I guess we’re all assuming this will pass.
Angela Piazza/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS
Nearly 10 years after SpaceX, Elon Musk’s effort to colonize Mars, began operating in a small community in Cameron County just a few miles inland of the Gulf Coast, employees who live there and other residents will vote next month to incorporate their Starbase community as Texas’ newest city.
If the majority of them vote yes on May 3, the leaders they elect at the same time will have the responsibility of creating a city from the ground up.
What does it take to have a fully functioning city?
A few of Starbase’s first steps as a newborn city can be anticipated because state law sets certain requirements for raising and spending public money and how governing bodies can operate.
Texas generally gives municipalities a lot of discretion on how to manage and govern themselves, according to Alan Bojorquez, an attorney who specializes in city governance.
“The reality is, Texas cities under the law are not required to do much,” Bojorquez said.
He emphasized that much of what the new city of Starbase will do will ultimately depend on what services and programs city officials and residents want the city to provide.
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See here for the background, and read on to see the things that cities are required to do. I’m going to guess that 1) Starbase City will do the bare minimum of those things, at least at first, and 2) yes, this will indeed pass, likely be a wide margin. For those of you who live there, and especially those of you who live there and are skeptical about this whole thing, I wish you the best.