硅谷的科技精英們有理由希望在舊金山附近建設(shè)一座新城市。首先,他們已經(jīng)受夠了犯罪、毒品交易和成群結(jié)隊(duì)的無家可歸者,還有天價(jià)住房成本和紛紛離開市區(qū)的公司。
因此,一群硅谷精英斥資近10億美元,在舊金山郊區(qū)約60英里(約96.56千米)的索拉諾縣買下了一塊地。他們希望建設(shè)一座烏托邦城市,那里有嶄新的住房、果園、太陽能發(fā)電廠以及大量停車場和露天場所。
但珍妮·麥科馬克和阿爾·梅德維茨卻沒有那么激動(dòng)。他們是占地3,700英畝(約14.97平方千米)的麥科馬克牧場(McCormack Ranch)的主人,這座牧場已經(jīng)有125年歷史,除了瀕臨薩克拉門托河的一段狹長地帶外,該牧場被為建城計(jì)劃收購的地產(chǎn)包圍在其中。這個(gè)項(xiàng)目及其億萬富翁投資者令麥科馬克感到困惑。
她對(duì)《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》(San Francisco Chronicle)表示:“他們非常傲慢,這令人覺得不可思議。他們知道自己要做什么,但他們卻根本不知道哪些人生活在這里?!?/p>
她指出,一個(gè)農(nóng)業(yè)社區(qū)應(yīng)該足夠大才能夠支持輔助性商業(yè),例如維修店、飼料店和屠宰場等,并且支持農(nóng)戶偶爾分享資源和互相租賃土地。但她卻看到鄰居們紛紛出售自己的不動(dòng)產(chǎn)。
麥科馬克的牧場里有小麥、苜蓿、葡萄園和1,800多頭羊。她說:“我們要面臨新問題,因?yàn)槲覀儾坏貌慌c沒有農(nóng)業(yè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)或?qū)I(yè)知識(shí)的鄰居們打交道?!?/p>
西薩克拉門托市的前市長克里斯托弗·卡瓦爾東告訴《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》:“當(dāng)?shù)氐脑S多農(nóng)戶會(huì)相互租賃土地用于牲畜覓食。Flannery已經(jīng)取消了許多這類租約?!?/p>
當(dāng)?shù)氐哪翀鲋鞣Q,它還起訴當(dāng)?shù)貥I(yè)主,指控他們共謀提高不動(dòng)產(chǎn)售價(jià)。
這個(gè)給麥科馬克和梅德維茨帶來煩惱的土地買家名為Flannery Associates,它是California Forever的附屬機(jī)構(gòu)。California Forever是一家傘型結(jié)構(gòu)公司,它花費(fèi)了超過8億美元在索拉諾縣的東部買地。California Forever的投資者包括LinkedIn的創(chuàng)始人里德·霍夫曼、Stripe的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人約翰和帕特里克·科利森,以及邁克爾·莫里茨、馬克·安德森和克里斯·狄克遜等風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家。
Flannery的發(fā)言人布萊恩·布羅考對(duì)《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》表示,投資者“非常關(guān)心索拉諾縣和加州的未來,他們認(rèn)為它們最美好的未來就在前方。我們很自豪可以合作開展這個(gè)項(xiàng)目,為索拉諾縣的居民提供報(bào)酬豐厚的工作、經(jīng)濟(jì)適用住房、清潔能源、可持續(xù)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施、露天空間和健康的環(huán)境?!?/p>
梅德維茨稱,當(dāng)?shù)氐募彝ナ来?jīng)營農(nóng)場,“對(duì)土地建立了深厚的感情”。但與該項(xiàng)目有關(guān)的不動(dòng)產(chǎn)交易卻在當(dāng)?shù)厣鐓^(qū)造成了分裂。
他告訴《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》:“這個(gè)新計(jì)劃的提出和新來到這里的人們的行為方式,會(huì)摧毀這里的一切,這只是為了一個(gè)不切實(shí)際的幻想?!?/p>
他補(bǔ)充道:“如果他們想要一座新城,圣何塞已經(jīng)很成熟了。他們能夠去解決那里的問題?!?/p>
梅德維茨說:“有許多人來到這里,對(duì)著河流說道:‘應(yīng)該開發(fā)這里?!銘?yīng)該說的是:‘等等——這里已經(jīng)得到了開發(fā)。這是一片高度發(fā)達(dá)的土地。只是這片土地有不同的目的?!保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:劉進(jìn)龍
審校:汪皓
硅谷的科技精英們有理由希望在舊金山附近建設(shè)一座新城市。首先,他們已經(jīng)受夠了犯罪、毒品交易和成群結(jié)隊(duì)的無家可歸者,還有天價(jià)住房成本和紛紛離開市區(qū)的公司。
因此,一群硅谷精英斥資近10億美元,在舊金山郊區(qū)約60英里(約96.56千米)的索拉諾縣買下了一塊地。他們希望建設(shè)一座烏托邦城市,那里有嶄新的住房、果園、太陽能發(fā)電廠以及大量停車場和露天場所。
但珍妮·麥科馬克和阿爾·梅德維茨卻沒有那么激動(dòng)。他們是占地3,700英畝(約14.97平方千米)的麥科馬克牧場(McCormack Ranch)的主人,這座牧場已經(jīng)有125年歷史,除了瀕臨薩克拉門托河的一段狹長地帶外,該牧場被為建城計(jì)劃收購的地產(chǎn)包圍在其中。這個(gè)項(xiàng)目及其億萬富翁投資者令麥科馬克感到困惑。
她對(duì)《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》(San Francisco Chronicle)表示:“他們非常傲慢,這令人覺得不可思議。他們知道自己要做什么,但他們卻根本不知道哪些人生活在這里?!?/p>
她指出,一個(gè)農(nóng)業(yè)社區(qū)應(yīng)該足夠大才能夠支持輔助性商業(yè),例如維修店、飼料店和屠宰場等,并且支持農(nóng)戶偶爾分享資源和互相租賃土地。但她卻看到鄰居們紛紛出售自己的不動(dòng)產(chǎn)。
麥科馬克的牧場里有小麥、苜蓿、葡萄園和1,800多頭羊。她說:“我們要面臨新問題,因?yàn)槲覀儾坏貌慌c沒有農(nóng)業(yè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)或?qū)I(yè)知識(shí)的鄰居們打交道?!?/p>
西薩克拉門托市的前市長克里斯托弗·卡瓦爾東告訴《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》:“當(dāng)?shù)氐脑S多農(nóng)戶會(huì)相互租賃土地用于牲畜覓食。Flannery已經(jīng)取消了許多這類租約?!?/p>
當(dāng)?shù)氐哪翀鲋鞣Q,它還起訴當(dāng)?shù)貥I(yè)主,指控他們共謀提高不動(dòng)產(chǎn)售價(jià)。
這個(gè)給麥科馬克和梅德維茨帶來煩惱的土地買家名為Flannery Associates,它是California Forever的附屬機(jī)構(gòu)。California Forever是一家傘型結(jié)構(gòu)公司,它花費(fèi)了超過8億美元在索拉諾縣的東部買地。California Forever的投資者包括LinkedIn的創(chuàng)始人里德·霍夫曼、Stripe的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人約翰和帕特里克·科利森,以及邁克爾·莫里茨、馬克·安德森和克里斯·狄克遜等風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家。
Flannery的發(fā)言人布萊恩·布羅考對(duì)《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》表示,投資者“非常關(guān)心索拉諾縣和加州的未來,他們認(rèn)為它們最美好的未來就在前方。我們很自豪可以合作開展這個(gè)項(xiàng)目,為索拉諾縣的居民提供報(bào)酬豐厚的工作、經(jīng)濟(jì)適用住房、清潔能源、可持續(xù)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施、露天空間和健康的環(huán)境?!?/p>
梅德維茨稱,當(dāng)?shù)氐募彝ナ来?jīng)營農(nóng)場,“對(duì)土地建立了深厚的感情”。但與該項(xiàng)目有關(guān)的不動(dòng)產(chǎn)交易卻在當(dāng)?shù)厣鐓^(qū)造成了分裂。
他告訴《舊金山紀(jì)事報(bào)》:“這個(gè)新計(jì)劃的提出和新來到這里的人們的行為方式,會(huì)摧毀這里的一切,這只是為了一個(gè)不切實(shí)際的幻想。”
他補(bǔ)充道:“如果他們想要一座新城,圣何塞已經(jīng)很成熟了。他們能夠去解決那里的問題。”
梅德維茨說:“有許多人來到這里,對(duì)著河流說道:‘應(yīng)該開發(fā)這里?!銘?yīng)該說的是:‘等等——這里已經(jīng)得到了開發(fā)。這是一片高度發(fā)達(dá)的土地。只是這片土地有不同的目的?!保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:劉進(jìn)龍
審校:汪皓
Silicon Valley tech elites have their reasons for wanting to build a new city near San Francisco. For starters, they’re fed up with the crime, drug markets, and homeless encampments—not to mention the sky-high housing costs and flight of companies from downtown.
With that in mind, a group of them have spent nearly $1 billion buying up land in Solano County, about 60 miles outside San Francisco. Their idea is to build a utopian city with new homes, orchards, a solar-energy farm, and plenty of parks and open space.
Less thrilled about the idea are Jeanne McCormack and Al Medvitz, owners of the 125-year-old, 3,700-acre McCormack Ranch, which is now surrounded—aside from a stretch facing the Sacramento River—by property bought for the planned city. McCormack is baffled by the project and its billionaire backers.
“They are so arrogant it’s amazing,” McCormack told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They know what they are going to do but they don’t even know anyone who lives here?”
A farming community, she notes, should be big enough to support auxiliary businesses—repair shops, feed stores, slaughterhouses—and enable farmers to occasionally share resources and lease land to one another. Instead she’s seen one neighbor after another sell their property.
“We have new issues because we have to deal with neighbors who have no experience or expertise in agriculture,” said McCormack, whose ranch includes wheat, alfalfa, grape vineyards and more 1,800 sheep.
“Many of the farmers in the area lease foraging land from each other,” former West Sacramento mayor Christopher Cabaldon told the paper. “Flannery has canceled many of these foraging leases.”
It has also sued property owners in the area for allegedly colluding to drive up prices, ranchers say.
The land buyer giving McCormack and Medvitz so much angst is Flannery Associates, an affiliate of California Forever, an umbrella company that has spent more than $800 million on buying land in the eastern part of the county. Investors in California Forever include LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Stripe cofounders John and Patrick Collison, and venture capitalists Michael Moritz, Marc Andreessen, and Chris Dixon, among others.
The backers “care deeply about the future of Solano County and California and believe their best days are ahead,” Flannery spokesman Brian Brokaw told the Chronicle. “We are proud to partner on a project that aims to deliver access to good-paying jobs, affordable housing, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, open space, and a healthy environment to residents of Solano County.”
Medvitz said the area’s farming families formed a “profound bonding for the land” over generations. But the property deals linked to the project have created divisions within the community.
“With this new proposal and the way the new people are behaving,” he told the Chronicle, “all of that is going to be lost. For a fantasy.”
“If they want a new city,” he added, “San Jose is ripe. Fix what’s there.”
He noted, “We have had lots of people come out here and look at the river and say, ‘You ought to develop this.’ You have to say, ‘Wait a minute—it already is developed. It’s highly developed land. It’s highly developed for a different purpose.’”