Foxconn designs vs. deliverables

The story of Wisconsin's recruitment of Foxconn to Racine County is complicated and incomplete. It includes a CEO running for president of Taiwan and President with his own history of eminent domain abuse.  I won't try to explain it all here, but the WSJ has a new look this week. It includes some threats of eminent domain abuse:

"The village bought hundreds of pieces of property, holding out the possibility of enforcing eminent domain. It worked out deals with Racine County, the water authority and the power company to bring services to the site. The state legislature agreed to bypass some permitting processes, letting Foxconn fill wetlands without getting an environmental-impact statement. The state received a $160 million federal grant to help expand Interstate 94 a decade ahead of schedule."

One of the other issues is where the water for the project will come from. Urban Milwaukee asks whether the plant merits permission for a water diversion, as it straddles the line between the Mississippi and Great Lakes Basins.

Reply All recorded an episode of their podcast on the project.

A local paper reports that the really futuristic stuff is still coming, next year.

But The Verge looks at this asking how anyone is taking these seriously:

"The secrecy and vagueness are frustrating to critics. How do you prove that Foxconn won’t build an enormous LCD factory during an industry glut or create a research campus larger than MIT in rural Wisconsin other than by pointing out that experts — and even, occasionally, Foxconn executives — say it makes no sense?"

But to really understand the sales pitch, you have to see the designs that were proposed for the Wisconn Valley properties. Racine County has shared this video which captures the vision. And it raises the frequent concerns about the difference between the sci-fi representations and buildable realities.