Group Flannery Associates, backed by prominent investors, quietly buy 55,000 acres of farmland in northern California

    • CoffeeAddict@kbin.socialOP
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      1 year ago

      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.

        • theinspectorst@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • CoffeeAddict@kbin.socialOP
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            1 year ago

            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.