‘This hasn’t been done before’: can tech elites build their own city – and win over the skeptics?

Gabriel Metcalf was hired to design a new California city backed by Silicon Valley money. He says bold action is needed to fight the housing crisis

I met Gabriel Metcalf, the urban planner hired to design a new California city backed by tech billionaires, while we were mincing garlic and herbs at Burning Man. The New York Times had just blown open the mystery of who was secretly buying up more than 50,000 acres of farmland in Solano county, about 50 miles north-east of San Francisco.

The buyers turned out to include a who's who of Silicon Valley investors who had thrown their weight behind an ambitious plan for a new California dream" city with walkable neighborhoods, climate-friendly infrastructure, green energy jobs and affordable homes.