☆ Opinion: New “utopia” city could force action on SF's brutal “doom loop”
A group of Silicon Valley plutocrats has announced their plan to construct a city from scratch in the Montezuma Hills, northeast of San Francisco by an hour. Meanwhile, public policy professor Joel Fox speculates that the threat of a modern Elysium might prompt breakthrough solutions for SF's crime, homelessness, and business closures. An Opp Now exclusive.
Can we connect the news about the proposed new city to be created from scratch in Solano County backed by Silicon Valley titans with San Francisco battling a “doom loop” label?
It is not hard to imagine that the Silicon Valley innovators figure if they have the resources and are frustrated with progress for improvement in the area’s major metropolis, why not tear the place down and start over?
Tearing the place down doesn’t apply literally to a world-class city like San Francisco, but you might be able to show city leaders the way by setting up a safe, functioning example nearby.
A doom loop is when one negative event triggers another, which in turn triggers a new bad event. SF has plenty of that going against it right now. Workers move out, businesses reduce output, fewer customers downtown and crime adds to business closures. Reduced commerce means smaller revenue for the city treasury. In addition, San Francisco’s well-known battle with unrestrained drug dealing and homelessness add to the image that the city is sinking beyond repair.
So now we have the news that some major Silicon Valley players are funding hundreds of millions of dollars in land purchases in Solano County northeast of San Francisco with the purpose of building a model city. They promise a community of houses, jobs for thousands, and parks and trees, governed in a superior way run on clean, renewable energy.
The new city prospect feels like an appeal to utopia. In fact, the first definition for utopia in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions. Sounds like a line that will be applied to future advertising for the Solano County city.
Historically, this country has seen the rise of many kinds of utopia projects that crumbled in time. It is not easy to put together the perfect place, even when starting from scratch.
Let’s put aside for the moment that such a massive project in Solano County will face many zoning and regulatory hurdles with no guaranteed agreement from local residents. Opposition likely will come from many quarters such as environmentalists opposed to new building and farmers who bemoan the loss of more farmland. With a big enough budget, the advocates for the new city will lobby for rule changes and take their case to the people through a ballot measure.
While the housing crisis is stated as the chief motivator for attempting such an ambitious project, could there be a secondary motive to send a strong message to the leaders of San Francisco? Clean up the mess—take the city off its current downward-spiraling course?
San Francisco is struggling to overcome the doom loop scenario. Threat of more workers moving out to a new, safer city nearby could force San Francisco leaders into new thinking, away from the policies that some claim led to the city’s current predicament. It may even force those city leaders to consider old ideas that worked in a less politicized environment.
If the threat of a new city changes the mindset of San Francisco officials and leads to that city escaping the doom loop, that would be a positive outcome.
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