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Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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Neoliberal
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Good question! Planned cities always sound great, but very rarely do they actually become anything without some form of organic growth (and I think they are missing this). And even then, the masterplan needs to allow for that.
Cities need a reason to exist beyond being a vanity project for some really, really rich tech bros lol.
My reading of the article doesn't suggest it's a city particularly intended for rich people, or that it's intended to survive the apocalypse - when rich people want to try that, they buy remote islands and build nuclear bunkers. I think what they're going for sounds more like a modern version of the garden city movement.
In this case, the 'utopian' aspect seems limited to building a city with good public transport (which, outside the US, might not be considered especially utopian!) and clean energy.
Garden Cities of Tomorrow by Ebenezer Howard absolutely comes to mind.
Oddly enough, the Garden City movement was a partial inspiration & justification for American and Canadian suburbs. Poorly executed, of course, and it really is a shame the automotive industry was so effective at lobbying during that same time period becuase they would be so much better executed if they had utilized railroads and streetcars.