WIRED REPORT: Fandom in politics, the illegal Zuckerberg school, and Nepal’s divisive revolution

Leah Weiger: Zoe, I am obsessed with this story. Before we continue, I think it’s really important to say that Carolyn, the wonderful reporter for this story at your work desk, obtained 1,665 pages of documents about the dispute over Zuckerberg’s house. This story is canon now.

Zoe Schiffer: Carolyn Haskins is a total star. Our fact-checking team literally cried when I asked them. They were like, “Wait, sorry, how many documents are we looking at?” I was like “yes”.

Leah Weiger: Shout out to the WIRED research team.

Zoe Schiffer: definitely. I guess we should just say that the school is named after one of the Zuckerberg family’s chickens. It’s called Beijing Ben School.

Leah Weiger: I mean, hearing you say this, I know you’re serious, but again.

Zoe Schiffer: So, the Crescent City neighborhood in Palo Alto, where the Zuckerberg family lives, is, as you can imagine, some of the best real estate in the entire country. It’s full of these amazing homes, and lots of green space. Mark Zuckerberg has expanded his presence over the years in this ultra-luxe neighborhood. The plot of land where the Zuckerberg family lives has expanded to include 11 previously separate properties. This is so funny and this is just a nightmare. If you live on the street, you paid anything, $5 million for your house, and suddenly all your neighbors are Mark Zuckerbergs.

Leah Weiger: It is important to note that not all of them are connected either. I don’t quite understand what that means. Do they walk across a neighbor’s porch to get to their horse’s pool? What does this mean?

Zoe Schiffer: We have more questions. We have to Google Earth this. I think there are some holes in this story that we need to fill. The expansion initially became a concern for Mark Zuckerberg’s neighbors, in 2016, over concerns that his purchases were raising the market too high. But after about five years, neighbors began to notice that a school was operating outside Zuckerberg’s compound. Therefore, doing so without a permit is illegal, at least under the area’s residential zoning code. So, naturally, neighbors began alerting the city. Carolyn Haskins, the reporter on the story, obtained more than a thousand documents, as I said, summarizing the resulting fight between neighbors and city authorities, arguing that they felt like the Zuckerbergs were getting special treatment.