Space on Elon Musk’s business card is running out. The CEO and co-owner of Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX and Boring Company seems to add another title to his resume: city owner.
But the far-reaching plans that the eccentric multi-billionaire in Texas is pursuing have also met with criticism.
What is he up to?
Elon Musk would pursue utopian plans for his own city. On pasture and farmland outside the Texas capital of Austin, on the banks of the Colorado River.
The proposed city reportedly borders Boring and SpaceX facilities currently under construction.
Apparently Musk’s ex-girlfriend, the singer Grimes, and the controversial Kanye West are also said to be involved in discussions about a possible “Elontown”.
According to US media reports, Musk has long dreamed of building his own city, and a few years ago he helped his brother Kimbal Musk refine an idea for building an “off-the-grid community”.
How do we know about Musk’s plans?
Through the Wall Street Journal.
It has been known for some time that the multi-billionaire wants to offer his employees housing in Texas. But now American journalists have investigated more far-reaching plans and revealed them in a report on Thursday.
Neither Elon Musk nor Steve Davis, a close confidant of Musk and president of the Boring Company, would comment on the plans at the request of the journalists.
What should the place be called?
Not Elontown or Muskville, but Snailbrook.
The name is a reference to the Boring Company’s mascot, Gary the snail (from “SpongeBob”).
When Musk’s company started tunneling in 2016, he challenged workers to build drills that move “faster than a snail.”
Why is he doing this?
Musk has long pursued the idea of providing workers with affordable housing in purpose-built communities. And this in the vicinity of its various activities.
Meeting with landowners and realtors in Texas, he seems to have described his idea: a kind of utopian small town where his employees can live and work without having to leave the city.
And there are plans to train the children of employees themselves. For this purpose, a house in one of the purchased buildings is being converted into a Montessori school.
Musk is also likely interested in merging the neighboring Texas business parks. Drone footage and YouTube videos from a concerned local resident show tunnels being built between SpaceX and Boring Company lots, under a public highway.
How much is it?
The investment volume and financiers are not known.
Musk isn’t known for transparency, so it’s not surprising that we don’t have reliable information on how big the Elon City is supposed to be.
The average monthly rent in Bastrop County is reportedly about $2,200, and Musk wants his employees to live there for a fraction of that cost.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk’s plans call for about $800 a month in rent for one- and two-bedroom homes. With the caveat that if they were fired or resigned they would have 30 days to vacate the apartments.
Is this a good idea?
Here opinions differ.
There is nothing wrong with creating affordable housing. The only question is what the unwanted risks and side effects are. Does it make sense for a private entrepreneur to establish a monopoly of power in an area to take even greater advantage of the workers?
The American journalist Matt Stick, writing for the renowned magazine “New York”, takes a clear position:
Company towns have a long history in the US, tech blog Gizmodo recalls. Its origins date back to the early 1800s when America’s coal, steel, and textile industries were booming.
Even then, companies forced their workers to live in cheaply built housing and sent their offspring to company schools, where they were indoctrinated in the employer’s interest.
Musk has increasingly emerged in recent years as a right-wing “task master” who arbitrarily fires workers, detests safety regulations, promotes discrimination in the workplace, and generally seems to think the law doesn’t apply to him. “Do we really want him to run his own city?”
What do the residents think?
There are concerns that the new projects could jeopardize the water quality of the Colorado River and the groundwater streams that feed the region’s springs.
Musk’s Boring Company recently applied to environmental agencies to discharge up to 140,000 gallons of industrial wastewater (529,900 liters) per day.
Texas Senator Sarah Eckhardt has requested a public hearing on the environment for this month after learning of the concerns.
But she doesn’t want to try and run Musk out of town.
Is this final?
No. The responsible Texas county, Bastrop County, has not yet received a request from Musk to incorporate the city. This requires a minimum of 201 residents and the approval of a district judge.
Musk met Kanye West and West’s architect and current wife Bianca Censori in 2022 to “keep the urban planning concepts flowing.”
According to a Wall Street Journal whistleblower, those conversations included general ideas and some “visual mock-ups,” but did not result in concrete plans.
A critical commentator recalled that some big Musk projects were never actually implemented, citing the billionaire’s promise to solve traffic problems with tunnels.
Why this location?
Musk opened his new Tesla factory “Giga Texas” in the southern US state in April 2022. The sprawling factory outside of Austin is considered the production center for the Model Y and the future home of the cyber truck.
In neighboring Bastrop County, Musk’s tunneling company, the Boring Company, is building a new warehouse, while SpaceX is building a 12-acre facility.
The proposed Snailbrook location for the employees is only “half a mile away”.
When Musk moved to Texas with his companies Tesla and Boring Company in 2021 during the corona pandemic and left his old hometown of California, he said he had lost patience with the rules and regulations there. In fact, the new house in the far south of the US has lax building laws and few environmental regulations. And above all, as super rich, he pays much less tax.
Frankly, Tesla continues to expand in California, with Palo Alto now considered its tech headquarters. However, the headquarters will remain in Texas.
How much land does Musk own in Texas?
In the past three years, legal entities associated with Musk or his companies have purchased about 3,500 acres of land in the Austin area, official documents show. This would correspond to an area of 8750 square kilometers.
Local officials told the Wall Street Journal they’ve heard the billionaire owns 6,000 acres of land in the area — seven times the size of New York’s Central Park.
Many of the Texas real estate deals tracked by the Wall Street Journal required sellers to sign nondisclosure agreements.
Where does Musk live?
The real estate purchases made so far also appear to include plans for a private residence for Musk away from the main location for his employees.
Musk announced in 2020 that he lives in a $50,000 house that he rents from SpaceX. Namely in Boca Chica Village in Texas, located on the Gulf of Mexico.
However, according to reports, his primary residence is a friend’s house in Austin.
Sources
- wsj.com: Elon Musk plans a utopia in Texas – his own city
- gizmodo.com: Elon Musk is planning a “utopian” corporate town called Snailbrook
Source: Watson
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
