Before Elon Musk’s vision of his rocket-filled town can take flight, voters in the unincorporated village of Boca Chica, Texas, will vote in May on whether to greenlight it.
But not everybody is over the moon about the idea.
While Musk continues to wield enormous power over the federal government in his role as President Donald Trump’s head of the Department of Government Efficiency, he is also remaking the once-quiet fishing community along the Texas/Mexico border into a booming space headquarters known as Starbase.
To make that name official, voters will be asked to decide in a May 3 ballot initiative whether Musk’s SpaceX launch site, complete with towering rockets he hopes will soon carry humans to Mars, should become its own municipality.
But while the election “is something of a foregone conclusion,” observers told Politico, at least one organization with a history of dragging Musk to court is threatening to sue, according to the publication.
“Elon Musk should not govern a town, he’s a slumlord,” Bekah Hinojosa, a Rio Grande Valley community organizer who co-founded the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, told Politico. “We’re trying to figure out if this is even legal.”
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While SpaceX claims to have created thousands of jobs and generated nearly $100 million based on its economic impact, “the relationship with the community has not always been smooth,” Politico reported.
“While thousands of employees and contractors now work at the facility, which has become the main production and testing location for Musk’s Starship rockets, few residents seem to view them as friendly neighbors,” the report added. “Over the past half-decade, SpaceX has faced consternation over beach access, concerns about the intense noise and vibration of rocket launches, and even lawsuits from local groups alleging pollution of the nearby bay.”
Still, Musk will “likely become the de-facto mayor of his own town,” Politico said, depending on how voters – and possibly the courts decide.
