“Billionaire City” in California may not go forward

Last week, we looked at the latest update to the mystery surrounding someone buying up vast tracks of land around Travis Air Force Base in California. Rather than turning out to be the Chinese Communist Party as many of us had suspected, the purchasers turned out to be a conglomerate of tech and investment sector billionaires who were planning to build their own private paradise city on the largely empty farmlands they acquired for nearly a billion dollars. They had gone to great lengths to conceal their identities, using an obscure company named Flannery Associates to conduct all of the transactions. But now that the cat is out of the bag, it appears that they realize they’ve been discovered and are scrambling to do some PR work so the commoners don’t revolt against their plans. However, the AP reports that it might not be smooth sailing for CEO Jan Sramek and his happy band of billionaires. They will still have to convince local officials and residents to approve the plan and allow them to bend the rules so they can break ground. In response, Sramek has launched a new website to promote the project and has begun making promises as to how wonderful it will all be for everyone.Read More