Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

marker.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 81 posts

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#21

Post by gamechangr »

If you have 10,000 engineers working at your company, it seems like a natural extension of wanting to create - first the optimum workplace and then have that spill over to "what would the optimum city look like?"

It's not just tech. I'm sure other large non tech companies have wanted to build cities for their employees. Think of companies who build a product that in new and developing the details - like Ford. They would also want to build a huge headquarters and in a way that spills over to the whole town.

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#22

Post by niklasd »

Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores. I recently thought about how great it would have been to try something radical new – like building everything with wood, fantastic public transport, and as little cars as possible.

My conclusion was that the only way that realistically could have happend was with subsidies from a billionaire who had some kind of grand vision. I hardly doubt that we'll see such a thing from the public sector anytime soon, be it from fiduciary duties or their general incompetence of doing any kind of big real estate development (at least here in Germany).

So from that angle, I welcome anyone with a vision for an utopian city.

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#23

Post by esotericimpl »

MattGaiser wrote: post #13

Plenty of people dream about what their cities could do better. Tech people are just uniquely positioned to do it as engineers with resources.

Software engineers in tech are not the kind of people that can make cities "better" and are no better positioned than any other well off profession.

The best cities are built organically.

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#26

Post by mc32 »

gamechangr wrote: post #21

If you have 10,000 engineers working at your company, it seems like a natural extension of wanting to create - first the optimum workplace and then have that spill over to "what would the optimum city look like?" It's not just tech. I'm sure other large non tech companies have wanted to build cities for their employees. Think of companies who build a product that in new and developing the details - like Ford. They wo…

I believe in Korea big conglomerates (Chaebol) build and offer housing to their employees.

On the one hand it’s nice and convenient, on the other hand you’re depending on a company for much of your life. Kind like if you depend too much on the government, you’re at the whim of either.

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#27

Post by atlasunshrugged »

gamechangr wrote: post #21

If you have 10,000 engineers working at your company, it seems like a natural extension of wanting to create - first the optimum workplace and then have that spill over to "what would the optimum city look like?" It's not just tech. I'm sure other large non tech companies have wanted to build cities for their employees. Think of companies who build a product that in new and developing the details - like Ford. They wo…

Yes exactly, plus when you're already creating housing for employees or subsidizing it in the community it seems a very logical extension to consider

https://apnews.com/article/0f770c947b00426bab5054ad657a4000

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#28

Post by jokethrowaway »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #15
jokethrowaway wrote: post #7

Because government run cities are doing a terrible job? I'd love to live in a nice environment with services and smart people around me, it's just that most cities are quite degraded (at least here in Europe / UK). The choice right now is between living in a nice small town / rural settings surrounded by people who got stuck in their rural hometown, or live in a city surrounded by smart people, homeless and drug deal…

Really? I'm sorry to hear it's the same in the UK but I loved Berlin and Tallinn wasn't bad (most of what was bad was out of their control ie the weather). I've lived in SF, San Diego, northern Nevada, DC, Berlin, Tallinn, London (Enfield) and Yerevan and by far European cities were much better run in my opinion

I haven't lived in US cities but I'm sure you're correct. I wasn't trying to make an argument for US cities over EU - I've heard they've even bigger problems.

Still I don't consider EU cities (Italy, France, Germany at least) to be great for living.

Maybe with electric transport and better use of police enforcement.

Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities

#29

Post by saalweachter »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #3

What a strange thing to pin on tech. Company towns have existed forever, to the point of having laws made about how they can function. Walt Disney and ford also wanted to create a utopia city. I think this is more of a rich man's hobby than anything related to tech moguls at all. Hell, some even establish their own currency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip#Coal_company_s...

New Harmony, Indiana was the site of two successive utopian communities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana

The Rappites were a religious/grass roots organization, but after they failed the town was bought by Robert Owen, an industrialist who wanted to design a utopian community.

A lot people think they know how society should be run; the rich ones just have the power to force other people to play along with them for awhile.

Post reply on HN