Yimby Billionaires Unmasked with Proposal for New City

Yimby Billionaires Unmasked with Proposal for New City

A recent article (linked Here) discusses the Yimby Billionaires behind a new utopian city proposed for Solano County. Of course, we’ve known for a long time that Silicone Valley billionaires have used their vast wealth to promote their special interests and those of big real estate by lining the pockets of politicians, and controlling the narrative including the use of Yimby astroturf organizations. However the linked article goes into some detail about the players. Here are a few quotes:

“Many of the counter-protesters that day were members of California YIMBY—a group that advocates for rapid housing development in the Bay Area. The group had the backing of multimillionaires and billionaires, several of whom were revealed last week to be the same tech titans behind a secretive plan to build a new city in rural Solano County, just 60 miles outside San Francisco.”

“The coalition that quietly bought up 55,000 acres of land in Solano County—keeping their plans a mystery until last week—includes some of the biggest names in the tech sector and California political advocacy, including venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Michael Moritz, Stripe co-founders John and Patrick Collison, and venture capitalist and California YIMBY co-founder Nat Friedman. After years of working on issues in San Francisco—and broadcasting their complaints about it on Twitter and in op-eds—the members seem to have decided it is time to start over.”

“Signatories included the Collisons, brothers who moved from Ireland to Silicon Valley after founding their first company and becoming millionaires at ages 19 and 17. They are major supporters of California YIMBY, donating $1 million in 2018. According to The New York Times, they also own 3 percent of the Solano County project.”

The above quotes are just a small sample of this great read, linked here.

People express a variety of views on the proposed new city:

• Some are excited about the prospect of a whole new city
• Some don’t like it, seeing it as sprawl.
• Others hope that it will take the densification pressure off NorCal cities which has resulted in gentrification, displacement, unaffordability, and loss of livability.