The country of French Polynesia is on the verge of permitting a floating city, funded by wealthy Silicon Valley interests and sustained by utopian dreams.
Melia Robinson reports on a radical development proposal from the Seasteading Institute: a floating city, located in the South Pacific.
The idea behind the Seasteading Institute is to construct a "floating city that would serve as a permanent, politically autonomous settlement," according to Robinson.
The Seasteading Institute was founded in 2008, but made news recently by finding a state partner to help build the project: French Polynesia. "[President Édouard] Fritch is currently reviewing a memorandum of understanding, a document that would cement the government's intent to work with the Seasteading Institute," according to Robinson. "The government has not begun drafting the legislation that would permit the seastead's development."
Robinson quotes Seasteading Executive Director Randolph Hencken throughout the article, but Seasteading is also notable for its famous co-founders: a particularly famous billionaire, Peter Thiel, along with a Google software engineer with a very famous last name, Patri Friedman.
The article includes more discussion of utopian and futurist concepts that motivate the project proposal.
Read the full story: Silicon Valley's dream of a floating, isolated city might actually happen
YIMBYs Attacked from the (Far) Left
Pro-housing activists in San Francisco are blamed for displacement of vulnerable communities because they support luxury housing developments. A report from the independent progressive website, Truthout, ties YIMBYs to the "alt-right."
Designing a City on the Sea
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New Frontier for Development: The Ocean
The Seasteading Institute, a group that advocates creating sovereign nations in international waters, announces the winner of their seastead design contest.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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Susan Murcott, a waste water expert, said if Carlisle didn't address their leaking sewage, the problem could turn “deadly.”
Iowa taxpayers are paying thousands to clean manure out of their water
While the Clean Water Act makes states responsible for regulating factory farms that discharge pollutants, Iowa has turned a blind eye to the polluting farms.
Amtrak cuts ribbon on Seattle Airo maintenance facility
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello