So many things are wrong in this blog post. - Palo Alto isn't in San Francisco ("Palo Alto in San Francisco") - The value of Manhattan is because there's a la

So many things are wrong in this blog post. - Palo Alto isn't in San Francisco ("Palo Alto in San Francisco") - The value of Manhattan is because there's a large pool of people who can commute there using mass transit, while Palo Alto isn't even connected to Bart. If you ignore that, then even a random plot of land in Wisconsin could be worth one trillion - Large scale development requires a critical mass of employable people and employers; it's unclear whether building a ton of skyscrapers and apartments would induce enough demand on both sides to make things work. This is the same problem that the new city in Solano county has. - Since development would happen over time, there's a lot of value for a plot holder to maximize their gains by holding on as long as possible since their land value would go up as the surrounding area increases in value; if every plot owner does that, no development happens, and no increase in value is to be had by anyone. This is why the land in Solano county had to be acquired before announcing their plans to build a new city there.