‘California Forever’

News Snapshot:

The secretive California firm tasked with building a city for Silicon Valley billionaires unveiled the first renderings of its plans late Thursday – even as local officials vow to block the utopian techie metropolis from ever becoming a reality. The artistic renderings from Flannery Associates and its parent company, dubbed “California Forever,” included idyllic sketches of children riding bikes on tree-lined streets, kayakers traversing a calm river and people fishing along a beautiful waterway with mansions stacked on a scenic, hilly backdrop. The project’s organizers — backed by tech titans including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and...