Since I was born and raised in Santa Cruz I found this article interesting and posted it to a Santa Cruz local site. The old timers in Santa Cruz like my parents don't like the influence that UCSC brought to the town, but I love it:
MBS’s $500 Billion Desert Dream Just Keeps Getting Weirder
Neom, the Saudi crown prince’s urban megaproject, is supposed to have a ski resort, swim lanes for commuters, and “smart” everything. It’s going great—for the consultants.
"One day last September, a curious email arrived in Chris Hables Gray’s inbox. An author and self-described anarchist, feminist, and revolutionary, Gray fits right into Santa Cruz, Calif., where he lives. He’s written extensively about genetic engineering and the inevitable rise of cyborgs, attending protests in between for causes such as Black Lives Matter. While Gray had taken some consulting gigs over the years, he’d never received an offer like this one. The first shock was the money: significantly more than he’d earned from all but one of his books. The second was the task: researching the aesthetics of seminal works of science fiction such as Blade Runner. The biggest surprise, however, was the ultimate client: Mohammed bin Salman, the 36-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia."
This article is fascinating, and it has a great quote about the 75-mile "landscraper":
The concept carried echoes of an idea originated in the 1960s by Superstudio, an Italian architectural collective, for a structure so enormous it would wrap around the entire planet. This “Continuous Monument” was never a real building proposal; it was intended as a critique of excessive urbanization and of the modernist megaprojects then in vogue. One of Superstudio’s last surviving members, when asked about the Line by the New York Times, dryly noted that “seeing the dystopias of your own imagination being created is not the best thing you could wish for.”
It's not just the Saudis doing crazy stuff like this. From the Wikipedia article On Neom, I found this:
> Belmont is a proposed planned city in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, United States. The development, a partnership between billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and local real estate investors, will be a "smart city" designed around emerging technologies.[1] It will be located in the West Valley area, along Interstate 10 near Tonopah.
That's some of the driest, hottest land anywhere in the US and an extremely fragile ecosystem. The ongoing Colorado River crisis just makes this more of a head-scratcher. Maybe not at the same scale, but definitely a similar sense of leading with technology rather than the problem.
Yet another impractical vaporware passion project with no use-case/demand.
One is left with a feeling, however, that they are missing out on a free money party if this is an example of the level of thinking that is being encouraged. Maybe we should be spitballing ideas to Saudi royalty too.
> Yet another impractical vaporware passion project with no use-case/demand.
The use case is services professionals extracting cash from extremely credulous members of the KSA royal family (this is part of the new city project, another insane waste of resources).
Softbank raised $50bn in a ten minute meeting with MBS. They then turned around, set the whole thing on fire...this has been going on for almost half a century (the very first financial crisis caused by the Saudis was the boom in EM debt in the 70s, this bankrupted Citi and wasn't resolved fully until the early 90s...they on the same tier as German bankers when it comes to losing massive amounts of money very quickly).
You're right about that. I personally know 2 people about to leave the UK to work on Neom (one of 3 new cities they're building) and you wouldn't poach them without a mind blowing offer.
If Saudi Arabia wants to launder its reputation, they should be working harder to solve climate change.
This project is estimated at 1trillion. With that sort of investment they could become the de facto energy brokers of the world. Selling both the poison and the cure as we wean off of oil.
One gets the impression that they don't particularly know what they want and seem to just halfheartedly leap at whatever latest vision that is pitched to them.
Saudi Arabia has the money, land, and climate to be the world leader in solar energy. And with that desalination tech, desert/vertical farming, etc. There are so many things they could do in they were interested in them.
Not sure that's enough to move the needle on Saudi's reputation but maybe if they continue investing in EV projects and get some wins they can talk those up.
Is it just me or is no one addressing the most obvious disadvantage of this plan? Building a city along a "line" is simply a terrible idea. As far as I can tell, every major city in the world is based around a downtown "core" with less dense areas radiating outward from it, except where geographical barriers prohibit this. The advantages of this model are so manifold that I can't even begin to enumerate them—everything from (relatively) short commute times to equidistant access to central services from every direction. I cannot think of a single advantage of having a city that is a straight line.
Major cities in the world were built before linear mass transport like trains were invented, often around a single building of importance like a castle, church, or factory.
I guess it simplifies transport a great deal? You can just stack everything up and send it back and forth at high speeds, sort of like a conveyor belt. I suppose the natural equivalent is shipping and settlement along rivers like the Nile in Egypt?
One of their claims is that you can travel end-to-end in 20 minutes. If that actually worked and was easy to use I think most of your advantages would not be super relevant.
Not to mention some weird climate change that may associate with having a 1,300’ wall separating the coastal area from the inland.
Anyone remember the crazy Russian Scientist whose Soviet government almost started to fund that Bering Strait dam just so USSR can increase usable landmass that the warmer climate of Siberia can bring, anyone?
That project surely would have gotten started if US hadn’t committed a Seward’s Folly (having bought Alaska from Tsar Russia).
That's a lot of people to have no sewer system for, but I'm sure they'll remember to factor it in this time. Maybe they'll build a ring-road around it so the honey-wagons have somewhere to queue up.
I did skim the article, but it seems not to mention where from they will take water and sewers are also not mentioned. I think it could be a good idea to connect Burj Khalifa you sewers first nevertheless.
Meanwhile, in China, there are manufactured cities inhabited by ghosts. The people never showed.
This Saudi proposal isn't a skyscraper, but an elongated and enclosed earth station. Great for controlling the inner environment, as well as those who inhabit it.
Love a good China bash but the people did show. Pudong was a ghost city once upon a time and now it's the financial capital of China. There aren't ever any follow up articles on these ghost cities five years later because they tend to be fully occupied by that point.
[+] [-] labrador|3 years ago|reply
MBS’s $500 Billion Desert Dream Just Keeps Getting Weirder
Neom, the Saudi crown prince’s urban megaproject, is supposed to have a ski resort, swim lanes for commuters, and “smart” everything. It’s going great—for the consultants.
"One day last September, a curious email arrived in Chris Hables Gray’s inbox. An author and self-described anarchist, feminist, and revolutionary, Gray fits right into Santa Cruz, Calif., where he lives. He’s written extensively about genetic engineering and the inevitable rise of cyborgs, attending protests in between for causes such as Black Lives Matter. While Gray had taken some consulting gigs over the years, he’d never received an offer like this one. The first shock was the money: significantly more than he’d earned from all but one of his books. The second was the task: researching the aesthetics of seminal works of science fiction such as Blade Runner. The biggest surprise, however, was the ultimate client: Mohammed bin Salman, the 36-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia."
https://archive.ph/65uZx (Bloomberg)
[+] [-] pavlov|3 years ago|reply
The concept carried echoes of an idea originated in the 1960s by Superstudio, an Italian architectural collective, for a structure so enormous it would wrap around the entire planet. This “Continuous Monument” was never a real building proposal; it was intended as a critique of excessive urbanization and of the modernist megaprojects then in vogue. One of Superstudio’s last surviving members, when asked about the Line by the New York Times, dryly noted that “seeing the dystopias of your own imagination being created is not the best thing you could wish for.”
[+] [-] Surfactant7|3 years ago|reply
> Belmont is a proposed planned city in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, United States. The development, a partnership between billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and local real estate investors, will be a "smart city" designed around emerging technologies.[1] It will be located in the West Valley area, along Interstate 10 near Tonopah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmont,_Arizona
That's some of the driest, hottest land anywhere in the US and an extremely fragile ecosystem. The ongoing Colorado River crisis just makes this more of a head-scratcher. Maybe not at the same scale, but definitely a similar sense of leading with technology rather than the problem.
[+] [-] superchroma|3 years ago|reply
One is left with a feeling, however, that they are missing out on a free money party if this is an example of the level of thinking that is being encouraged. Maybe we should be spitballing ideas to Saudi royalty too.
[+] [-] skippyboxedhero|3 years ago|reply
The use case is services professionals extracting cash from extremely credulous members of the KSA royal family (this is part of the new city project, another insane waste of resources).
Softbank raised $50bn in a ten minute meeting with MBS. They then turned around, set the whole thing on fire...this has been going on for almost half a century (the very first financial crisis caused by the Saudis was the boom in EM debt in the 70s, this bankrupted Citi and wasn't resolved fully until the early 90s...they on the same tier as German bankers when it comes to losing massive amounts of money very quickly).
It is a crazy situation.
[+] [-] Oarch|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moomin|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] googlryas|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reactspa|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andscoop|3 years ago|reply
This project is estimated at 1trillion. With that sort of investment they could become the de facto energy brokers of the world. Selling both the poison and the cure as we wean off of oil.
[+] [-] superchroma|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mytailorisrich|3 years ago|reply
They have some beautiful landscapes, too.
[+] [-] lastofthemojito|3 years ago|reply
Not sure that's enough to move the needle on Saudi's reputation but maybe if they continue investing in EV projects and get some wins they can talk those up.
[+] [-] cududa|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] closetkantian|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hawski|3 years ago|reply
It certainly simplifies communication for some criteria at least.
[+] [-] hypertele-Xii|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Barrin92|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fastball|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bookofjoe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] egberts1|3 years ago|reply
Anyone remember the crazy Russian Scientist whose Soviet government almost started to fund that Bering Strait dam just so USSR can increase usable landmass that the warmer climate of Siberia can bring, anyone?
That project surely would have gotten started if US hadn’t committed a Seward’s Folly (having bought Alaska from Tsar Russia).
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sewards-folly
[+] [-] FerretFred|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fastball|3 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topopolis
[+] [-] hawski|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ekaros|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eurasiantiger|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HerbsMan|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] medo-bear|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] georgyo|3 years ago|reply
This is not good publicity for Saudis the same way that those man made islands wasn't good publicity for the UAE.
It's wasteful and pointless "building" measuring.
[+] [-] 88840-8855|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] chiefalchemist|3 years ago|reply
This Saudi proposal isn't a skyscraper, but an elongated and enclosed earth station. Great for controlling the inner environment, as well as those who inhabit it.
What would be the tourism appeal? Anyone?
[+] [-] selectodude|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hindsightbias|3 years ago|reply