised serious questions about the feasibility of turning a rural land into a bustling city.
Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com