Elon Musk founded a city in Texas

What could be better than having your home and workplace close by, maybe in the same city? That’s likely what Elon Musk asked himself when, a couple of days ago, he officially founded a new city in southern Texas. Known as Starbase, the creation of this new municipality marks the culmination of over a decade of investment and development by his aerospace company, SpaceX, in this coastal region near Boca Chica, not far from the Mexican border. Last Saturday, an election was held in this previously unincorporated section of Cameron County, and of the roughly 283 registered voters (most of whom are SpaceX employees or their family members), 212 voted in favor of creating the municipality, with only six opposed. The area in question covers about 4 square kilometers and was sparsely populated before SpaceX began buying land there in 2012. Since then, the transformation has been radical: there are SpaceX launch facilities, offices and corporate infrastructure, and now even employee housing. The city is led by Bobby Peden, SpaceX’s vice president, who was elected mayor unopposed. He will be joined by two city commissioners, also linked to SpaceX, who will manage local issues such as urban planning, taxation, and municipal services. Starbase has been incorporated as a Type C municipality, a category under Texas law for communities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, allowing, among other things, the imposition of a property tax of up to 1.5%.

Musk’s strategic relocation from California to Texas is well documented. He has often criticized California’s regulatory environment and the Democratic Party’s political dominance. In recent years, several of his companies, including X and The Boring Company, have moved to Texas. Starbase represents the most radical step in this transition. Not everyone, however, has welcomed the birth of Starbase with enthusiasm. Both local residents and environmental groups have expressed concerns about the environmental and social implications of having a city founded by a private company. This type of city, known as a “company town”, is not new: in the 1920s and 30s there were about 2,500 such towns in the U.S., home to 3% of the population. Similar towns can be found around the world, from Spain to Japan; in Italy, we have the Olivetti Complex in Ivrea. But they are rare, and in America they virtually disappeared after the 1929 crash and F. Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. Their history is not the best: they quickly become small city-states where every aspect of employees' lives is controlled by local barons, and there is a risk of creating private “bubbles” where company and government are one and the same. This topic is back in the spotlight because since 2021, both the former governor of Nevada and Musk have tried to revive this city model. For now, as reported by the NY Times, employee housing ranges from Airstream trailers and modular homes to more permanent buildings. But SpaceX has submitted plans to build infrastructure like a school, a power plant, a shopping center, and even a sushi restaurant near Musk’s home. Murals and statues celebrating space exploration are also present.

For environmentalists in particular, the newly founded Starbase is close to ecologically sensitive areas such as Boca Chica State Park and Beach. Several residents also complain that environmental regulations have long prevented local fishermen from navigating nearby waters, while permits for Musk were granted without obstacles. There are also governance-related tensions involving disputes over which municipality should manage road and beach closures. Furthermore, the complicated relationship with environmental agencies—which the Trump administration is, perhaps not coincidentally, already dismantling—doesn't help. For example, last year, SpaceX was fined nearly $150,000 by the EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the improper release of wastewater. The company downplayed the incident, calling it a bureaucratic disagreement, but environmental groups view it as a symptom of broader problems. In truth, there are many unknowns: from the management of public services to environmental protection, to democratic representation in a city dominated by a single company.