“We love Elon” — The sights of Musk’s south Texas company town
Tributes to Musk and unfinished construction populate the landscape near Starbase.
If you drive around Brownsville, Texas — a city that hosts the SpaceX south Texas launch site, Starbase, and according to Musk, the company’s next headquarters — you’ll get the idea that people here are big fans of Elon Musk.
Brownsville is a city of roughly 200,000 people, nestled in the southern tip of Texas, surrounded by the Rio Grande to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. There’s a mural bearing his face downtown and several space-themed businesses. I went looking for a bust of his distorted face spotted in the area recently, and while I didn’t find it, I did find a pedestal where it may eventually sit.
One spray-painted piece of concrete near the launch site put it simply: “We love Elon.”
The reality is more complicated: some residents resent that the world’s richest man is launching rockets near some of the poorest ZIP codes in the US. SpaceX has been accused of causing environmental damage in the area, a claim the company has denied.
SpaceX employs about 3,400 people in south Texas and in return it’s enjoyed property tax breaks and state funding. In the past 10 years, it’s turned empty land leading up to Boca Chica beach into an industrial park. Unfinished rockets now tower over the beach. There does in fact appear to be construction of an office space, though it’s unclear when the construction began.
The construction and launch site attracts visitors, like myself, who park on the frontage of the road. Signs littered along Boca Chica Boulevard warn you which parts are now private property. (Ironically, SpaceX has been accused of building on private land belonging to Cards Against Humanity.)
As you’re driving toward the launch site it’s easy to forget that you’re sometimes just a few yards away from the Rio Grande. That is, until you drive away from the futuristic launch site and pass through a Border Patrol checkpoint.
