“If they want a new city, San Jose is ripe. Fix what’s there," suggested a Solano County rancher. : Silicon Valley tech elites have their reasons for wanting to build a new city near San Francisco. For starters, they’re fed up with the crime, drug markets, and homeless encampments—not to mention the sky-high housing costs and flight of companies from downtown. With that in mind, a group of them have spent nearly $1 billion buying up land in Solano County, about 60 miles outside San Francisco.