The utopian communities proposed by the tech industry don’t seem to be for everyone.

Frustrated with San Francisco’s current “social infrastructure” and feeling isolated post-pandemic, a group of technologists are building their own community in one square mile of the Lower Haight, bringing together like-minded technologists and I want to be fulfilled with my family. Valley and Alamo Square District.

Early promotional artwork for what they call the “City Campus” depicts streets lined with cafes filled with residents eating and socializing. The image, located in the manifesto section of the city’s campus website, shows only white residents.

Jason Benn, co-founder of City Campus, said living in the tech world is like living in an episode of “Friends.” Like the art in City Campus, there wasn’t a lot of diversity in “Friends.”

Last fall, California Forever, a Solano County project backed by tech billionaires who want to build their own cities, released its first promotional images. There were also apparently very few people of African descent. (This project was apparently later tested with focus groups to make marketing materials more inclusive.)

The influence of tech money has made post-pandemic San Francisco politics more conservative and more tolerant of housing and public safety policies that exacerbate inequality. Intentional or not, the early marketing of these techno-utopias conveys subtle but powerful messages about who these visions of paradise were designed by and for whom they are intended. These projects also speak to the destabilizing influence of big technology and how gentrification and forced displacement remain unresolved issues, especially for the city’s black population, which has reached its highest point since 1970. The value has decreased from 13.4% to 5.7% today.

A manifesto posted on the City Campus website makes a passionate argument about the tech enclaves of pre-pandemic life and the value of recreating that environment in urban areas.

“The time is ripe to proactively build neighborhoods that reflect the spirit of community and self-actualization on campus,” the post reads.

Historically, these campuses have been predominantly occupied by white or Asian men.

The groups behind these community projects may argue that having a mix of Asian and white members means they prioritize diversity. But when it comes to the tech industry, the concept of diversity is a delicate one. Asian Americans, who make up just 6% of the U.S. population, hold about 20% of the nation’s tech jobs, second only to whites who make up about 59% of the population but about 63% of all industry employment. It is in 2nd place.

Diversity concerns in the tech industry are clearly about the underrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics. Considering that Latinos make up 19% of the U.S. population but only 8% of the tech workforce, and Black Americans make up 14% of the U.S. population but only 7% of the tech workforce. of.

The tech industry is also one where Black people have been hardest hit by recent layoffs, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts born out of the 2020 George Floyd protests have led to companies like Zoom, Meta, It’s also an industry that has already been watered down or completely eliminated by major companies like Tesla, Google, and X. , according to the Washington Post.

The literature about City Campus (as well as early information about California Forever) does not address how the project risks perpetuating cycles of exclusion.

After racially discriminatory policies such as urban redevelopment, redlining, and urban lockdowns in the 1950s forced black residents out of San Francisco, the dot-com era of the 1990s and 2000s saw waves of wealthy white people move into the city. The influx drove up housing prices and forced more black people to relocate. Outside. The city campus will start at 1 square mile, but he has ambitions to expand further.

A post on the City Campus website says a possible day for someone in the community could include “working together at a community cafe, eating together at a local cafeteria, and playing an impromptu game of Frisbee in the park. , and then the following things begin.” Meditate at a local secular church and end with a philosophical discussion at a community teahouse. ”

Anthropologist Sesa Lo, director of the Public Spaces Research Group at the City University of New York, said in the Chronicle: …They don’t want to have to deal with the complexities, the differences, the poverty, the needs, the compassion for others that has always been part of urban culture. they want to escape. They want their own currency, their own culture, their own people. And they wanted it to look like Disneyland. ”

Efforts to develop master plans for future cities are not new. Last August, the New York Times reported that conversations about these projects “have been floating around the conferences and salon parties of Silicon Valley’s tech elite for years.” In 2017, billionaires were buying up land for the California Forever project. It is impossible to talk about this kind of project without mentioning the concept of the networked state. Network Nation has gained prominence in the tech world in recent years and appears to have many supporters, including in California.

The idea of ​​a networked state is a virtual community with the possibility of acquiring real land and establishing political institutions. For some technologists, one of the common goals of these communities is to remove progressive Democratic leaders from liberal places like San Francisco and leaders willing to embrace more conservative policies. is to replace it with

Balaji Srinivasan, a tech investor, entrepreneur, and former chief technology officer of Coinbase, wrote a book in 2022 called Networked Nation: How to Start a New Country. According to the New Republic, “The book outlines the tech conglomerates’ plans to break away from democracy and establish new sovereign territories.”

Benn told the Chronicle that the difference between City Campus and Network State is that the latter is an “exit” and the former is about “loyalty” and investment in the communities in which they are located.

“(W)e wouldn’t have a cold start problem if everyone tried to make the place they already want to live even better, and all of their favorite people already agree,” Ben said. spoke this week.

In the world of technology, how many of your “favorite people” are black?

Silicon Valley’s utopian project has the capacity to unite and divide, but it is itself a contradiction. In their quest to build the perfect community, they may be erecting barriers that isolate and exclude the very people who have suffered most from inequality in places like San Francisco for decades.

Perhaps these technology leaders are so consumed by their desire to live in isolation that they simply don’t care about the fallout their efforts may have. yeah.

Contact Justin Phillips: jphillips@sfchronicle.com