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Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part of that story: He said a security guard approached him and asked what he was doing. “I said, ‘I’m standing on the sidewalk looking at this project for review.’ He said, ‘Well, we’d appreciate it if you could move on,’” Mr. Baltay recalled. “I was pretty shocked by that. It’s a public sidewalk!” Zuckerberg could have built a fancy house in Woodside or Atherton which is where billionaire CEOs live. Ins…

Billionaire entitlement is just one of the problems afflicting the morbid wealthy. Most of them demonstrate a total lack of empathy and utter contempt for the rest of humanity.

We see that with Trump's second presidency. The WH ballroom, Gatsby party during shutdown, while withholding SNAP emergency funds, gifts from foreign governments, all the deals for corporations and billionaires, tariffs, pardons, etc.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#63
post #58
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I am visiting with my mother in law, I would consider the host very gracious and attentive to all the needs of his guests.

Do you do this a lot?

As little as possible, unless the guest house I am staying in has a guest house. Then I would consider it.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part of that story: He said a security guard approached him and asked what he was doing. “I said, ‘I’m standing on the sidewalk looking at this project for review.’ He said, ‘Well, we’d appreciate it if you could move on,’” Mr. Baltay recalled. “I was pretty shocked by that. It’s a public sidewalk!” Zuckerberg could have built a fancy house in Woodside or Atherton which is where billionaire CEOs live. Ins…

I assume he's planning to build a super mansion once he gets enough acreage. Reminds me of a guy near me who bought three already massive adjacent properties. Tore down two of them. One become a pond. The other one was rebuilt into a massive $30M mansion. The third was already a $15M mansion so he kept that as his guest house. The funny thing is that his guest house... has a guest house.

Is this also in California? Can’t imagine they’re very many places in the world where people behave this way. That is, people with enough wealth and interest in doing this in particular location.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#66

Given his wealth, this just feels lazy and unimaginative. Running a secret illegal school, okay, I get that. But getting caught up on the drop off and pick up? How does he not just build a secret tunnel entrance?

Or just get a secret tropical island.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#67
post #23

Zuck vs Bay Area NIMBYs… this is going to be a tough one to pick a side on

It's OK to care about what's going on around your home and in your community. "NIMBY" is usually meant to imply that they are being unreasonable in their complaints.

Are you Zuck's neighbor? (...just kidding)

At the individual level, I agree. Generally unfair to have some unzoned private school next to your house shuffling in people constantly. Though I doubt this would get much press if it weren't Zuck or the NIMBYs who can probably pull strings to get a story in the press about their harrowing plight and tormented lives (not saying that's what happened of course, and perhaps the neighbors aren't NIMBYs--who knows)

As a group though, I think Zuck and any NIMBYs deserve each other

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part of that story: He said a security guard approached him and asked what he was doing. “I said, ‘I’m standing on the sidewalk looking at this project for review.’ He said, ‘Well, we’d appreciate it if you could move on,’” Mr. Baltay recalled. “I was pretty shocked by that. It’s a public sidewalk!” Zuckerberg could have built a fancy house in Woodside or Atherton which is where billionaire CEOs live. Ins…

He purchased each plot for between $5 and $15M. The article describes the residents as "Doctors, lawyers, business executives and Stanford University professors". I would not call these "regular people"

These weren't inherently $15M properties - obviously price is no object for him and once he started buying adjacent properties the prices went way up. Zuckerberg paid $14 million in 2013 for a 2,600 sq ft house that was valued at $3.17 million [1]

As far as whether they're "regular people", depends on perspective. Relative to the US / world, a net worth that includes equity in a $3M+ house is an outlier but most of these people live what would have been considered a typical "upper middle class" lifestyle a couple of decades ago [source: me, ex Palo Alto resident, still have friends there]. Putting a couple of kids through college has become insanely expensive. They don't have compounds in Hawaii or fly around on private jets.

[1] https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/Zuckerberg-to-raze-4-hou...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

#69
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part of that story: He said a security guard approached him and asked what he was doing. “I said, ‘I’m standing on the sidewalk looking at this project for review.’ He said, ‘Well, we’d appreciate it if you could move on,’” Mr. Baltay recalled. “I was pretty shocked by that. It’s a public sidewalk!” Zuckerberg could have built a fancy house in Woodside or Atherton which is where billionaire CEOs live. Ins…

>Zuckerberg could have built a fancy house in Woodside or Atherton which is where billionaire CEOs live. Instead he bought property in the middle of regular people and disrupted their lives. it is easier and safer to have illegal school and other unpermitted things and all the noise and street blocking and all the other disruptions where regular people live than to piss off a billionaire neighbor.

This is Palo Alto and his neighbors for the most part aren't "regular people". They all own $5M+ homes.
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