Elon Musk: Tell your friends to consider moving to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, ‘Starbase’
FILE: Space enthusiasts look at a prototype of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft at the company’s Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019 in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas. The Starship spacecraft is a massive vehicle meant to take people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)
Testing on staging11
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — As Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched another test flight Tuesday morning, the Tesla CEO is also asking people to consider a test flight of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley area — where Musk is currently attempting to incorporate the city of “Starbase, Texas.”
In a tweet Tuesday, Musk said: “Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so! SpaceX’s hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly.”
The city of “Starbase” would be located in an unincorporated area called Boca Chica Village, where SpaceX’s facilities are currently located.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino previously said of the plans: “If SpaceX and Elon Musk would like to pursue down this path, they must abide by all state incorporation statutes. Cameron County will process any appropriate petitions in conformity with applicable law.”
On Monday, Musk also announced a significant donation to Cameron County and the city of Brownsville: $20 million for Cameron County schools and $10 million to revitalize Brownsville’s downtown.
Tesla in Texas
Meanwhile, south Texas isn’t the only Lone Star State area getting Muskified.
Rapid construction is underway in the Del Valle area of southeast Austin where Tesla, Inc. is slated to open a massive manufacturing “gigafactory” as early as May 1. The factory will build Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck pickup, in addition to other products.
The company will build on a 2,100-acre tract in Travis County and will get more than $60 million in tax breaks from the county and a local school district.
In a Travis County-funded “performance agreement,” analyst Jon Hockenyos found that the plant would create at least 5,000 middle-skill jobs and could possibly add over 4,000 new non-Tesla jobs due to secondary effects.
Hockenyos says that the unemployment rate in Travis County “skyrocketed” from 2.2% to 12.4% in April 2020. He says when taking furloughs and reduced hours into consideration, the real unemployment rate is likely closer to 25%.