Wired Roundup: Fandom in Politics, Zuckerberg’s Illegal School, and Nepal’s Disputed Revolution
Leah Feiger: Zoë, I am obsessed with this story. Before you go any further, I think it’s really important to say that Carolyn, the lovely reporter for this story on your desk, has obtained 1,665 pages of documents about the dispute over Zuckerberg’s home. This story is now law.
Zoe Schiffer: Carolyn Hoskins is an absolute star. Our fact-finding team literally cried when I asked them. They were like, “Wait, excuse me, how many documents are we going to review?” “Yes,” I said.
Leah Feiger: Shout out to the WIRED research team.
Zoe Schiffer: absolutely I think we should just say that the school is named after one of the Zuckerberg family chickens. Its name is Bacon Ben School.
Leah Feiger: I mean, hearing you say that, I know you’re serious, but again.
Zoe Schiffer: So the Crescent City neighborhood in Palo Alto, where the Zuckerbergs live, is, as you can imagine, some of the best real estate in the entire country. It is filled with these magnificent houses, thousands of green spaces. Mark Zuckerberg has expanded his presence in this ultra-chic neighborhood over the years. The plot of land where the Zuckerbergs live has expanded to include 11 previously separate properties. This is so funny and just a nightmare. If you live on the street, you paid $5 million for your house, and suddenly all your neighbors are Mark Zuckerberg.
Leah Feiger: It is important to note that not all of them are connected either. I don’t understand what it means at all. Do they cross the neighbor’s porch to get to their horse’s pond? What does this entail?
Zoe Schiffer: We have more questions. We need to look this up on Google Earth. I think there are holes in this story that we need to fill. The expansion first became a concern of Mark Zuckerberg’s neighbors in 2016, fearing that his purchases had dramatically inflated the market. But then, about five years later, neighbors noticed what appeared to be a school operating on the Zuckerberg compound. Therefore, it is illegal to do so without a permit, at least under the county’s residential zoning code. And so, naturally, the neighbors began to warn the city. Carolyn Hoskins, the reporter for this story, obtained over a thousand documents, as you said, detailing the resulting dispute between neighbors and city officials, essentially arguing that they felt the Zuckerbergs were getting special treatment.
