Billionaireplanned Smart Cities In The US: Whats The Latest?

It all started with portable toilets.

Chap Ambrose, a 10-year resident of Bastrop County, Texas, said his wife watched the toilets being moved to a property near their home in 2021. The couple learned that Elon Musk was planning to build a “utopian” corporate city in Bastrop, Texas , near Austin .

Ambrose now leads Keep Bastrop Boring, a coalition of Bastrop residents closely monitoring Musk's planned urban development. Significant progress has been made regarding government violations.

Boring company. The state of Texas and Bastrop County cited Musk of Musk, who operates land adjacent to Ambrose's property, as a source of recurring problems. Four water quality violations were subject to enforcement action by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The Texas Department of Transportation warned the company in 2022 that traffic from its unauthorized route was blocking a local highway, according to the Observer . In 2022, Bastrop County issued a notice alleging the company installed a septic system without a permit.

Ambrose's goal is to work with The Boring Co. to ensure the company complies with the law. “It's disappointing to see the day-to-day reality of how they operate, how they treat their property, how they treat the environment and their employees,” he said.

In recent years, several billionaires have announced plans to build their own smart cities. There is also a venture capital company that finances the construction of cities around the world . But so far, most of these projects have not yielded significant progress. Some, like Musk's planned Snellbrook city, have clashed with residents and regulators.

A city is much more than just a region and ideas

Throughout history, there have been times when wealthy people built their own cities. Jill Grant, professor of urbanism at Dalhousie University in Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada, said that the big boom was coming after the industrial revolution, that people were interested in the property and had no income in it. Major cities.

He said Victorian fears were similar to those of American conservatives today. Grant said that in an age of billionaires and a shortage of affordable housing , it is not surprising that individuals from the wealthiest segments of society are turning to building their own cities.

However, he is not convinced that billionaires have the knowledge necessary to succeed. “They have a lot of land and an idea, but it's going to take a lot of work to turn it into a city,” Grant said.

So far, Musk has two warehouses in Bastrop and dozens of prefabricated homes for employees and their families, Ambrose said. But even for locals, it is difficult to find much information.

“Everyone [has] a non-disclosure agreement. Anyone who knows anything won't go on the record. There are very few official documents,” he said. His message to the company: “You're a neighbor here, whether you like it or not. Therefore, if you are forced to participate in a social process, you cannot get angry.”

Other cities proposed by billionaires have not yet been realized. Six years ago, Bill Gates made headlines for his plan to build a smart city in Arizona after an investment firm linked to the Microsoft co-founder purchased 24,000 acres of desert land . After these initial reports, no new information has been released about the rumored company.

Another ambitious "utopian" city , Telos , has the ultimate goal of 5 million residents. Mark Lohr, founder of Diapers.com and Jet.com, has announced plans to build a sustainable future city in the American desert by 2021.

“We are continuing our efforts to develop partnerships and collaborations, find locations, add consultants and thought leaders in key areas of interest, and work with our community to understand what matters most to them,” said John Mellon, who runs Telosa. project, in an email to Smart Cities Dive. He refused to reveal the timing of the site selection.

Meanwhile, in California, a group of tech billionaires have purchased 55,000 acres around Solano County, northeast of San Francisco, over the past five years with the goal of building a megacity called California Forever . The group includes former Goldman Sachs trader Ian Sramek, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of late Apple founder Steve Jobs.

The mayor of Fairfield, California, told The Daily Beast that 95% of the hundreds of letters he received about California Forever were against him. But after initially publicly opposing the project, Mayor Catherine Moye reconsidered the idea. He recently proposed a 50/50 partnership between the city of Fairfield and the investment group Flannery Associates.

"If they really cared about what's going on here, they could do a lot to help Solano County," Moye told ABC10 . "We've shut down an entire area of ​​the city. They can come in and design a little project to show us what you can do."

However, he is skeptical about water resources and the lack of transparency for investors. “We are not toys,” Moy said.

Water is a major issue for these cities, many of which are planned in the western United States, facing water shortages that will be exacerbated by climate change . At least one city was derailed by water. Blockchain Inc. wanted to... Nevada is building a smart city, but in August, the state denied water rights to the cryptocurrency company .

The future of cities planned by billionaires

Another reason so many cities are proposed is the political climate, says Shannon Mattern, author of "The City Is Not a Computer." Many companies, especially in Silicon Valley, have said that government agencies no longer work, and that they could create a better city if they ran them like a business or technology business.

“We can use technology in really productive and ethical ways to make cities more responsive and more efficient, and to make urban systems work more equitably and reliably,” said Mattern, a professor of media at the University of Pennsylvania. “But to say that everything can become technological or that we can create data sources that allow us to track everything is actually reductive and wrong.”

Grant said the billionaires behind these projects could support public, nonprofit and cooperative housing in many North American cities where residents struggle to afford housing.

Ambrose doesn't think the Texas Town mask will happen. If it goes ahead, the proposed city leaders would need bylaws and public meetings, according to The Boring Company. It has so far remained silent on this matter.

“They can’t even put in a [legal] sewer system,” Ambrose said. -So I have a little faith.