SpaceX launch site likely to become Texas’ next city after today’s election

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BROWNSVILLE — Texas may have a new city by the end of Saturday.

About 300 South Texas residents near Boca Chica Beach — mostly SpaceX employees — will decide whether to incorporate their neighborhood, known as Starbase, into a full-fledged city.

SpaceX is Elon Musk’s space technology company, which has the mission of colonizing Mars. The company has used the beach area since 2014.

The company has spurred development, and hopes to urbanize the area even more after Starbase is made a city. At the same time, it has enraged some neighbors who argue the company has cut public access to a popular beach and is destroying the natural ecosystem.

Voting ends today, May 3, as Texans across the state cast ballots in local elections.

The decision here at the southernmost tip of Texas has been months in the making. Given that most of the people voting on the matter of Starbase are SpaceX employees, the outcome is all but assured.

And the new city and its leaders — three people are running unopposed to form Starbase’s first board of commissioners — will be tasked with building the city from the ground up. Many first steps to establishing a city are outlined in state law. However, given Musk’s ethos, the city could try to chart a different path than a traditional municipality.

A sleepy — high turnout — election

Traffic came to a standstill along State Highway 4 outside of Brownsville on Friday morning.

A rocket, its massive hull perched carefully on a moving platform, inched its way to the main SpaceX facility down the road. There, hundreds of construction workers milled about the small village next to the facility, putting up fences, laying down new roads and building more tiny homes for employees.

At the end of the road is the beach, where families spent the afternoon fishing, playing with their dogs, and watching the surf. A couple from Switzerland who traveled here just to see SpaceX took selfies.

Such is life near Boca Chica Beach, a stretch of wild sand and surf sandwiched between South Padre Island and the Rio Grande. From here, Elon Musk’s SpaceX blasts rockets into space. Eventually, Starship is meant to take humans to Mars.

But with all the commotion, there is little trace that an election is happening at all. On the side of the road near the main building, just a few small red signs pointing to the voting site provided any clue. One placard, sitting amidst a construction site, was obscured by a tarpaulin.

There’s been little activity at the on-site polling place during early voting. Just 180 people have cast a ballot so far.

In most Rio Grande Valley communities, that number would signal a disappointing turnout. But here, it means 64% of the 283 registered voters cast a ballot during the early voting period that ended on Tuesday. More residents are expected to vote on Saturday.

Most of the eligible voters are employed with SpaceX or are relatives of employees. Indeed, an analysis by the Texas Newsroom found that at least two-thirds of the eligible voters either work for SpaceX or signed the petition calling for the election.

SpaceX officials estimate they own all but 10 of the properties in the area. Those who won’t work for the company were reticent to weigh in on the vote Friday. Two, reached at their homes in Boca Chica Village, declined to comment.

What comes next 

Also on the ballot on Saturday are the three candidates for mayor and the two city commissioner positions. All three are running unopposed. Though the candidates have not publicly laid out a vision for the city, people associated with SpaceX have made it clear they want the community to grow to allow for more residents to move into the area. Currently, just under 500 people live in the community.

Becoming a governmental entity should provide more insight into the interests of the residents, and possibly the company, because cities are subject to the state’s transparency laws.

The commissioners will be required to hold at least one public meeting per month, and government records can be requested for public inspection, though some exceptions apply.

Incorporation could also give the community more authority over the beach. A proposed state law seeks to give the city of Starbase the authority to close access to Boca Chica on weekdays.

The bill, Senate Bill 2188, was approved by the Senate but still needs a vote by the full House.

Denisce Palacios, a community organizer, views the incorporation of Starbase as a blatant attempt to erase the existence of Brownsville, a border community with more than 190,000 residents, and other nearby towns.

“The people who originally lived near Boca Chica were told that they needed to move because it was dangerous, only to develop and have SpaceX employees move in,” Palacios said. “The creation of a SpaceX company town gives greater power and more of a say in what the Rio Grande Valley should look like, when in reality, they’re all people from out of state who only care about their company, not our community.”

A coalition of community and environmental groups has repeatedly pushed back on SpaceX’s efforts to increase its footprint and the frequency of its rocket launches. Together, they’ve filed lawsuits attempting to stop SpaceX’s water discharges and protested bills like SB 2188.

“We see Starbase becoming a town as another move towards them escalating their dangerous SpaceX rocket activities,” said Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, one of the groups that joined the lawsuits.

She worries that the city might use eminent domain to continue taking over Boca Chica Beach and that the community would completely lose access to it.

Hinojosa added that because of the candidates’ ties to SpaceX, Musk would effectively be in charge of the town, a possibility that concerns her given the work he has done for the Trump administration.

“Elon Musk has proven to be unfit to govern,” she said. “The people who are running for office for Starbase are connected to SpaceX. The real boss there would be Elon Musk.”

Anthony Soriano was born and raised in Brownsville. Standing on the beach with his dog the day before the election, he said he feels split about SpaceX’s presence here — he appreciates the jobs the company has brought to the area, but doesn’t necessarily think anything needs to change.

He said if he could cast a ballot in the election, he would vote no. But it’d be close.

“I would say, leave it as is,” he said. “But change happens and people have to be welcoming to it.”

Neither SpaceX nor the candidates running for office have returned multiple interview requests.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

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