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  • Behold California Forever, Tesla’s Humanoid Robot Pivot, Cities Divided Over Waste Incineration, NASA's Exploration Park

Behold California Forever, Tesla’s Humanoid Robot Pivot, Cities Divided Over Waste Incineration, NASA's Exploration Park

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Editorial Staff
February 02, 2026

 

Here’s our latest look at the news and trends redefining cities and the future of urban development.

You Should Know

  • Work on the $16 billion Hudson River rail tunnel—meant to modernize the Northeast Corridor and support 200,000+ daily commuters—could stop this week because the U.S. Transportation Department withheld federal funding. The tunnel is the centerpiece of the Gateway Program, widely seen as America’s most urgent infrastructure effort now underway.

  • Ten European countries signed the Hamburg Declaration to begin building an interconnected offshore wind power grid in the North Sea that could deliver 100 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2040—enough for roughly 143 million homes.

  • Fully electric car sales exceeded petrol-only vehicle sales in the EU for the first time in December, according to the auto industry group ACEA.

Worth Watching

Top Stories

California Forever: Building the Next Great American City from Scratch

A secretive land-buying effort in Northern California has evolved into one of the country’s most closely watched proposals for a brand-new city.

California Forever, founded by entrepreneur Jan Sramek, has spent years assembling a vast land position in Solano County through its subsidiary, Flannery Associates. The company has bought more than 50,000 acres of farmland, with acquisitions estimated at about $900 million. The site sits between San Francisco and Sacramento.

The project entered public view in August 2023 after what was described as a five-year “stealth campaign.” California Forever has said it kept purchases quiet to avoid speculation, but critics argue the secrecy weakened transparency and trust.

Backers reportedly include Andreessen Horowitz and prominent Silicon Valley investors such as Laurene Powell Jobs, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and the Collison brothers of Stripe.

California Forever is anchored by three core components: Solano Living, the Solano Foundry, and the Solano Shipyard.

Solano Living aims to create the first true walkable city built in America in more than a century. The plan calls for more than 170,000 new homes for up to 400,000 residents over 40 years, spanning a wide range of housing types and price points. Designed around human-scale neighborhoods, it emphasizes slow streets, bike lanes, greenways, and safe spaces where children can walk to school or play independently. The proposal also includes expanding Suisun City, a town of 30,000 in Solano County.

Solano Foundry is a 2,100-acre advanced manufacturing park envisioned as the largest of its kind in the United States, offering up to 40 million square feet of space for frontier technology industries. The goal is to reconnect research and manufacturing by co-locating R&D, skilled labor, and modern facilities near Silicon Valley.

Solano Shipyard, meanwhile, is planned as a massive maritime hub spanning roughly 7,500 acres of waterfront along a federal deep-water ship channel. The project aims to revive West Coast shipbuilding while linking directly to the advanced manufacturing ecosystem at Solano Foundry.

For now, California Forever’s land remains zoned for agriculture under slow-growth rules, so major development would require voter approval. The company withdrew a ballot measure in July 2024 and instead agreed with county officials to prepare an environmental impact report and development framework.

In January, California Forever announced what it called the largest construction labor agreement in U.S. history: a 40-year deal requiring union labor for major projects across nearly 70,000 acres. Signed with the Napa/Solano Building Trades Council and the Northern California Carpenters Union, it covers infrastructure, public works, and large commercial and industrial construction.

California Forever has said it hopes to break ground around 2026, contingent on securing entitlements, voter support, and final regulatory approvals.

Tesla Accelerates Pivot to Humanoid Robot

Tesla is shifting into a higher gear as it moves beyond premium electric vehicles and positions its humanoid robot, Optimus, at the center of its long-term vision.

That pivot comes as the broader humanoid robotics market begins to gain momentum. Counterpoint Research reported that 16,000 humanoid robots were installed globally in 2025, with China—led by startups such as AgiBot and Unitree—accounting for more than four out of five installations. Goldman Sachs estimates that humanoid robot sales could reach $38 billion by 2035.

Tesla has positioned Optimus as a general-purpose robot capable of learning simply by observing humans, making it suitable for both factory work and household tasks. Musk has suggested it could eventually do “anything you want.” As he explained, “You can demonstrate a task, verbally describe a task … even show it a video and it will be able to do that task.” First announced in August 2021, Optimus is now entering its third generation, which Musk says will be unveiled “in a few months.”

Specifications cited in reporting describe Optimus as roughly 5 ft 8 in tall and 125 lb, with the ability to carry 45 lb. The robot relies on AI systems tied to Tesla’s vehicle autonomy stack. Generation 3 hands reportedly feature 22 degrees of freedom, enabling complex, human-like finger movements. In 2024, Musk also suggested Optimus could eventually cost under $30,000—“less than a car.”

Optimus has the potential to dramatically reshape the company’s revenue profile. Selling even half of Musk’s stated near-term annual robot capacity—500,000 units at a $50,000 average selling price—could imply $25 billion in potential sales.

During Tesla’s earnings call last week, Musk said the company will cease production of the Model S and Model X next quarter. Tesla plans to repurpose the Fremont, California factory space previously used for those vehicles into a robot-manufacturing operation capable of producing 1 million Optimus units per year.

For now, Tesla remains predominantly an electric vehicle manufacturer. Its far more popular Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 97% of the company’s 1.59 million deliveries last year. Still, while Fremont will host the first Optimus production line, Musk has indicated that the true scale-up will take place at Gigafactory Texas.

Tesla’s production ambitions extend well beyond California. Musk has said Optimus 4 will be built in Texas “at much higher volume,” and he has previously claimed the Texas facility could eventually support a 10 million-unit-per-year line.

Ultimately, Tesla’s direction is becoming clearer: the company sees “physical AI” as a future platform that could one day stand alongside—or even rival—its traditional EV business.

Burning Trash: Cities Are More Divided Than Ever

Cities don’t have endless places to put trash, and as landfill space tightens, the debate over waste incineration is intensifying.

To understand the controversy, it helps to look at how cities typically dispose of municipal waste. Roughly half of U.S. trash still ends up in landfills. About a third is recycled or composted, while around 12% is combusted through waste-to-energy incineration. The Energy Information Administration reported about 60 waste-to-energy plants operating at the start of 2022, concentrated heavily in the Northeast.

Supporters of waste incinerators argue that these facilities provide major benefits: they dramatically reduce trash volume, generate electricity or steam, and can extend the life of landfills—especially in dense metro areas with limited disposal options.

Critics, however, point to serious downsides, including air pollution and public health impacts. Opponents also argue that expensive long-term incineration contracts can discourage recycling and composting by requiring a steady stream of waste to remain financially viable.

As a result, cities are pursuing very different incineration agendas. Some regions are moving forward with new capacity:

  • Miami-Dade County officials are considering proposals from FCC Environmental Services and Florida Power & Light for the county’s planned mass-burn combustion facility.

  • Minnesota regulators have moved toward classifying incineration as “carbon free,” treating part of the burned waste as biogenic (from paper and food) and counting the electricity produced as offsetting fossil fuel generation, even though the process still emits CO₂.

  • Anchorage is planning a new waste incinerator that could generate 20–30 megawatts of power while extending the region’s landfill capacity as the city faces rising energy costs.

Other regions, meanwhile, are rolling back incineration activity:

  • Philadelphia’s City Council is considering a bill to ban the city from entering new contracts to send trash to incinerators like the Reworld (formerly Covanta) waste-to-energy plant.

  • California has moved away from waste incineration over decades, shutting down its last solid-waste incinerators by the end of 2024 amid air-quality and environmental justice concerns.

  • Oregon’s last remaining incinerator (burning trash and medical waste) closed in January 2025 rather than comply with new emissions monitoring requirements.

NASA’s Exploration Park Prepares for Commercial Liftoff

NASA is charting a fast trajectory for Exploration Park, a major commercial aerospace district beside Houston’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), as the project moves from concept into full-scale development.

One of the most ambitious NASA-adjacent real estate initiatives in the U.S., Exploration Park was formally established in 2024 through an agreement between NASA and the Texas A&M University System. The vision is a 240-acre campus on underused land near JSC, designed to support collaborative aerospace research, advanced manufacturing, and commercial space activity.

JSC itself is NASA’s primary hub for human spaceflight training, research, and mission control operations. Known worldwide by its radio call signs “Mission Control” and “Houston,” the center also has the largest workforce of any NASA facility, with more than 3,000 civil servants and 11,000 contractors on site.

Exploration Park is already gaining significant momentum. At the heart of the development is the $200 million Texas A&M Space Institute, funded by the Texas Space Commission. The institute is intended to serve as a collaboration hub for academic, government, and commercial partners, helping build a pipeline of talent and innovation for the next era of space exploration.

Private-sector involvement is also taking shape. Houston-based KBR has signed on as an anchor tenant and will operate a 45,000-square-foot space food innovation facility focused on nutrition, packaging, and customized food systems for future missions. Meanwhile, ACMI Properties and Griffin Partners are developing a 1.5 million-square-foot innovation campus designed to support U.S. efforts to return to the Moon, reach Mars, and expand orbital capabilities.

Once complete, the park is expected to include 20–22 build-to-suit facilities totaling more than 1 to 1.5 million square feet. Plans call for a mix of R&D labs, clean rooms, office space, and light manufacturing across sectors such as aerospace, robotics, life support systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing.

NASA is now inviting additional private-sector participation. Last week, the agency solicited lease proposals for roughly 180 acres of undeveloped land within the district, offering long-term ground leases with a 20-year base term. Tenants will be responsible for utilities and must propose secure access points that meet NASA’s perimeter requirements, as the site sits within a controlled-access area. Residential development is prohibited.

NASA expects interest from office, factory, storage, assembly, and potentially university-related users—reinforcing its broader goal of expanding commercial access to space and strengthening U.S. aerospace competitiveness.

Full build-out of Exploration Park is targeted for completion in the fourth quarter of 2026.

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