Balaji depicts California Forever as a Network State project
The Point: During a tech podcast last September, Network State leader Balaji Srinivasan appeared to confirm that the California Forever project in Solano County is, indeed, part of the cultish Network State movement. This could further complicate things for the project's developers, who already face strong opposition from Solano County voters.
California Forever
The Backstory: Against the wishes of local residents, a group of tech billionaires is trying to build a new city in rural Solano County. In January, I wrote about how California Forever aligns with the Network State cult, a movement which seeks to build new sovereign territories ruled by tech plutocrats. The idea behind the Network State is to build new cities that can eventually gain sovereignty and essentially secede from the United States.
In October, the leader's movement – former Andreesen-Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan – held a Network State conference (Marc Andreesen, co-founder of the influential venture capital firm, is one of the California Forever project's billionaire investors).
As I wrote in the New Republic, the California Forever project made a cameo appearance at the conference. A photo illustration of the proposed "tech utopia" in Solano County appeared during a presentation at the conference.
Gil Duran
Full New Republic piece about California Forever and the Network State
But the previous month, Srinivasan had gone even further, telling hosts of the Moment of Zen podcast that a startup Network State city was underway in Northern California.
He started by listing other historical figures who had started their own "tribes" or societies:
You can found a tribe just like you can found a startup. That's what Joseph Smith of the Mormons did. That's what Abraham did. That's what Jesus did. That's what Satoshi did. That's what George Washington did. That's what Lee Kuan Yew did.
He goes on to compare his own Network State ideology to Zionism, the political movement that led to the creation of the State of Israel, before mentioning that such a project is underway in Northern California (see bold):
What I'm really calling for is something like Tech Zionism. And there are different versions of that, which are "reform in place" and "emigrate." And the Network State – the book – is about the bare land version of it – right? – which is already being tried. You're seeing it in Northern California, you know, this thing, this project. You're seeing it with Creator Cabins and Culdesac and Praxis. There's like 50 of these projects now around the world.
Though he doesn't mention the project by name, Srinivasan is clearly talking about California Forever. No other project fits the description, and several of the billionaires behind the unwanted Solano County tech city are connected to Srinivasan. (I considered the possibility that he was talking about Garry Tan's effort to capture San Francisco's city government in the 2024 election, but Srinivasan makes it clear he's talking about a project that's being built on "bare land" in Northern California.)
Solano voters say no
The twist: Being part of a weird billionaire cult movement certainly won't improve things for California Forever's embattled developers. A new poll shows the project failing badly in its effort to gain voter approval in November. A total of 70% of Solano County voters oppose the project, with 61% saying they are definite "no" votes.
From the Benicia Independent:
A poll conducted by the nationally recognized group FM3 found that Solano County voters are overwhelmingly opposed to California Forever’s proposal to build a new city of 400,000 residents in a remote part of Eastern Solano County. When it comes to the proposed “East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative” for the November election, 70% of poll participants say they would vote no if elections were held today.
There is an unusually high level of voter awareness about this project as compared to the majority of ballot initiatives at this point in the campaign. Polling data reveals that Solano County residents are well aware of the proposed California Forever project—three-quarters (76%) have heard about it—and also shows that the more they know, the less likely they are to support it. Of those who indicated that they have heard “a lot” about the proposal, 79% are opposed. Opposition cuts across every major demographic and geographic subgroup of the Solano County electorate.
This is a catastrophic omen for Flannery Associates, the company trying to develop the project. Even under the best of circumstances, such a high level of opposition would be hard to overcome. And the poll shows that, the more voters know about it, they more they oppose it.
Of course, they billionaires can blitz Solano County with an unprecedented amount of advertising and free goodies to try to reduce opposition. But while this might enrich their consultants, it may not move the needle. In fact, if the voters started to feel manipulated and pressured, the tactic may backfire and increase their opposition.
Garamendi and Thompson take notice
Conclusion: Not looking good for California Forever – and to think that the project's status as part of the Network State movement hasn't really been mentioned in the Solano County press!
But local elected officials did hint at the idea in a February San Francisco Chronicle story headlined "California Forever developers could create their own de facto government, lawmakers warn." Reps. John Garamendi and Mike Thompson warned that the project was being set up to evade normal governance.
But by removing the Orderly Growth restrictions, the measure allows a new city to be built without any governance requirements, Garamendi told the Chronicle. Garamendi said he is concerned about “the inability of the county government to control what goes on in this 400,000-person city. No city council, no local government to be set up at all.”
The initiative bills the development as a “new community,” and the members of Congress emphasized that decisions about how it is built and integrated into Solano County would be left to the developers.
“This isn’t a proposal for a city, this is a proposal for a development and it would be the developers … calling the shot in their development,” Thompson said.
Good job, congressmen. But maybe it's time to be a bit more direct in telling people about the Network State movement behind this aggressive billionaire invasion of Solano County. I'm sure voters would love to hear Srinivasan's extended thoughts on how Democrats and Republicans are relics of the past – as is the United States of America.
Note: I'm making my way through hours and hours of Balaji Srinivasan interviews and will continue to update as I find relevant nuggets.
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