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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

#81

Post by quantified »

lateforwork wrote: post #5
randycupertino wrote: post #2

My favorite Mark Zuckerberg neighbor anecdote is the guy who is surrounded on 3 sides by all properties Zuckerberg snatched up however has refused multiple offers by Zuckerberg's "people:" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/us/mark-zuckerberg-palo-a...

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…

If you consider Palo Alto "regular people". I think regular people consider Palo Alto as where centimillionaire CEOs live.

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

#82

Post by exe34 »

samdoesnothing wrote: post #76
exe34 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody made a school illegal. Schools have to meet certain standards, whether educational or planning.

Isn't that contradictory? If a school doesn't meet certain standards presumably it would be illegal?

The concept of a school wouldn't be illegal. The people running the school would be committing crimes or at least be in some level of legal trouble with the city council, state or federal law. They could either be fined or go to prison, or they could get the relevant paperwork sorted out.

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

#83

Post by samdoesnothing »

exe34 wrote: post #82
samdoesnothing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that contradictory? If a school doesn't meet certain standards presumably it would be illegal?

The concept of a school wouldn't be illegal. The people running the school would be committing crimes or at least be in some level of legal trouble with the city council, state or federal law. They could either be fined or go to prison, or they could get the relevant paperwork sorted out.

> The concept of a school wouldn't be illegal.

Yes it is, you explicitly said it would be illegal if you didn't get permission from the government. What you meant to say was that "The concept of a government-approved school wouldn't be illegal." which is very different from the concept of any school being legal, and also redundant because by definition a government-approved school is a legal school, since governments hold a monopoly on the legal system.

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

#84

Post by shawn_w »

astroflection wrote: post #66
enahs-sf wrote: post #41

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.

Or not so secret. He has a huge compound on Kauai.

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

#85

Post by potato3732842 »

16bytes wrote: post #36
googlryas wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

Doctors, lawyers, business executives are closer to "regular people" than those people are to billionaires.

The gulf between well paid white collar workers and regular people is so massive which is "closer" depends mostly on which billionaire you're measuring.

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

#86

Post by potato3732842 »

somethingsome wrote: post #70

As a non US resident, I don't really get it. Can someone explain why is it such a crime to run a school? (illegal maybe, but I guess the purpose is still to teach to young people). Shouldn't we promote the creation of schools?

Selection bias. Live and let live people don't wind up living in Palo Alto.

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

#87

Post by reaperducer »

jb1991 wrote: post #64
bonestamp2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can’t imagine they’re very many places in the world where people behave this way.

Really? Because it happens everywhere. I've seen it from Chicago to Seattle to South Carolina. Start going to the zoning board meetings of any town with enough people, and you'll run into it.

In London, they tend to expand down, rather than out, but it happens so often there's a term for it there: Iceberg homes.

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

#88

Post by potato3732842 »

panzagl wrote: post #32
jjulius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't an accurate picture of the Bay Area I just left after residing in for five years. It's almost like you're only familiar with one corner of it.

It is an accurate picture of Boulder though...

It's literally any rich neighborhood.

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

#90

Post by potato3732842 »

exe34 wrote: post #26
wmichelin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this hurt you if your kids don't go there?

When billionaires break the law, we all suffer. I'll let you try to figure out why. you seem like a smart chap.

Your complaint amounts to "the law is not popular enough to be easily enforced against someone who has the means to defend themselves out of principal"

Repeal the law. Then nobody is breaking it.

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