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Your math is off. Most electric cars don't reach the maximum efficiency of 3.5 miles per kwh you used in your calculation, but also it's extremely unfair to compare the most economic EV to a mid sized truck or SUVs fuel economy. My car over 69,000 miles costs ~$5800.00 in fuel, while a more reasonable estimate for an average EV would be a cost of $4600.00 The main difference is that while you are stopping to charge for an hour or more every 200-300 miles, my vehicle can easily put down 600 miles between 10-15 minute stops, which I think the 19,000 hours in time saved waiting for charging over 69000 miles is well worth $1200.00
Got to the part about "walkable cities" and you saying that you didn't know where the hostility to them came from. If you live in the U.S, I should hope you would already be aware of where it is clearly coming from and you're just not saying it to avoid political controversy. It's the same people responsible for the dumb culture-war talking points every time.
Isn't the average kwh cost in SD twice the $.2 shared in your video at $.39/kwh? No doubt EV has many compelling options, but in CA the cost/kwh is criminal as compared to other states. Just north of you I pay SCE an average of almost $.5/kwh. Maybe you have embedded in your math an all-in net cost after considering battery storage, but stating a $.2/kwh average seems off
@@jonlundy1525 I hadn't even considered that either. Most of California's power is imported, and even where it's not they are spending tons of money on carbon credits to pretend they have 100% clean power in the state. That probably drives up the cost of electricity a fair amount. Based on your numbers the electricity cost for 69000 miles would be ~$11,000. The same as the really poor economy ICE he is comparing EVs to, and double the fuel cost of my ICE over the same mileage.
“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.” -- H.L. Mencken That is why we citizens are doubting Thomas's when it come to government and billionaires. When THEY move in and live there I will be more interested. Until then it gets a very serious no from me. And they will never, ever, live where they think we should...
Even if they were completely serious about their good intentions, I'm still they'd be very likely to screw things up unintentionally. Just look at a lot of the mega-projects in Dubai, which wound up backfiring.
@@atoth62 You would think these billionaires would be smart enough to invest a fraction of all that wealth in having people around them to actually keep them grounded in reality. They do that with their wealth management already. Better than spouting incorrect nonsense on social media at 3am b/c became psychologically addicted to an echo chamber. Y'know, putting the "eccentric" in that "eccentric millionaire/billionaire" stereotype.
They may have a problem getting the local population to vote for their city. Many like their rural community and don't want a major city it their county. They also would be afraid of higher property taxes. The fact that the developers sued the property owners will make many distrust the developers. That lawsuit would make me very skeptical of anything the developers say. Also water is very precious there and people will have concerns about the amount of water this city will need.
Problem is. Votes don't count, as we've seen in 2020. The rich are better then us. The rich are smarter then us. The rich are more powerful then us. All mostly true unless we the normal everyday citizens stand up to the elite and overthrow the masters.
I don't know why they would be allowed or expected to vote on the city. It wouldn't be there land. Given that cities use 80% less water than farms, state agencies might welcome it.
It is not a question of whether the people should have a vote or not, under the laws of the county the people will have a vote. People will have a concern about the water the city will use. On a per acre basis I would guess a city would use more water then a farm.@@LisaFaiss
Enjoy your videos….on waterless toilets, I work in a high school which was built 11 years ago (renovated) and as part of the new school they installed waterless urinals. They didn’t even run the water lines in case it never worked out. Well after 11years the drain pipes are clogged with mineral deposits and it cost lots of money to clear them (just enough to drain) by using strong acids as soon as a small path is cleared the acids drain away and obviously stop clearing the drain. The daily maintenance on waterless urinals is costly as well as it involves using a chemical that floats on the urine to help alleviate smells. The design of the urinals leave a lot to be desired as they splash back and spray the floor and your shoes. Gross…they stink because the urine is everywhere and even though they are cleaned everyday there remains stink. I am not a fan of waterless urinals…even a small amount of water flushing the urine down the drain would be thousands of dollars cheaper than the cost of chemicals and maintenance of plumbing.
*I'm a fan of "watering" plants as nature intended. No urinal, no toxic chemicals, and still the least expensive option available* 🤫 P.S. - Urine use as fertilizer is actually a proven means of better plant growth, with programs in China successfully using urine from schools to fertilize apple orchards. Other non-school related projects throughout the world have proven the same with equal success.
Not every optional program is bad, but many bad programs start as optional. Doing things incrementally is a control technique so don't be shocked at early opposition.
The 15 minute cities comes from the GEF or Global Economic Forum which has been described as billionaires telling millionaires how the rest should live.
15 minute cities come from urban planners and dense housing advocates who are pointing out that in the past people could walk or take local transit to stores, services, and work. It’s just what you get if you build mode densely and smartly than suburbs.
A bunch of Silicon Valley millionnaires tries to design a city... what can go wrong?... I’m from Toronto. A few years ago Google tried to build a designed-from-scratch neighbourhood in my city. We sent them away (yes I was one of them, no, I don’t drive or have a car); privacy was a huge issue.
@@KevinLydaHe is now a Virtue Signaler unless he is planning on living in one of these small townhomes, which I would love to see….. but won’t. Also the city is walkable so he can give up his car, not eat meat, eat bugs and go all in!
in these new towns / cities / states, will you be able to own your own slice of it? will you be able to be a home owner? a land owner? or will the corporations and mega rich own everything and lease it to you? as in a place where you will own nothing, which sounds eerily familiar.
Such planned cities are the worst idea ever. We need cities where people actually want to live. We have seen, especially in Europe, these master plan cities/neighbourhoods fail dramatically.
As a European living in Metro-Helsinki(1.5 million people), this whole project screams 'non-functional'. Helsinki made two similar new destricts over the sea housing only some 50,000 people. But it wasn't 'new' - it was attached to the city 100% with trams. What you describe is absolutely nonsensical. A city is a city. You can't replicate any part of city simply by replication a part of it. What you're describing is science fiction. I have yet to see one functional project in any US cities. US cities are so behind that any proper change would take 50+ years. (For reference - Metro-Helsinki planning has a span at the moment that reaches 2123. Can the US do that?) Edit: you mentioned things like 'homelessness' and 'adapting to climate change' - Metro-Helsinki started the program in 2009 that now reaches to 2109. Social programs are governmental. In Finland they started in 1930s. What in the world are you talking about? No wonder US cities are are a mess if people like you are in charge. Shame. As a Finn I expect more.
@@Willrocs And with that population and 100 years America has absolutely no cities that are walkable, non. And Europe had 2 world wars - and all out cities, all countries are designed for pedestrations. Also - the population of EU is around 450 million (450,000,000).
Amsterdam built a very pedestrian, bicycle and public transport friendly city without the help of billionaires, i believe. I 'm skeptical of the billionaires' said intentions.
I would like to see improvements made to our existing once-great cities, which are getting hallowed out with abandoned buildings and inadequate infrastructure.
Hayek pointed out that it's horrible for the average citizen when capitalists and the state work together. In the book he mentioned that no monopoly has been allowed to stand without government assistance, willingly or unwillingly. These people buying so much land is one example if you look into the "Estate Tax" which a vast majority if not all generational farms fall under. It makes it unlikely if not impossible for a farmer's child to inherit the property in part or in hole because of just how much taxes are taken out. When I looked into the laws in the USA centered around taxation and the economy it made me flabbergasted by how ridiculous it is! It is set up to drain the wealth from the ground upward and therefore stopping almost all upward mobility.
Come on Ricky, "you're buying into a life long contract with the oil companies"??? What about "you're buying into a life long contract with electricity suppliers"? You may want to investigate how those rare earth minerals get into your electric car. Love you videos but you really need to do some investigation into EV's. They only look good on the surface.
I power my EV with rooftop solar. Yes, cars do have an environmental manufacturing cost both ICE and EVs. But the EVs are a one time cost while gas cars continue to burn gasoline through their lifetime. Plenty of studies have shown EVs to be much better for the environment, even with the rare earth minerals (which are recycled at end of life).
@@beachcrow EV's are NOT a one time cost. You power your car with your solar 1000 miles from your house? BS. Plus those batteries don't last forever. You better look up how rare earth minerals are mined and how much ore it takes to make just a single battery. Lookup where they come from and how they're mined. I'm guessing you also by into "CO2 bad". That is one of the greatest lies ever perpetuated.
Sounds like a modern version of a Company Town to me. The tech sector workers, and all the support staff, can't afford to live where they work any longer.
There is a very long history in the US of the wealthy, and corporations, getting something started, buying officials to put the cost onto the tax-payers, pocketing the money, and walking away to let it crumble. Shopping malls. factories, mines, wells, the list goes on. So, yes, the locals are right to be concerned and the tax-payers in the nearby towns, counties, and states should be concerned, especially with the massive projects being planted in places where water is already scarce and only becoming more so with climate change.
Do this in Alaska, bigger than California, Texas, Florida combined with only 740,000 people. All these other projects fight mother nature: extreme heat, lack of water, other resources, too close to difficult people, over regulation. Alaska has tons natural resources and tons of places with no people. Start small couple thousand and slowly build out max 2 to 3 story structures built into nature, with tons trees and water through out. Live in balance with nature, stop fighting it....
There's a reason why a geographically larger state has a small fraction of the population of California (almost 40 million) does. . . but besides that, Alaska is expensive & it's difficult to get materials there.
This is literally right next to Travis Air Force Base. I was stationed there for 5 years. They would have military aircraft flying overhead all day every day.
Oh, and it's really windy there, which is why both the base and wind turbines are built there. The wind helps the heavy refueling tankers take off. If I recall correctly, the wind typically blows west to east. I didn't spend a whole lot of time east of base, but I'm guessing it's pretty windy there. Hope those billionaires enjoy 30mph winds with 45mph gusts. It was kinda miserable trying to go out for a walk with the family in the evenings after dinner.
Mark Anderson looks like a decendant of the Coneheads! They could call it Caltopia, Technotopia, Delta City, Soladel City, Solacal City, Yimbycal, Lol . . . . I don't think voters would EVER approve it though. Thank for another fascinating video, Ricky!
Growing up i always wanted to create a small town that had a custom built Air Tube system. So things could be shipped around town. Mail, items, prescriptions, etc. I always thought that would be so cool.
When Walt Dinsey planned Disney world, he wanted to make it big enough so that tourists could be housed instead of the new hotels that sprung up around Disney land - what economists call internalising externalities. To acquire such a large plot the Disney corp put out false info around where they were planning sites to throw speculators off the trail. So much of economics is really land and who gets the rent, about 57% of wealth in the US is 'land', even more here in the UK arounf 60%, but it's been almost pushed out of the textbooks in favour of a 2 factor capital and labour model.
Solano resident here. Most of the land in question is mostly wind farms in the south, farms in the north. The $6 million range for land would be wineries in the western valley adjacent to Napa county. There are development restrictions that need approval from Travis AFB and DOD. There is Seasteading for building without permission in international waters.
I keep thinking of the Tyrell Corporation headquarters from " Blade Runner". Trying out new ideas is certainly a good idea, and different ideas should be put to the test, just bear in mind a lot of " city of the future" ideas go out of date real fast...
The problem with building in the Southwest is that we don’t have enough water to sustain the current population. Adding a mega-city could strain that resource to the breaking point. The way to win nearby side to is to provide them access to the resources available in the new construction. I was going to buy a house next to an abandoned golf course that was going to be developed as a modern neighborhood. I could have lived with the denser population, if I shared in the benefits of the new construction. But the project wanted to shut out existing residents from the parks and facilities being provided for the new construction - lose, lose instead of a win-lose. I did not buy and that battle is still going on. I am all for a new city concept, as long as it is done ethically and responsibly. This is why I support the red tape and regulations preventing greed from overcoming responsibility.
Not sure how anyone could be so ignorant about 15 minute cities, there is ample information and evidence about how the scheme is going to work. Cities are already trying to enforce the scheme in existing cities in the UK and they are very restrictive.
Lol , I believe that anyone who wants to be part of an “ant farm” is entitled to be as such but I don’t see how there wouldn’t be the same serious issues (only more condensed) with a society like this. I for 1 am extremely happy staying/living here where I’m at !! 😂
I agree...living in what someone else thinks is a perfectly planned city will always mean settling for what someone else thought was a good idea. I prefer wide open woods and fields paired with as few people as possible.
@glamdring0007 Amen. Living in the city means living with crazy people. I lived in California for 3 years. Happy to leave that crazy city and move back home to Texas.
If you had a light rail, or gondola transport from Brøndby Haveby in Denmark, it would come close to the perfect car free living. Having said that, my hobby requires a four wheel drive to get to the flying sites . This has also stumped me when looking at Electric Vehicles.
I’m down with that I don’t know why my fellow Americans are so God set on having cars I know they think it represents your freedom and that’s cool but at the same time I’d like to be able to just hop on the train for a couple hundred mile journey…
When a company says "We want to build enviro friendly, people first" - You KNOW the opposite is true. It's a company - their mandate is to make money. The owners of Flannery are not known for their "People first" initiatives are they? Power, control and money.
Anyone worried about being forced into these cities is focused in the wrong direction, I think. Instead, these become the ultimate, gated communities where you have to apply to live there, and that can become very exclusionary.
Elysium, for the city name. But it will be interesting to see how these new cities work. They could do many things to preserve water. Recycle gray water, charge its actual value on a sliding use scale, etc. But what might limit things more is sand. As in, the sand for concrete is running out so new anything that we use it for will go up in cost. How many cars are going to be bought if you have to pay thousands a year in taxes for roads? Plus, who will live in these new cities? US pop without immigration is going down and half the country wants to block immigrants. Not a promising set of conditions.
@@Sedgewise47 Which have diminishing vitamin and mineral content, GMOs in which we now all have glyphosate in our systems and they obviously want you to eat bugs and fake foods anyway. It's never crossed your mind why they are killing farms if we're supposedly overpopulated? This is all about weakening or killing the human Genome to be more docile, weak and subservient. Science can and has been wonderful... but unfortunately it all has to do with who funds them and what THEIR agendas might be.
The 15 minute cities are drawing skepticism because we've all seen things that are optional until they aren't anymore. I don't want to stand in the way of progress, but I think we are often treated as unwashed mushrooms and not allowed to participate in the decisions of the future. Blacked out futuristic projects are scary for a good reason. I think people need to feel like they are participants in big ideas rather than watch it be foisted onto them. Where is the sense of community?
I still haven't figured how this city or concept reduces or solves homelessness. It is easy to build a compound, let only people you want in (such as people who can afford to live there), and kick out the homeless. However, that doesn't solve homelessness. Do they have free or very cheap housing? Do they have ways to control drug use? Do they have support for mental health issues? Do they have veteran services to keep vets off the streets? Do they have jobs to empoly these people so they can afford housing? Or, is this simply a utopia for the 1%, while the rest of us and the homeless remain everywhere else?
I'm guessing that the homes will use less water than the farmers. But I was expecting the city to house more people. That's a big project, but not something I'd call "Mega". Telosa sounds interesting too. Also, I'm wondering if the declining population in 1st world countries will end the housing shortage over the next 30 yrs.
I agree! But I wonder how these properties will shift ownership. I saw something saying that we’ll become a country of renters because the investment firms and families with generational wealth won’t sell. Just hoard the resource.
The declining population is first world countries is not a good thing. What will end the housing crisis is ending the mass importation of people from the third world.
The housing shortage is due to a lack of people being able to afford a home. For every homeless person in the US there are about 11 empty family homes. More and more houses are becoming investments for the wealthy pricing regular people out. There is no really scarcity only artificial scarcity created to profit the predator class.
One thing... most of these mega projects with fantastical buildings and features will end up just being regular looking cities that aren't distinctive at all.
You see mini cities like this in places like HCMC, Viet Nam. Near large cities with money but with high populations and big social divisions. But they always just seem like a huge mall to me. Kinda Like Singapore.
Been to Viet Nam many times, 13 to be exact. Ni have seen it flourish since the 90's and I have been to some of those newer, more wealthy areas and I remember thinking they were like mini cities. Good take.
15 minute cities ? "You don't have to move there ??? WHAT ! Here in the UK they are attempting to enforce them. Not new cities, existing towns & cities. It's not about choosing to live there, people already live there ! They are talking about fining people £100 pounds if they drive in or out of town more than 70 times a year. People don't want it, they have jobs, lifestyles. It's autocratic, dystopian & a restriction on movement. So what are you talking about, saying they have choice ? You need to get your facts straight before advocating something you obviously know nothing about.
I actively encourage new cities. But, I don't trust these billionaires to have the publics best interest. Keep your eye on this and just wait for these vultures to pull the rug out from underneath everyone
As someone who lived in Europe for several years, the idea of a "walkable city" is very, very appealing. When the oldest building in your city has been rebuilt a few times and is a thousand years older than the automobile, ALL of the extra expenses we pay, both explicitly and implicitly become so obvious. For municipalities, parking spaces don't pay taxes, business and residents do. If you NEED a car because you want to go somewhere the existing rail system and other public transit or a taxi won't take you, then you can still rent a car. But cars get reserved for when you need them, and the insurance, maintenance and other individualized costs of transportation ownership are generally an optional budget line item, and the amount of costs to support automobile infrastructure are bearable by the city when almost every residence is 3-5 story tall condo or apartment buildings filling a block sometimes wall-to-wall. Today, where I used to live overseas has a population density of about 1400/km^2 or 3,600/sqmi, far higher than the density of suburbs; which is one of the lessons you learn from SimCity; low-density people support is very expensive.
@@chrismcaulay7805 You do realize bugs are already in your diet, even in America? Red dye #5 is made from bugs, not to mention the percentage of processed meats and grains that are allowed to be bugs. You've probably been eating bugs all your life.
@@louislamp That the worst non-sequitur argument I have heard in a LONG TIME. That is just for food dye, or accidental consumption, it has nothing to do with eating bugs purposefully for sustenance. Give me a break weirdo, no one needs you wasting their time with that crap. Everyone knows the world isnt perfect, and a bug my fall into a vat, there is a world of difference between 1 bug every X number of tons of grain, and eating a plate full of bugs...
Every city currently being built in the free world is organic growth that is not directed by the government but by the people's needs, wants and necessities. You can't expect condensed cities in free world unless it's in a space constrained places like in Singapore or south Korea.
Building 15 minute cities is about building places people will want to live and work. Forcing people to live somewhere they do not want to live would be inherently the opposite of the 15 minute city idea. It’s remarkable how many US cities have the bones for vibrant city fabric but completely ignore the possibilities.
not only do they ignore the possibilities. They spent money to bulldoze those cities to destroy those (at the time) current benefits; Plans often fueled by racism through indifference or out right goal of destroying undesirable communities' proven success. Success found over years of iterative incremental improvement.
If 15 minute cities were new places you could move to if you wish that would be fine. Unfortunately my understanding is a bit different. Isn't there already a city I the UK that they are converting to a 15 minute city? As in the current residents don't get a choice? An imposed 15 minute city? A completely different scenario.
@@freddybell8328 you can walk or bike in any city... to suggest otherwise is kinda strange... just because you don't have a dedicated lane .. there is nothing to stop you ... never has been anything to stop anyone from walking or biking
It was the Soviets that moved people into high density housing. Russia is a huge country with lots of forests, so it wasn't about not enough space or not enough building materials. High density cities was about controlling people and still is. Get people off of homesteads where they are self-reliant. Make people dependent on the government and big business so they can be controlled.
They don't get it if they got any of that land from farmers, Calfornia produces a large part of the food for the whole nation or at least they used to , they have been the last few or several years importing food from Mexico and other places but if that is going to ruin things for our farmers it will to stop..
Sound like what happen in the Owens Valley with water rights. The City of Los Angeles quietly bought up the farmer water rights in the Owens Valley. With The City of Los Angeles owning the water right to the water in Owens Valley. Los Angeles was able to make an aqueduct and transport the water to Los Angeles. One thing we need to remember about this. What The City of Los Angeles did was legal. May not be morally right, but was legal. Brian living in The People’s Republic of California.
I read about someone who had to have his EV battery replaced at 70,000 miles. With installation it would have cost him $38,000. It wasn’t a Tesla, it was a lower end vehicle. Can you speak to this?
It’s interesting that these cities are presented in a positive light, as if they are healthy and good for the people who live there. I think that’s an urban planner’s daydream. Over and over, when real people can, they move to the exurbs, suburbs or rural areas. In places with oppressive climates, like Dubai, enclosed environments are more attractive but they’re a hard sell here.
it's all about control... if another covid hits again ... these 15 min cities will have real power to keep you in lockdown and force curfews and such ... and even enforce carbon lockdowns and limitations in the exact same way .... like stopping your electric car from travelling outside your districts or stopping your bank card working outside your district, etc.
This is Night City. For those who don’t know read the cyberpunk novels or play the game. Night City is not a matter of if companies will do this but a matter of when they will.
That's interesting people think they're gonna be forced into one of these hi tech city centers . I believe if anything it's be the exact opposite. Movies throughout sci Fi history including In Time or Alita Battle Angel depict this. Blockades and monitored movement for the low lives between slums and cloud cities for the mega rich. The largest being enough to house Chicago, which is where I am from. That's a lot of people but roughly 8 million out of 300? (Correct me if I'm wrong) US residents is a pretty exclusive club
The really cool mega project cities are planned gated communities, that are all about having a self-contained community. The idea is about having their needs and wants, if they can work out how to sustain it. The support plan is to have 'planned communities' for labor, and AI for farming supervised by few technicians and labor. The local labor would be maintenance, where do they live? What would sustain skilled trades and innovation? Who would make you newest designer shoes? Korea? China? There have been 'company towns' in our past, and nothing good about it. There was no way out until the industry supported by the town was played out. Throughout the people were expendable, replacements lured in with promises.
At no time in history, isolated cities built for the rich were the powerful being optional. Consider Versailles and Little Footnote. Las Vegas was created by Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and the New York Mafia. And although it's arguable, I don't think a city built on secrecy, drunkenness, gambling, and corruption is necessarily a good thing.
I completely agree. We do need to do something about corruption in government, but even with the levels we have, there is enough of a democracy that nothing overt could be done against the populus.
I'd love to see more detailed designs of these cities. Even if they are hiring engineers I have a feeling they're missing something that if it had more eyes on it would seem obvious. Really, the best thing they should have done is announce they wanted to build it and get public feedback every step of the way.
As an MD, I worry about disease. They’re creating a highly artificial environment, with few natural checks and balances. Cruise ships, biodomes and even the inherent problems with lab-grown meat are examples of the fragility of these systems. And heaven help us if an epidemic gets loose.
Had a good friend who lived and worked at Arcosanti for a long while. I visited a few times and I have to say it was quite impressive for what it was. Very peaceful.
Can't happen in CA. Too many entrenched special interests against major (much less mega) projects. That ship sailed when Republicans passed Prop 13. The future for clean electricity is also a dead end. Solar and wind are intermittent. That means they require massive storage to have power when you need it. There is nothing clean or affordable about batteries. Modular nuclear would work but public acceptance is decades away. Lastly is water. It isn't there. Because it falls freely from the skies, the economics will never give you a feasible alternative. Water will always be a limiting factor.
I moved to Lodi from so cal a few years ago and have traveled that hwy 12 corridor to Travis AFB countless times and that is pretty much the span of land theyre buying up... starting from the 5. If that map you're showing is accurate, that is a Ridiculous amount of land they're acquiring. I can't even begin to fathom what type of community they're planning where they have everything within "walking distance", since it takes close to an hour to get to Travis from Lodi, so I'm curious as to how that'll be accomplished.
Hey A-Felix. From what I understand (mostly speculative but also based on research), the sheer size is mostly because they need (a) Lots of solar farms, and (b) There are already lots of wind farms they probably won't be taking down and where people are not likely to want to live. I think only a small fraction of the entire land is meant for housing. Perhaps the surrounding land could be used for farming to feed the city?? Not sure but it could be.
@@Israel_Two_Bit I admit, I didn't watch the whole thing. I didn't actually think all the land would be some mega-community. It was a bit of hyperbole, but that area is Massive with a lot of wetlands and farmable land with minimal suburban development. It's been a few years, but I think the only thing I've seen is an elderly community about halfway to the AFB. I do wonder if it will be one centralized community or a few spread out. Considering the land already purchased and what they still want to aquire it's an ambitious project, to say the least. Billionaire investors don't half-ass anything, apparently.
In our current society, the mind set of our society, I don't think anything good would come of any of this for many reasons. A utopia on paper is just that, on-paper. On another note, If you pay double or triple what a piece of land is actually worth, that is on you. It has nothing to do with the seller.
The big 3 automakers experimented with gasoline vaporization, they were worried that it would affect their bottom-line which is selling new cars, they discovered that a V-8 engine would last from 500,000 to 800,000 miles because the motor oil never got dirty using gasoline vaporization.
Not a single person that sold to Flannery was ripped off at all. Prices were negotiated, and agreed to by both parties freely. Nobody was ever forced to sell. EmDom was never employed to take land from an unwilling seller. Anyone that claims they were underpaid, is just having sellers remorse long after the fact.
Solano county resident here, did you say low fire risk? Cause most home owners insurances have dropped Fairfield, suisun, etc (cities within Solano) as well as mostly our residents of unincorporated Solano county due to extreme fire risk. 2017, 2020 two major fires out here. We don’t get our drinking water from the delta, and most of those lands they bought are drought stricken (we recently were listed from drought).
They did this secretly because the land prices would have gone too high if they announced it and they wouldn't have been able to start their project. I think you're overestimating the water use - 70% of residential water is landscaping so townhomes use far less water due to shared greenspaces. I think more realistic planned cities aren't Arcosanti, but Brasilia, Brazil. It is considered a cautionary tale for urban planners because it is a transportation nightmare and all the buildings look alike. A better example of planned cities is the Garden City Movement of the 20th century in England. The urban architects only planned the city centers, streets, parks, and connection to adjacent cities. City planners now have gone to the New Urbanist development model which is also the same basic street and central city, but includes higher density rowhouses, mixed use development, and concentration on public transportation systems. Examples are Seaside, FL and Stapleton, CO.
I wonder how a sustainable city be truly that if the means to create it was not completely transparent. Part of sustainability is equity to the (native) people. Now whereas trading stock with prior knowledge is illegal and similar speculation with land acquisition is probably not, I fail to understand the difference between those. I would think it entails the same level of dishonesty, leading to the same level of inequality. The city might be a good idea in itself, but it's pretty sad if your foundations are the bones of others. That sort of feels like history merely repeating itself and not truly progressing.
@@MrMichiel1983 I have never heard sustainability to include measures for native people. It’s generally concerned with the environment. I have heard measures included for affordable housing and environmental fairness for people of all economic classes.
For a name MegaCity 2. But honestly I don't think it's something like this would ever happen especially with the investors you showed at the beginning, they aim for too much on short-term profits and most shareholders investors of today hate long-term Investments hence why this will fail.
I'd love to see a Eutopean all eco friendly planned city built. So much could. E learned from it for one. Most cities ARE ACCIDENTS, and stuff kept getting added as an after thought
There's no such thing as an accidental city...every city humans have ever built has been for a specific purpose. Things being added to a city to support growing populations isn't an after thought...you can't plan for something that happens spontaneously.
It sounds nice, but I have to wonder, are they planning for handicapped accessibility? Not everyone CAN walk everywhere, after all. My mother is disabled and can barely walk with a walker, and it is painful for her. Being able to drive her places is a necessity. So are they planning for transportation close at hand for those that really need it, or will these places be able-bodied people only? What if someone already living there gets injured, sick , or old? What if you need to bring home 8 or 10 heavy bags of groceries, or other items that you can't possibly carry on your own for more than a very short distance?
One problem with futuristic cities is they tend to be designed for large numbers of people at the outset. To make them work, for a city designed for 90,000 people, about 50,000 of them would have to move in on the same weekend. Instead, planned cities need to start with plans for a few hundred people, then change, more or less according to plan, as the city expands naturally.
Building cities from scratch on a clean slate sounds like a good idea and may help with developing new business and economic models that are based on sustainability not on growth with business leaders and corporations actually being responsible for not damaging our environment when producing their services and products and not harming people’s health instead of trying to make governments or others responsible and even blaming others for their careless, selfish and greedy behaviors that have damaged the environment and people’s health in the past. I think the biggest challenge in building a city from scratch will always be the lack of trust and honesty of the developers that are promoting these projects. Also trying to keep organized crime and the corruption it brings out of the plan will be a challenge. Nations can’t even trust each other and spy on each other because of the lack of trust between them. Nations continue to build and maintain weapons that can wipe out most of the life on this planet because they don’t trust each other. So if nations cannot set a good example for their business and corporate leaders, I do not think that there will be much chance that business and corporate leaders can behave ethically and honestly in fair ways for the entire nation. Starting as a secret group is not a good sign. Also reports of trying to force and bully land owners to sell to them does not look like a good start.
I am also skeptical of billionaires planning cities - especially those with authoritarian leanings, however, if they take concrete steps to ensure that democracy is supported and their new city doesn't turn into a board-of-wealthy-directors-run oligarchy then I can accept it. In order to protect and support democracy, they should put some real money behind ranked choice or STAR voting. They should support startups that are worker-owned cooperatives where employees vote (democratically) on how to run the business. They should work toward ending gerrymandering and the electoral college at the national level and at the state level - this would show us they are serious about democracy at every level. They should support campaign finance reform. This last one is a huge ask given that their power comes from money. I am asking them to allow regular people to take over. Do they trust regular people enough to do that? Or do they want to rule over us? Concrete actions will tell. My guess is that they believe, as a group, it's their money and their land so they should get to say what happens (dictatorship style). That's not democracy. Democracy is one person, one vote. They want people to move to their city, so prove that they value the decisions those people make for themselves (democracy style).
Like your input, as a person who lives in basically a small city of 200,000 people, the concept is amusing I walk every where I can. I use mass Transit for work and enjoy just being able to get to most places that I enjoy by walking. By way I live in Providence Rhode Island a big college town. We already have a lot of similar places around the country, but what i have noticed is that people rather walk than drive even if it takes 5 minutes to walk to there destination. These cities are great, but its changing that behavior that's more a issue. That old thing about bringing a horse to water, but making them drink applies here. It's also the reason for the obesity issue in this country bye the way. People don't want to be forced and if it feels that way then its like pulling a building up a mountain with a prairie dog. By way come on over, Providence is a great small town. lol
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Your math is off. Most electric cars don't reach the maximum efficiency of 3.5 miles per kwh you used in your calculation, but also it's extremely unfair to compare the most economic EV to a mid sized truck or SUVs fuel economy.
My car over 69,000 miles costs ~$5800.00 in fuel, while a more reasonable estimate for an average EV would be a cost of $4600.00
The main difference is that while you are stopping to charge for an hour or more every 200-300 miles, my vehicle can easily put down 600 miles between 10-15 minute stops, which I think the 19,000 hours in time saved waiting for charging over 69000 miles is well worth $1200.00
Got to the part about "walkable cities" and you saying that you didn't know where the hostility to them came from. If you live in the U.S, I should hope you would already be aware of where it is clearly coming from and you're just not saying it to avoid political controversy. It's the same people responsible for the dumb culture-war talking points every time.
Isn't the average kwh cost in SD twice the $.2 shared in your video at $.39/kwh? No doubt EV has many compelling options, but in CA the cost/kwh is criminal as compared to other states. Just north of you I pay SCE an average of almost $.5/kwh. Maybe you have embedded in your math an all-in net cost after considering battery storage, but stating a $.2/kwh average seems off
@@jonlundy1525 I hadn't even considered that either. Most of California's power is imported, and even where it's not they are spending tons of money on carbon credits to pretend they have 100% clean power in the state. That probably drives up the cost of electricity a fair amount. Based on your numbers the electricity cost for 69000 miles would be ~$11,000. The same as the really poor economy ICE he is comparing EVs to, and double the fuel cost of my ICE over the same mileage.
FEWER PEOPLE !! Everything needs fewer people
Anyone else getting a dystopian vibe? An entire city owned by the mega-wealthy. What could possibly go wrong?
Who do you think own the majority of existing big cities? There aren’t many mom and pop skyscrapers.
What do you did you expect? The government or the mega poor to build such a city
Watch Continuum
Read Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash"
Literally how almost evrry town in Americw was built. By some billionaire property developer
“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.” -- H.L. Mencken That is why we citizens are doubting Thomas's when it come to government and billionaires. When THEY move in and live there I will be more interested. Until then it gets a very serious no from me. And they will never, ever, live where they think we should...
So true. I hear mega planned city utopia and my gut says stay far away.
Even if they were completely serious about their good intentions, I'm still they'd be very likely to screw things up unintentionally. Just look at a lot of the mega-projects in Dubai, which wound up backfiring.
@@atoth62 You would think these billionaires would be smart enough to invest a fraction of all that wealth in having people around them to actually keep them grounded in reality. They do that with their wealth management already. Better than spouting incorrect nonsense on social media at 3am b/c became psychologically addicted to an echo chamber. Y'know, putting the "eccentric" in that "eccentric millionaire/billionaire" stereotype.
Nope, they’re all out buying ranches in Montana, where I live. Fortunately, we bought our place 10 years ago- I couldn’t afford it now.
They may have a problem getting the local population to vote for their city. Many like their rural community and don't want a major city it their county. They also would be afraid of higher property taxes. The fact that the developers sued the property owners will make many distrust the developers. That lawsuit would make me very skeptical of anything the developers say. Also water is very precious there and people will have concerns about the amount of water this city will need.
Voting?? You think voting matters??
Problem is. Votes don't count, as we've seen in 2020. The rich are better then us. The rich are smarter then us. The rich are more powerful then us. All mostly true unless we the normal everyday citizens stand up to the elite and overthrow the masters.
I don't know why they would be allowed or expected to vote on the city. It wouldn't be there land. Given that cities use 80% less water than farms, state agencies might welcome it.
It is not a question of whether the people should have a vote or not, under the laws of the county the people will have a vote.
People will have a concern about the water the city will use. On a per acre basis I would guess a city would use more water then a farm.@@LisaFaiss
@@jamesodell3064 that is not correct. A farm uses 75% to 80% more water than a city. A single almond takes a gallon of water.
Enjoy your videos….on waterless toilets, I work in a high school which was built 11 years ago (renovated) and as part of the new school they installed waterless urinals. They didn’t even run the water lines in case it never worked out. Well after 11years the drain pipes are clogged with mineral deposits and it cost lots of money to clear them (just enough to drain) by using strong acids as soon as a small path is cleared the acids drain away and obviously stop clearing the drain. The daily maintenance on waterless urinals is costly as well as it involves using a chemical that floats on the urine to help alleviate smells. The design of the urinals leave a lot to be desired as they splash back and spray the floor and your shoes. Gross…they stink because the urine is everywhere and even though they are cleaned everyday there remains stink. I am not a fan of waterless urinals…even a small amount of water flushing the urine down the drain would be thousands of dollars cheaper than the cost of chemicals and maintenance of plumbing.
Water saving toilets are also a nightmare in the long run
Man! I could smell it in my head as you describe it!
*I'm a fan of "watering" plants as nature intended. No urinal, no toxic chemicals, and still the least expensive option available* 🤫
P.S. - Urine use as fertilizer is actually a proven means of better plant growth, with programs in China successfully using urine from schools to fertilize apple orchards. Other non-school related projects throughout the world have proven the same with equal success.
Not every optional program is bad, but many bad programs start as optional. Doing things incrementally is a control technique so don't be shocked at early opposition.
The 15 minute cities comes from the GEF or Global Economic Forum which has been described as billionaires telling millionaires how the rest should live.
I think you meant WEF
15 minute cities come from urban planners and dense housing advocates who are pointing out that in the past people could walk or take local transit to stores, services, and work. It’s just what you get if you build mode densely and smartly than suburbs.
That’s because we had less people on the planet and it was an organic solution. At this point it’s more about control.
A bunch of Silicon Valley millionnaires tries to design a city... what can go wrong?...
I’m from Toronto. A few years ago Google tried to build a designed-from-scratch neighbourhood in my city. We sent them away (yes I was one of them, no, I don’t drive or have a car); privacy was a huge issue.
Wow that is so cool that you didn't like a thing.
Really rich people have been making planned cities for a long time. The Villages in Florida is an example of a series of them.
So these virtue signaling garbage billionaires are going to live in these two story townhomes? I don’t think so
@@cjmuniz12 Pretty sure Peter Theil isn't a "virtue signalling billionaire." Maybe read some things.
@@KevinLydaHe is now a Virtue Signaler unless he is planning on living in one of these small townhomes, which I would love to see….. but won’t. Also the city is walkable so he can give up his car, not eat meat, eat bugs and go all in!
@@KevinLyda I think he is. Plutocrat who does liberal virtue-speak.
@@KevinLyda LoL. I would expect Peter Theil to be an evil signaler.
in these new towns / cities / states, will you be able to own your own slice of it? will you be able to be a home owner? a land owner? or will the corporations and mega rich own everything and lease it to you? as in a place where you will own nothing, which sounds eerily familiar.
You will own nothing and be happy. Or else...
Such planned cities are the worst idea ever. We need cities where people actually want to live. We have seen, especially in Europe, these master plan cities/neighbourhoods fail dramatically.
As a European living in Metro-Helsinki(1.5 million people), this whole project screams 'non-functional'. Helsinki made two similar new destricts over the sea housing only some 50,000 people. But it wasn't 'new' - it was attached to the city 100% with trams.
What you describe is absolutely nonsensical. A city is a city. You can't replicate any part of city simply by replication a part of it. What you're describing is science fiction. I have yet to see one functional project in any US cities.
US cities are so behind that any proper change would take 50+ years. (For reference - Metro-Helsinki planning has a span at the moment that reaches 2123. Can the US do that?)
Edit: you mentioned things like 'homelessness' and 'adapting to climate change' - Metro-Helsinki started the program in 2009 that now reaches to 2109. Social programs are governmental. In Finland they started in 1930s. What in the world are you talking about? No wonder US cities are are a mess if people like you are in charge. Shame. As a Finn I expect more.
Huge population difference 😂 there is only 5 million in Finland 😂 330 million people in the USA
@@Willrocs And with that population and 100 years America has absolutely no cities that are walkable, non. And Europe had 2 world wars - and all out cities, all countries are designed for pedestrations. Also - the population of EU is around 450 million (450,000,000).
Amsterdam built a very pedestrian, bicycle and public transport friendly city without the help of billionaires, i believe. I 'm skeptical of the billionaires' said intentions.
They're trying to get away from the dystopia they personally made elsewhere in California.
I would like to see improvements made to our existing once-great cities, which are getting hallowed out with abandoned buildings and inadequate infrastructure.
Hayek pointed out that it's horrible for the average citizen when capitalists and the state work together. In the book he mentioned that no monopoly has been allowed to stand without government assistance, willingly or unwillingly. These people buying so much land is one example if you look into the "Estate Tax" which a vast majority if not all generational farms fall under. It makes it unlikely if not impossible for a farmer's child to inherit the property in part or in hole because of just how much taxes are taken out.
When I looked into the laws in the USA centered around taxation and the economy it made me flabbergasted by how ridiculous it is! It is set up to drain the wealth from the ground upward and therefore stopping almost all upward mobility.
@NoirMorter Wilson's gif of course
Come on Ricky, "you're buying into a life long contract with the oil companies"??? What about "you're buying into a life long contract with electricity suppliers"? You may want to investigate how those rare earth minerals get into your electric car. Love you videos but you really need to do some investigation into EV's. They only look good on the surface.
Now you know who Ricky is.... a wef shill.
Looks to me like you have bought into the bs that the "merchants of doubt " are paid to flimflam the public with.
Or are you one of them?
I power my EV with rooftop solar. Yes, cars do have an environmental manufacturing cost both ICE and EVs. But the EVs are a one time cost while gas cars continue to burn gasoline through their lifetime. Plenty of studies have shown EVs to be much better for the environment, even with the rare earth minerals (which are recycled at end of life).
@@beachcrow EV's are NOT a one time cost. You power your car with your solar 1000 miles from your house? BS. Plus those batteries don't last forever. You better look up how rare earth minerals are mined and how much ore it takes to make just a single battery. Lookup where they come from and how they're mined. I'm guessing you also by into "CO2 bad". That is one of the greatest lies ever perpetuated.
Sounds like a modern version of a Company Town to me. The tech sector workers, and all the support staff, can't afford to live where they work any longer.
the movie Metropolis covered this a hundred years ago.
There is a very long history in the US of the wealthy, and corporations, getting something started, buying officials to put the cost onto the tax-payers, pocketing the money, and walking away to let it crumble.
Shopping malls. factories, mines, wells, the list goes on.
So, yes, the locals are right to be concerned and the tax-payers in the nearby towns, counties, and states should be concerned, especially with the massive projects being planted in places where water is already scarce and only becoming more so with climate change.
Do this in Alaska, bigger than California, Texas, Florida combined with only 740,000 people. All these other projects fight mother nature: extreme heat, lack of water, other resources, too close to difficult people, over regulation. Alaska has tons natural resources and tons of places with no people. Start small couple thousand and slowly build out max 2 to 3 story structures built into nature, with tons trees and water through out. Live in balance with nature, stop fighting it....
There's a reason why a geographically larger state has a small fraction of the population of California (almost 40 million) does. . . but besides that, Alaska is expensive & it's difficult to get materials there.
This is literally right next to Travis Air Force Base. I was stationed there for 5 years. They would have military aircraft flying overhead all day every day.
Oh, and it's really windy there, which is why both the base and wind turbines are built there. The wind helps the heavy refueling tankers take off. If I recall correctly, the wind typically blows west to east. I didn't spend a whole lot of time east of base, but I'm guessing it's pretty windy there. Hope those billionaires enjoy 30mph winds with 45mph gusts. It was kinda miserable trying to go out for a walk with the family in the evenings after dinner.
Mark Anderson looks like a decendant of the Coneheads! They could call it Caltopia, Technotopia, Delta City, Soladel City, Solacal City, Yimbycal, Lol . . . . I don't think voters would EVER approve it though. Thank for another fascinating video, Ricky!
Growing up i always wanted to create a small town that had a custom built Air Tube system. So things could be shipped around town. Mail, items, prescriptions, etc. I always thought that would be so cool.
Have you played Bioshock.
@@BooBaddyBig absolutely love the first BioShock.
When Walt Dinsey planned Disney world, he wanted to make it big enough so that tourists could be housed instead of the new hotels that sprung up around Disney land - what economists call internalising externalities.
To acquire such a large plot the Disney corp put out false info around where they were planning sites to throw speculators off the trail. So much of economics is really land and who gets the rent, about 57% of wealth in the US is 'land', even more here in the UK arounf 60%, but it's been almost pushed out of the textbooks in favour of a 2 factor capital and labour model.
Very true. The rights to land ownership is definitely a touchy subject, to say the least.
keep in mind , the land purchased is the same size as Fairfield and Vacaville.
Solano resident here. Most of the land in question is mostly wind farms in the south, farms in the north. The $6 million range for land would be wineries in the western valley adjacent to Napa county. There are development restrictions that need approval from Travis AFB and DOD. There is Seasteading for building without permission in international waters.
How convenient for keeping the sheep under control. Obviously your government is complicit.
@@lagringa7518you are the problem. 😂
@@xiaoka In what way, you mean telling the truth about your future?
I keep thinking of the Tyrell Corporation headquarters from " Blade Runner". Trying out new ideas is certainly a good idea, and different ideas should be put to the test, just bear in mind a lot of " city of the future" ideas go out of date real fast...
Google Company Towns. They have a long and dark history.
These people could not pay my enough to live in a city that we have now let alone one like this.
That's totally fair. That said, you don't have to live there if you don't want to.
Goodbye, delta. You were an integral part of the ecosystem, but man's hubris knows no bounds.
The problem with building in the Southwest is that we don’t have enough water to sustain the current population. Adding a mega-city could strain that resource to the breaking point. The way to win nearby side to is to provide them access to the resources available in the new construction. I was going to buy a house next to an abandoned golf course that was going to be developed as a modern neighborhood. I could have lived with the denser population, if I shared in the benefits of the new construction. But the project wanted to shut out existing residents from the parks and facilities being provided for the new construction - lose, lose instead of a win-lose. I did not buy and that battle is still going on. I am all for a new city concept, as long as it is done ethically and responsibly. This is why I support the red tape and regulations preventing greed from overcoming responsibility.
Not sure how anyone could be so ignorant about 15 minute cities, there is ample information and evidence about how the scheme is going to work. Cities are already trying to enforce the scheme in existing cities in the UK and they are very restrictive.
Lol , I believe that anyone who wants to be part of an “ant farm” is entitled to be as such but I don’t see how there wouldn’t be the same serious issues (only more condensed) with a society like this. I for 1 am extremely happy staying/living here where I’m at !! 😂
I agree...living in what someone else thinks is a perfectly planned city will always mean settling for what someone else thought was a good idea. I prefer wide open woods and fields paired with as few people as possible.
@glamdring0007 Amen. Living in the city means living with crazy people. I lived in California for 3 years. Happy to leave that crazy city and move back home to Texas.
If you had a light rail, or gondola transport from Brøndby Haveby in Denmark, it would come close to the perfect car free living.
Having said that, my hobby requires a four wheel drive to get to the flying sites . This has also stumped me when looking at Electric Vehicles.
I’m down with that I don’t know why my fellow Americans are so God set on having cars I know they think it represents your freedom and that’s cool but at the same time I’d like to be able to just hop on the train for a couple hundred mile journey…
Way to avoid the life time contract with the power compa...oh...wait...
No shit........ Ricky, WTF????
When a company says "We want to build enviro friendly, people first" - You KNOW the opposite is true. It's a company - their mandate is to make money. The owners of Flannery are not known for their "People first" initiatives are they? Power, control and money.
A concern for me would be that "optional" would turn out to be your only choice if you can't afford to house yourself elsewhere.
Right now their plan is to impoverish the world so that you will be FORCED to accept living in a totally biometrically controlled surveillance prison.
@@dlmills31977 That sentence - is chilling.
New city should be called Futurama 😂
Anyone worried about being forced into these cities is focused in the wrong direction, I think. Instead, these become the ultimate, gated communities where you have to apply to live there, and that can become very exclusionary.
A deep mistrust of the rich and powerful and the government. That's redundant
Elysium, for the city name. But it will be interesting to see how these new cities work. They could do many things to preserve water. Recycle gray water, charge its actual value on a sliding use scale, etc. But what might limit things more is sand. As in, the sand for concrete is running out so new anything that we use it for will go up in cost. How many cars are going to be bought if you have to pay thousands a year in taxes for roads? Plus, who will live in these new cities? US pop without immigration is going down and half the country wants to block immigrants. Not a promising set of conditions.
I think "Boondoggle" would be a good name.
We have a global food shortage, every farm they buy reduces the amount of land available for food production?
Nonsense. Not aware of the *incredible* _improvements_ in agricultural productivity over the past hundred years, are you?
@@Sedgewise47 Which have diminishing vitamin and mineral content, GMOs in which we now all have glyphosate in our systems and they obviously want you to eat bugs and fake foods anyway.
It's never crossed your mind why they are killing farms if we're supposedly overpopulated? This is all about weakening or killing the human Genome to be more docile, weak and subservient. Science can and has been wonderful... but unfortunately it all has to do with who funds them and what THEIR agendas might be.
There is no food storage. It's a shortage of transportation to get it where it's needed.
The 15 minute cities are drawing skepticism because we've all seen things that are optional until they aren't anymore. I don't want to stand in the way of progress, but I think we are often treated as unwashed mushrooms and not allowed to participate in the decisions of the future. Blacked out futuristic projects are scary for a good reason. I think people need to feel like they are participants in big ideas rather than watch it be foisted onto them. Where is the sense of community?
I still haven't figured how this city or concept reduces or solves homelessness. It is easy to build a compound, let only people you want in (such as people who can afford to live there), and kick out the homeless. However, that doesn't solve homelessness. Do they have free or very cheap housing? Do they have ways to control drug use? Do they have support for mental health issues? Do they have veteran services to keep vets off the streets? Do they have jobs to empoly these people so they can afford housing?
Or, is this simply a utopia for the 1%, while the rest of us and the homeless remain everywhere else?
i can't wait to visit San Angeles where Taco Bell reins supreme!
I'm guessing that the homes will use less water than the farmers. But I was expecting the city to house more people. That's a big project, but not something I'd call "Mega". Telosa sounds interesting too. Also, I'm wondering if the declining population in 1st world countries will end the housing shortage over the next 30 yrs.
I agree! But I wonder how these properties will shift ownership. I saw something saying that we’ll become a country of renters because the investment firms and families with generational wealth won’t sell. Just hoard the resource.
Housing tracts don’t feed people
The declining population is first world countries is not a good thing. What will end the housing crisis is ending the mass importation of people from the third world.
@@dougriedweg9002 To be fair, if the water from that Colorado river dries up, neither will those almond farms.
The housing shortage is due to a lack of people being able to afford a home. For every homeless person in the US there are about 11 empty family homes. More and more houses are becoming investments for the wealthy pricing regular people out. There is no really scarcity only artificial scarcity created to profit the predator class.
One thing... most of these mega projects with fantastical buildings and features will end up just being regular looking cities that aren't distinctive at all.
I lived in Solano county not far from Travis Air Force Base and I'm going to encourage hundreds of my friends to vote against the billionaire's city
You see mini cities like this in places like HCMC, Viet Nam. Near large cities with money but with high populations and big social divisions. But they always just seem like a huge mall to me. Kinda Like Singapore.
Been to Viet Nam many times, 13 to be exact. Ni have seen it flourish since the 90's and I have been to some of those newer, more wealthy areas and I remember thinking they were like mini cities. Good take.
Singapore, known to be a terrible place to live, lol
The Myanmar government has built a Megacity to house around 8 million; but still Nobody lives there. And how about, 'Flaneropolis' for a name? 🤣🤣🤣
15 minute cities ? "You don't have to move there ??? WHAT ! Here in the UK they are attempting to enforce them. Not new cities, existing towns & cities. It's not about choosing to live there, people already live there ! They are talking about fining people £100 pounds if they drive in or out of town more than 70 times a year. People don't want it, they have jobs, lifestyles. It's autocratic, dystopian & a restriction on movement. So what are you talking about, saying they have choice ? You need to get your facts straight before advocating something you obviously know nothing about.
The USA like Western Europe has a serious case of nimbyism
I actively encourage new cities. But, I don't trust these billionaires to have the publics best interest. Keep your eye on this and just wait for these vultures to pull the rug out from underneath everyone
Very interesting. You have done so much research and presented it so well.
He's a shill for Agenda 21, 30, 50.... look it up.
As someone who lived in Europe for several years, the idea of a "walkable city" is very, very appealing. When the oldest building in your city has been rebuilt a few times and is a thousand years older than the automobile, ALL of the extra expenses we pay, both explicitly and implicitly become so obvious. For municipalities, parking spaces don't pay taxes, business and residents do. If you NEED a car because you want to go somewhere the existing rail system and other public transit or a taxi won't take you, then you can still rent a car. But cars get reserved for when you need them, and the insurance, maintenance and other individualized costs of transportation ownership are generally an optional budget line item, and the amount of costs to support automobile infrastructure are bearable by the city when almost every residence is 3-5 story tall condo or apartment buildings filling a block sometimes wall-to-wall.
Today, where I used to live overseas has a population density of about 1400/km^2 or 3,600/sqmi, far higher than the density of suburbs; which is one of the lessons you learn from SimCity; low-density people support is very expensive.
enjoy eating the bugs while you are at it...
We need massively more space per humans set aside, not less...
@@chrismcaulay7805 You do realize bugs are already in your diet, even in America? Red dye #5 is made from bugs, not to mention the percentage of processed meats and grains that are allowed to be bugs. You've probably been eating bugs all your life.
@@louislamp That the worst non-sequitur argument I have heard in a LONG TIME.
That is just for food dye, or accidental consumption, it has nothing to do with eating bugs purposefully for sustenance. Give me a break weirdo, no one needs you wasting their time with that crap. Everyone knows the world isnt perfect, and a bug my fall into a vat, there is a world of difference between 1 bug every X number of tons of grain, and eating a plate full of bugs...
Every city currently being built in the free world is organic growth that is not directed by the government but by the people's needs, wants and necessities. You can't expect condensed cities in free world unless it's in a space constrained places like in Singapore or south Korea.
oh you sweet sweeet summer child.
Gov won't "force" anything/anybody
^ mRNA Vaccine
see also
ESG - corporate Mandate
DEI - corporate Mandate
Building 15 minute cities is about building places people will want to live and work. Forcing people to live somewhere they do not want to live would be inherently the opposite of the 15 minute city idea. It’s remarkable how many US cities have the bones for vibrant city fabric but completely ignore the possibilities.
not only do they ignore the possibilities. They spent money to bulldoze those cities to destroy those (at the time) current benefits; Plans often fueled by racism through indifference or out right goal of destroying undesirable communities' proven success. Success found over years of iterative incremental improvement.
If 15 minute cities were new places you could move to if you wish that would be fine. Unfortunately my understanding is a bit different. Isn't there already a city I the UK that they are converting to a 15 minute city? As in the current residents don't get a choice? An imposed 15 minute city? A completely different scenario.
@@avid6186 Even thats ok because you can still drive. You can just walk and bike now too.
@@freddybell8328 sure you can drive, as long as you can afford and don't mind the penalty fee. Not everyone is in that position.
@@freddybell8328 you can walk or bike in any city... to suggest otherwise is kinda strange... just because you don't have a dedicated lane .. there is nothing to stop you ... never has been anything to stop anyone from walking or biking
It was the Soviets that moved people into high density housing. Russia is a huge country with lots of forests, so it wasn't about not enough space or not enough building materials. High density cities was about controlling people and still is. Get people off of homesteads where they are self-reliant. Make people dependent on the government and big business so they can be controlled.
They don't get it if they got any of that land from farmers, Calfornia produces a large part of the food for the whole nation or at least they used to , they have been the last few or several years importing food from Mexico and other places but if that is going to ruin things for our farmers it will to stop..
Sound like what happen in the Owens Valley with water rights. The City of Los Angeles quietly bought up the farmer water rights in the Owens Valley. With The City of Los Angeles owning the water right to the water in Owens Valley. Los Angeles was able to make an aqueduct and transport the water to Los Angeles. One thing we need to remember about this. What The City of Los Angeles did was legal. May not be morally right, but was legal.
Brian living in The People’s Republic of California.
I read about someone who had to have his EV battery replaced at 70,000 miles. With installation it would have cost him $38,000. It wasn’t a Tesla, it was a lower end vehicle. Can you speak to this?
Would cost him less to get a newer EV vehicle
It’s interesting that these cities are presented in a positive light, as if they are healthy and good for the people who live there. I think that’s an urban planner’s daydream. Over and over, when real people can, they move to the exurbs, suburbs or rural areas. In places with oppressive climates, like Dubai, enclosed environments are more attractive but they’re a hard sell here.
I agree, head for the unpopulated hills.
it's all about control... if another covid hits again ... these 15 min cities will have real power to keep you in lockdown and force curfews and such ... and even enforce carbon lockdowns and limitations in the exact same way .... like stopping your electric car from travelling outside your districts or stopping your bank card working outside your district, etc.
This is Night City. For those who don’t know read the cyberpunk novels or play the game. Night City is not a matter of if companies will do this but a matter of when they will.
Man I’m from the Caribbean: fresh air, simple pleasures, beautiful fauna and flora and tropical nights. It ain’t so bad. Believe me.
That's interesting people think they're gonna be forced into one of these hi tech city centers . I believe if anything it's be the exact opposite. Movies throughout sci Fi history including In Time or Alita Battle Angel depict this. Blockades and monitored movement for the low lives between slums and cloud cities for the mega rich. The largest being enough to house Chicago, which is where I am from. That's a lot of people but roughly 8 million out of 300? (Correct me if I'm wrong) US residents is a pretty exclusive club
Yes u r correct
The really cool mega project cities are planned gated communities, that are all about having a self-contained community.
The idea is about having their needs and wants, if they can work out how to sustain it.
The support plan is to have 'planned communities' for labor, and AI for farming supervised by few technicians and labor.
The local labor would be maintenance, where do they live?
What would sustain skilled trades and innovation?
Who would make you newest designer shoes? Korea? China?
There have been 'company towns' in our past, and nothing good about it.
There was no way out until the industry supported by the town was played out.
Throughout the people were expendable, replacements lured in with promises.
At no time in history, isolated cities built for the rich were the powerful being optional. Consider Versailles and Little Footnote. Las Vegas was created by Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and the New York Mafia. And although it's arguable, I don't think a city built on secrecy, drunkenness, gambling, and corruption is necessarily a good thing.
I completely agree. We do need to do something about corruption in government, but even with the levels we have, there is enough of a democracy that nothing overt could be done against the populus.
I'd love to see more detailed designs of these cities. Even if they are hiring engineers I have a feeling they're missing something that if it had more eyes on it would seem obvious. Really, the best thing they should have done is announce they wanted to build it and get public feedback every step of the way.
Being rich people, they think that their ideas are naturally better than everyone else's.
As an MD, I worry about disease. They’re creating a highly artificial environment, with few natural checks and balances. Cruise ships, biodomes and even the inherent problems with lab-grown meat are examples of the fragility of these systems. And heaven help us if an epidemic gets loose.
@@DDGLJ that's all cities though
Had a good friend who lived and worked at Arcosanti for a long while. I visited a few times and I have to say it was quite impressive for what it was. Very peaceful.
And deserted.
Can't happen in CA. Too many entrenched special interests against major (much less mega) projects. That ship sailed when Republicans passed Prop 13. The future for clean electricity is also a dead end. Solar and wind are intermittent. That means they require massive storage to have power when you need it. There is nothing clean or affordable about batteries. Modular nuclear would work but public acceptance is decades away. Lastly is water. It isn't there. Because it falls freely from the skies, the economics will never give you a feasible alternative. Water will always be a limiting factor.
Remember California will not let you charge your car during high output times. Have fun walking.
It is happening overseas because it is very costly in the US and it highly exposed to legal and planning delays.
I moved to Lodi from so cal a few years ago and have traveled that hwy 12 corridor to Travis AFB countless times and that is pretty much the span of land theyre buying up... starting from the 5. If that map you're showing is accurate, that is a Ridiculous amount of land they're acquiring. I can't even begin to fathom what type of community they're planning where they have everything within "walking distance", since it takes close to an hour to get to Travis from Lodi, so I'm curious as to how that'll be accomplished.
Hey A-Felix. From what I understand (mostly speculative but also based on research), the sheer size is mostly because they need (a) Lots of solar farms, and (b) There are already lots of wind farms they probably won't be taking down and where people are not likely to want to live. I think only a small fraction of the entire land is meant for housing. Perhaps the surrounding land could be used for farming to feed the city?? Not sure but it could be.
@@Israel_Two_Bit I admit, I didn't watch the whole thing.
I didn't actually think all the land would be some mega-community. It was a bit of hyperbole, but that area is Massive with a lot of wetlands and farmable land with minimal suburban development. It's been a few years, but I think the only thing I've seen is an elderly community about halfway to the AFB.
I do wonder if it will be one centralized community or a few spread out. Considering the land already purchased and what they still want to aquire it's an ambitious project, to say the least.
Billionaire investors don't half-ass anything, apparently.
In our current society, the mind set of our society, I don't think anything good would come of any of this for many reasons. A utopia on paper is just that, on-paper.
On another note, If you pay double or triple what a piece of land is actually worth, that is on you. It has nothing to do with the seller.
The big 3 automakers experimented with gasoline vaporization, they were worried that it would affect their bottom-line which is selling new cars, they discovered that a V-8 engine would last from 500,000 to 800,000 miles because the motor oil never got dirty using gasoline vaporization.
the line up looks super untrustworthy.
Anyone trust them????
NO and anybody with half a brain and a will to live free, would not.
Not a single person that sold to Flannery was ripped off at all. Prices were negotiated, and agreed to by both parties freely. Nobody was ever forced to sell. EmDom was never employed to take land from an unwilling seller.
Anyone that claims they were underpaid, is just having sellers remorse long after the fact.
Solano county resident here, did you say low fire risk? Cause most home owners insurances have dropped Fairfield, suisun, etc (cities within Solano) as well as mostly our residents of unincorporated Solano county due to extreme fire risk. 2017, 2020 two major fires out here. We don’t get our drinking water from the delta, and most of those lands they bought are drought stricken (we recently were listed from drought).
They did this secretly because the land prices would have gone too high if they announced it and they wouldn't have been able to start their project.
I think you're overestimating the water use - 70% of residential water is landscaping so townhomes use far less water due to shared greenspaces.
I think more realistic planned cities aren't Arcosanti, but Brasilia, Brazil. It is considered a cautionary tale for urban planners because it is a transportation nightmare and all the buildings look alike.
A better example of planned cities is the Garden City Movement of the 20th century in England. The urban architects only planned the city centers, streets, parks, and connection to adjacent cities. City planners now have gone to the New Urbanist development model which is also the same basic street and central city, but includes higher density rowhouses, mixed use development, and concentration on public transportation systems. Examples are Seaside, FL and Stapleton, CO.
I wonder how a sustainable city be truly that if the means to create it was not completely transparent. Part of sustainability is equity to the (native) people. Now whereas trading stock with prior knowledge is illegal and similar speculation with land acquisition is probably not, I fail to understand the difference between those. I would think it entails the same level of dishonesty, leading to the same level of inequality. The city might be a good idea in itself, but it's pretty sad if your foundations are the bones of others. That sort of feels like history merely repeating itself and not truly progressing.
@@MrMichiel1983 I have never heard sustainability to include measures for native people. It’s generally concerned with the environment. I have heard measures included for affordable housing and environmental fairness for people of all economic classes.
For a name MegaCity 2. But honestly I don't think it's something like this would ever happen especially with the investors you showed at the beginning, they aim for too much on short-term profits and most shareholders investors of today hate long-term Investments hence why this will fail.
What fate could be worse than living in ANY city?
Well, perhaps an HOA.
Perpetual growth on a finite planet is unsustainable. Figure it out!
Let’s cut to the chase and just call it New Auschwitz.
🤣
😑 😣 🤦♂️
(😖Why’d ya have to go there?!… 🤦♂️)
Newsomschwitz
@@mmi6280
(😬…)
This channel needs to be Da Vinci investigative reporting, was awesome!
If it starts out shady it will be shady and end shady.
Flannery will not build 1 city, they plan to build up to 3 cities.
Thanks for all your videos Ricky. You're a good man doing good work.
He's a traitor to humankind.
@@lagringa7518 who is?
I'd love to see a Eutopean all eco friendly planned city built. So much could. E learned from it for one. Most cities ARE ACCIDENTS, and stuff kept getting added as an after thought
There's no such thing as an accidental city...every city humans have ever built has been for a specific purpose. Things being added to a city to support growing populations isn't an after thought...you can't plan for something that happens spontaneously.
I don't k ow. I've been to cities in jersey with an 18wheeler. What a nightmare
It sounds nice, but I have to wonder, are they planning for handicapped accessibility? Not everyone CAN walk everywhere, after all. My mother is disabled and can barely walk with a walker, and it is painful for her. Being able to drive her places is a necessity. So are they planning for transportation close at hand for those that really need it, or will these places be able-bodied people only? What if someone already living there gets injured, sick , or old? What if you need to bring home 8 or 10 heavy bags of groceries, or other items that you can't possibly carry on your own for more than a very short distance?
Taking that much farm land out of production doesn't seem like a great idea.
So….EPCOT?
One problem with futuristic cities is they tend to be designed for large numbers of people at the outset. To make them work, for a city designed for 90,000 people, about 50,000 of them would have to move in on the same weekend. Instead, planned cities need to start with plans for a few hundred people, then change, more or less according to plan, as the city expands naturally.
An example of this might be The Villages, a huge and expanding retirement community in Florida.
Every time someone says deregulation/ red tape it turns out to just remove the rules that keep people from screwing consumers and labour.
Maui, Hawaii 😢 ❤
Yes, people will be removed with any means at their disposal.
Building cities from scratch on a clean slate sounds like a good idea and may help with developing new business and economic models that are based on sustainability not on growth with business leaders and corporations actually being responsible for not damaging our environment when producing their services and products and not harming people’s health instead of trying to make governments or others responsible and even blaming others for their careless, selfish and greedy behaviors that have damaged the environment and people’s health in the past.
I think the biggest challenge in building a city from scratch will always be the lack of trust and honesty of the developers that are promoting these projects. Also trying to keep organized crime and the corruption it brings out of the plan will be a challenge.
Nations can’t even trust each other and spy on each other because of the lack of trust between them. Nations continue to build and maintain weapons that can wipe out most of the life on this planet because they don’t trust each other. So if nations cannot set a good example for their business and corporate leaders, I do not think that there will be much chance that business and corporate leaders can behave ethically and honestly in fair ways for the entire nation. Starting as a secret group is not a good sign. Also reports of trying to force and bully land owners to sell to them does not look like a good start.
It only optional until they supply the water to other towns/cities. Which looks at Arizona for examples of people not allowed to get water...
I am also skeptical of billionaires planning cities - especially those with authoritarian leanings, however, if they take concrete steps to ensure that democracy is supported and their new city doesn't turn into a board-of-wealthy-directors-run oligarchy then I can accept it. In order to protect and support democracy, they should put some real money behind ranked choice or STAR voting. They should support startups that are worker-owned cooperatives where employees vote (democratically) on how to run the business. They should work toward ending gerrymandering and the electoral college at the national level and at the state level - this would show us they are serious about democracy at every level. They should support campaign finance reform. This last one is a huge ask given that their power comes from money. I am asking them to allow regular people to take over. Do they trust regular people enough to do that? Or do they want to rule over us? Concrete actions will tell. My guess is that they believe, as a group, it's their money and their land so they should get to say what happens (dictatorship style). That's not democracy. Democracy is one person, one vote. They want people to move to their city, so prove that they value the decisions those people make for themselves (democracy style).
Like your input, as a person who lives in basically a small city of 200,000 people, the concept is amusing I walk every where I can. I use mass Transit for work and enjoy just being able to get to most places that I enjoy by walking. By way I live in Providence Rhode Island a big college town. We already have a lot of similar places around the country, but what i have noticed is that people rather walk than drive even if it takes 5 minutes to walk to there destination. These cities are great, but its changing that behavior that's more a issue. That old thing about bringing a horse to water, but making them drink applies here. It's also the reason for the obesity issue in this country bye the way. People don't want to be forced and if it feels that way then its like pulling a building up a mountain with a prairie dog. By way come on over, Providence is a great small town. lol
Where is the industry in Providence to build the city and provide the transportation vehicles or trains.