Earlier this month, I highlighted the fact that one of Obama’s closest billionaire buddies, Silicon Valley oligarch, Vinod Kholsa, had aggressively moved to block access to the very popular Northern California destination Martins Beach. The post was titled, Silicon Valley Billionaire Buys Popular Beach and Then Blocks Public Access, in which I wrote:
Vinod Kholsa, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and well known Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is at the center of a lawsuit revolving around the popular Northern California destination Martins Beach, located six miles south of Half Moon Bay. The beach has always been popular with families and surfers alike, and the prior owners had always provided access for a $5 fee. Mr. Kholsa has taken a different approach, which has consisted of putting up a locked gate to block the beach’s only road access point and painting over a billboard welcoming people to the beach.
At the time, some expressed disbelief that such a good so-called “liberal” would take this action, but it is now clear these people were in serious oligarch denial. We now learn from the SF Gate that:
There had, until now, been a note of uncertainty about why beach owner Vinod Khosla decided to kick people off Martins Beach, but the billionaire venture capitalist made his motives pretty clear, according to this Chronicle story by Melody Gutierrez.
The green tech titan does not want the hoi polloi touching what he believes is his sand, tidelands or surf.
“Martin’s beach is private property, including the sandy beach and the submerged tidelands seaward of the mean high tide,” argued lobbyists hired by Khosla in a letter to state lawmakers. “There are no existing ‘public’ lands to which access is needed.”
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