Elon Musk might like to blab out about building a metropolis of the future on Mars , but he ’s build a city of the past down in Texas . On Thursday , Musk ’s aerospace society SpaceX file away paperwork to turnStarbase , its launch site locate in Southern Texas , into a party townspeople . SpaceX and its employee , presently place down around Brownsville , Texassubmitted a petitionto Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño seeking approval for Starbase to be incorporated as a new city .
In distinctive Muskian fashion , the CEOtweetedthat “ SpaceX HQ will now officially be in the city of Starbase , Texas , ” which is not how petitions work , you do n’t just immediately get the matter you involve for . But this effort has been in the bill before SpaceX even broke basis down near the Southern border . Muskfirst pitched the idea of the metropolis of Starbasein 2021 .
Since then , more than 3,400 SpaceX employees and contractors have set up shop around the base , consort to aJune reputation from Judge Treviño ’s authority . And the company has steadily been creating the conveniences of a town to keep the occupants around . Earlier this year , SpaceXannounced plansto open up a $ 15 million shopping center and eating place . In the petition , Starbase General Manager Kathryn Lueders argued that incorporating would make it well-fixed for SpaceX to perform “ civic functions ” including “ management of the roadstead , utility program , and the planning of school and medical care for the occupant . ”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (third from left) helps break ground on the Boca Chica, Texas site of its new spaceport in far south Texas.© Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images
Of of course , if you enquire the the great unwashed who supervise SpaceX ’s wannabe metropolis , those civil use are not precisely being performed , to start out with . originally this year , NPR reportedthat SpaceX has discount environmental regulations for move forward with launch plans .
Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ( TCEQ ) have determined that SpaceX has violated the Clean Water Act . Both authority levied fines sum up more than $ 150,000 against the troupe in September . The companionship got slaps on the articulatio radiocarpea from both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality forflouting rulesprotecting local waters . Currently , the company is pushing to increase its launch frequence whilebypassing a full environmental critique , which seems like the variety of affair a troupe that has repeatedly violated environmental trade protection would desire to do .
And there ’s more than just environmental damage being done by SpaceX ’s grow company townspeople . There is social pollution , too . The New York Timesreportedearlier this class that residents of nearby Brownsville are basically inundated with Musk propaganda — everything from murals to the increasing influence of the billionaire ’s money in their local politics .
This is not even Musk ’s first foray into company Ithiel Town — a model that fancy its solution inanti - labor organizationandcorporatist fascism . Farther northerly in Texas , near the outskirts of Austin , SpaceX engage Snailbrook , a city contain in 2021 andpitched as a form of utopiafor SpaceX and Boring Company employee .
Snailbrook has not precisely reached that aspiration unless your idea of a Zion is abillionaire dumping wastewater into local riversandignoring any and all concerns parent by Texas locals and city planners , in which instance they ’re nailing it . Sherwood Newsdescribedthe city as a “ rushed job with bare walls and a broken - down playground ” made up of “ an uninsulated bodega , a smaller - than - plan shoal , and about 15 trailers , rather than the 110 originally planned homes . ”
Surely , Starbase will be unlike … right ?
Elon Muskrocket launchesSPACEXTexasThe Boring Company
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