A group of tech billionaires has a bold plan to beat the cost of living crisis in San Francisco: build a whole new city from scratch. But the group faces an uphill battle this November to convince locals that it’s time to create SF 2.0.
The plan is the brainchild of Jan Sramek, a tech entrepreneur and former Wall Street trader. Growing up in the Czech Republic in the early 1990s, America represented a place of unbridled hope. His country was in the early days of defining its new, post-communist era, and the US was a vision of what the future might hold.
“To me, the US was always this place of optimism and opportunity,” Sramek told The Independent. “We just defeated the Soviets. The economy was doing well.” That made Northern California, which was becoming the centre of the nascent dotcom world, “the most optimistic place in the most optimistic country in the world,” he added.
Sramek eventually moved to the Bay Area in the 2010s, and by then, the picture looked considerably different. The tech economy was still booming, but San Francisco was becoming one of the most unaffordable places in the nation to live and struggled with a growing population of unhoused people. Residents of the Bay Area began pelting private buses for Google employees with rocks. The social fabric was clearly beginning to tear.
Something had to change to keep the Bay Area’s diversity, cultural openness and economic dynamism. Sramek thought he had a key part of the solution: build a new city from the ground up, reversing decades of sluggish construction in the Bay Area. Since 2017, Sramek and a group of blue chip Silicon Valley investors, operating under the name California Forever, have been pursuing a plan to construct a new city on farmland in Solano County, between San Francisco and Sacramento.
Bu hikaye The Independent dergisinin July 08, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Independent dergisinin July 08, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
NFL faces compelling decision as London Games return with Jets vs Vikings
The London Games are back with perhaps the finest NFL quarterback of the last decade and the highest-paid wide receiver in the league set to feature.
Jota seals Liverpool win but talisman Alisson limps off
Alisson Becker remains the king of Selhurst Park, but if he and Virgil van Dijk showed what Liverpool’s title bid will be built on this season, a win at Crystal Palace was perhaps also another indication of why the Reds spent part of this summer looking at the future.
Kovacic's new eye for goal hides Man City's fragility
No prizes for guessing who Manchester City’s top scorer is. Yet the identity of the man second in their standings comes as more of a surprise.
Dominant Saka shows he can lead Arsenal to the title
A classic case of a goal being the worst thing a lesser team could do. Southampton’s joy in Cameron Archer giving them a shock lead only served to awaken Arsenal, who went from a very flat display to one where they came at the visiting side from all angles.
Taliban profits as flights return to Afghan airspace after Iran missile attack
The number of international flights passing through Talibancontrolled Afghan airspace reached a record high this week in the aftermath of Iran's missile attack against Israel.
Villagers torch police camp after claim girl, 9, was raped then murdered in India
A local police camp in India was set on fire by a mob yesterday, just hours after the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl came to light.
Israel expands airstrikes to bombard northern Lebanon
More than one million people flee homes as fate of man thought to be replacement for Hezbollah leader unclear
Palace 'checking in daily' on teenage cancer patient who shared a hug with princess
A teenage cancer patient given weeks to live is being checked on daily by Kensington Palace after she met the Prince and Princess of Wales last week, her mother has revealed.
Parkrun celebrates 20 years
Event has grown from 13 runners to cover 2,500 locations
Hurricane Kirk aftermath to batter England and Wales
Britain is bracing for the aftermath of a hurricane currently intensifying in the Atlantic Ocean after the Met Office warned its influence will create a period of unsettled weather.