Billionaires on the Construction Site: Fifteen-Minute Cities Have Become a Wet Dream for Tech Freaks

A mysterious group of investors hiding under the name Flannery Associates has spent approximately $800 million in recent years purchasing 60,000 acres of agricultural land near San Francisco, in Solano County, without revealing their intentions. Not only were the investors’ intentions hidden, but the investors themselves were also concealed. However, it has recently been revealed who is behind the company – it turns out to be major players.

Among them are LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and even the former wife and heiress of Steve Jobs‘ fortune, Laurene Powell Jobs. Leading this group is former Goldman Sachs employee Jan Sramek. All of them plan to build a completely new ecological utopian city of the future on this vast land. Their only obstacle for now is that it is agricultural land, which is not intended for any construction, including a city. Therefore, Sramek now needs the approval of Solano County voters, where the land is located, to bypass historical land protection measures dating back to 1984 that have prevented the conversion of this agricultural land into urban space.

What and How

Of course, the land grab has not gone unnoticed and has raised suspicion among the local population, who do not believe in the good intentions of billionaires and are asking various questions: ‘Do they really want to try to solve the housing crisis around San Francisco?’; ‘Do they just want to profit from reselling buildings and houses in this new city, or are they creating some mysterious libertarian technological utopian city-state?’

In the end, no one knows, but when you have billionaires and technology in the same sentence, all wrapped in a veil of secrecy, it does not bode well. At least not for the common people. To succeed in their endeavor, Sramek founded California Forever, a partner company of Flannery Associates, with which he is trying to push his initiative and present it to voters for approval to work on agricultural land. He only needs thirteen thousand signatures from Solano County voters, and the project can begin.

The billionaires envision twenty thousand homes in rows of apartment buildings for fifty thousand residents, all within a circle where jobs, schools, bars, etc. can be reached on foot. They have imagined the so-called fifteen-minute city, today a wet dream for greens and tech freaks.

– This is a pipe dream – said U.S. Democratic Representative John Garamendi, who was furious at the supporters of this project for their secrecy regarding property near the U.S. Air Force base. Namely, the billionaires intend to build their city near the Travis Air Force base, which does not align with U.S. policy. Garamendi added that this city makes no sense because it is located ‘in the middle of an area surrounded by wind farms, gas fields, with endangered species, without water, without sanitation and road systems, let alone highways.’

In addition to its agricultural purpose, the land targeted by California Forever is located in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, a sensitive river estuary home to many fish and animal species. The delta is also the center of California’s water supply system, which is already overloaded. Critics of the project are concerned that development will further harm the already endangered ecosystem. The billionaires, of course, disagree and claim they are not worried about the discontent because it is a ‘small group of people.’

– You have a small but very vocal group of people who do not like the project – Sramek told The Post.

Ambitious Ideas

Due to all the commotion surrounding the new city and the fact that it is being built by tech moguls, this project is compared to other so-called utopian city projects, which are also backed by billionaires who clearly have nothing better to do. Here we primarily think of PayPal co-founder, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund’s Peter Thiel, who dreams of a floating city, and recently about the Olympics on steroids, which only shows the level of madness of billionaires. We should not forget the project of billionaire Marc Lore, who intends to build the city of the future, Telosa.

This former Walmart CEO plans to create it by 2050. Between 2016 and 2021, he was the CEO of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce, but he resigned to fully focus on building Telosa. The city is named after the Greek word telos, which means ‘higher purpose’ or ‘higher goal.’ Lore likes to say that he is different from other billionaires. He primarily targets Musk and Bezos, the wealthy who want to go to space, while he, such a great and good man, wants to help people here on Earth.

– I am trying to create a new model for a society where wealth is created in a fair way. It is simply about returning to citizens and people the wealth they helped create – Lore explained his ideas.

The goal of the Telosa project is five million residents by 2050. It will be a city where ‘training centers, cultural institutions, and retail ‘spill out’ onto the street where shaded public spaces encourage residents to gather,’ according to the project’s website.

– Enriched with native plants, urban parks will have carefully managed reservoirs that store water for the city and provide all residents with open space within minutes of where they live – the project website continues, revealing that it is also about the so-called fifteen-minute city, where everything is within reach for residents.

Due to Lore’s efforts to make everything sustainable, vegetables and fruits will be grown indoors, buildings will be energy-efficient, electric cars will be self-driving, and public transport will be fast. The central city landmark will be the Equitism Tower, a large metal skyscraper with a conical shape featuring a water reservoir, aeroponic farms, and a photovoltaic roof that will allow it to distribute energy. A true utopia, especially considering how the green transformation is currently developing.

Lore needs $500 billion to start building Telosa. He expects the city to have 50,000 residents by 2030 and, he hopes, five million by 2050. The problem is, they say, that it is still unclear where this city should be built, but it seems to be targeting the American desert.

Floating Cities

Billionaire Peter Thiel also had a plan for a utopian city. In 2008, he launched a mission to develop a floating city called Seastead that would be independent of other nations as a self-sufficient small island. The group made early steps in planning the construction of a detachable chain of islands near French Polynesia and had an initial agreement with that country, but the local government stated in 2018 that its contract with The Seasteading Institute was outdated and did not bind the country in any way.

Although Thiel left the Board of Directors in 2011, the Institute continues to promote the idea and seeks interested states, but primarily investors who will support this floating project.

Throwing Money

Perhaps the dumbest project comes from Saudi Arabia and far surpasses all others – in stupidity. In 2021, the Saudi government presented plans for the city of Neom, including a megastructure called The Line Saudi Arabia. The Line was to be designed as a whole city composed of two parallel skyscrapers, each 170 kilometers long and 500 meters high. It would be a vertical futuristic city intended to accommodate around nine million people and contain everything necessary for urban life.

To ensure that all this does not sound too normal, the Saudis have said that their city will also have an artificial moon so that residents can enjoy the view. Namely, they will not see the real one since they will be enclosed in vertical buildings. Oh, what a beautiful life: no Sun or Moon! Saudi officials claim that The Line will have no roads, cars, and thus no gas emissions, and will be powered exclusively by clean energy.

From Texas to Mars

Of course, such an overview of crazy billionaire ideas cannot pass without Elon Musk. The billionaire and his associates purchased at least 1,400 acres of land in Bastrop, Texas, about 56 kilometers from Austin, to build the city of Snailbrook. Musk also announced plans to build a city near SpaceX’s launch facilities. In 2021, he presented his plans to create a new city, Starbase, in Boca Chica, Texas, about 563 kilometers from Snailbrook.

Although SpaceX employees have taken over most of Boca Chica, it is unclear whether Musk has ever fully established the city as his own. Texans near both locations have expressed opposition to the billionaire’s efforts, but no one opposes a city on Mars – because that is also, in fact, in the ambitious plans of Elon.