You Aren’t Allowed in These Billionaire Towns
Welcome to the fully privatized city, where the ultrarich can do as they please — no whining from the rabble permitted.
Like Starbase and Indian Creek, Forest City, Malaysia, is highly securitized — policed by guards with the authority to kick people out at will and surrounded by electric fencing to guard its perimeter from undesirables. (Aparna Nori / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
At one of the first public meetings in the new city of Starbase, Texas, the first order of business was keeping the public out.
The city, near Brownsville on the Gulf of Mexico, voted to incorporate this May, forming a bizarre modern-day company town under the thrall of part-time resident Elon Musk. It’s made up of about five hundred people, spread across a few blocks of airstream trailers and ranch homes, almost all of whom are SpaceX workers or their families. The city serves as the launch site for the SpaceX Starship, and has been a passion project for Musk, especially since his dramatic falling out with the Trump administration this June.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.