Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla has a brand new critic in his years-long effort to restrict public entry to a seashore alongside the San Mateo County coast: the world’s richest man.
On Saturday, Elon Musk slammed Khosla, the co-founder of Solar Microsystems, over Khosla’s actions on Martins Seashore, a scenic stretch of sand seven miles south of Half Moon Bay.
Musk’s publish depicted a picture of what seemed to be an AI-generated signal on a seashore that mentioned “No plebs allowed. Property of Vinod Khosla.”
In two separate posts minutes later, Musk added: “Vinod says we should send tens of thousands of unvetted migrants to small towns throughout America, but he didn’t even want to let the public walk on his beach… I’m throwing a party on Vinod’s beach! For cuisine, I’m thinking BBQ.”
In response to Musk’s social media assault Saturday, Khosla slammed him for his latest help of Donald Trump for president. Khosla hosted a fundraiser at his Portola Valley home earlier this 12 months for President Joe Biden earlier than Biden determined to not run for re-election.
He referred to the workers on the Coastal Fee as “commies” and informed Musk: “Get details before you tweet nonsense.”
Their standoff veered towards a back-and-forth argument about immigration, and after Khosla requested whether or not Musk believes the 2020 election was stolen, as Trump falsely claims, Musk replied:
“You won’t even let people use your f***ng beach, you a**hole!”
To which Khosla retorted: “Name calling and irrelevant fictional pics is the best you can do instead of answer the question: Did Trump stop thru his lobbying a strong illegal immigration bill that had strong bipartisan support?”
Khosla has made few public statements concerning the Martins Seashore case. However the concern has drawn nationwide consideration for greater than a decade. Khosla has described it as a case of personal property rights, whereas political leaders, surfers and environmentalists have mentioned the difficulty may set a precedent about whether or not California’s seashores may be closed off by rich landowners.
Khosla, 69, is price $7.3 billion in accordance with Forbes. Musk, 53, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is price $257 billion, in accordance with Forbes.
The seashore battle started greater than 15 years in the past. In 2008, Khosla spent $32.5 million to buy 88 acres of coastal land alongside Freeway 1 that surrounds Martins Seashore, a property that had been utilized by households for generations. Two years later, he locked the gates, employed guards and posted no trespassing indicators.
Surfers and environmental teams protested. They famous that as a result of the seashore, which is public alongside the water line below the Coastal Act, is flanked on each side by steep cliffs, the highway is the one option to entry it.
The Coastal Fee informed Khosla that he should apply for a allow to lock the gate. The Surfrider Basis, a non-profit group, sued him over the difficulty. After he misplaced that case within the decrease courts, he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, arguing that the state’s landmark Coastal Act, accredited by voters in 1972, was “Orwellian” and unconstitutional.
In 2018, the Supreme Courtroom refused to take the case. The justices left in place decrease court docket rulings that discovered Khosla couldn’t lock the gate throughout the half-mile-long highway and not using a allow from the Coastal Fee as a result of the Coastal Act requires permits if landowners change public entry to seashores.
At this time, Khosla leaves the gate open at various occasions, permitting folks to drive half a mile right down to a parking zone close to the seashore and pay $10 to park. 5 years in the past, he received a special lawsuit when a small nonprofit group, Mates of Martins Seashore, sued him, claiming the general public had a historic proper over the highway as a result of it had been utilized by generations of households.
However then the Coastal Fee and State Lands Fee sued him in 2020 over the identical concern, this time presenting letters, pictures and different proof from greater than 200 households relationship again to the Twenties establishing that they used the highway and the seashore, usually with out paying.
If Khosla loses the most recent case, it will likely be nearly unattainable for him to acquire a allow from the Coastal Fee to shut the gate. The fee would most likely rule the parking charge is illegitimate, and the state may hit him with fines totaling tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. If Khosla wins, he may have a stronger argument to shut the gate — specifically that there was by no means any authorized public entry to the seashore.
Title calling and irrelevant fictional pics is the most effective you are able to do as an alternative of reply the query: Did Trump cease via his lobbying a robust unlawful immigration invoice that had robust bipartisan help? https://t.co/ZGKaIteH62
Initially Revealed: September 22, 2024 at 12:20 p.m.
