An informational meeting was held in Tunbridge on the 18th of August about David Hall’s ongoing efforts to create a futuristic community called New Vista. [There is a video of the meeting below and posted by Nicole Antal on the DailyUV.]
No doubt the Tunbridge gathering will be one of many meetings held over time as the Utah resident, Hall buys up land and pursues his utopian dream that happens to target four area towns. His ultimate goal is a radically designed high density residential community with a population of 15-20,000. The design includes plans for high-tech toilets that monitor a resident’s health and robotic storage systems that allow furniture to play hide-and-seek. […] The key concept of a NewVistas community is that a resident’s apartment would need to transform itself several times a day because each person would have only 200 square feet of living space.
The genesis of the plan has roots in the Mormon (Church of the Latter Day Saints, LDS) teachings of Joseph Smith, but the church recently has denied any involvement or endorsement of the project. A recent article in the LDS-owned newspaper, Deseret News, makes that clear and accurately reports the reaction here in Vermont:
“[…] in the rural slice of Vermont where Hall has focused much of his land acquisition, his scheme has landed like a dead cow falling out of the sky.”
Well, if a dead cow were to fall out of the sky, it had better not land in New Vista!
Can you imagine those 15 to 20,000 people around February 15 of the third year at New Vista when the ‘new’ had worn off and all they had to look forward to was two more months of Vermont winter in 200-square feet of personal space, idly toying with their robotic furniture and ironically flushing the toilet over and over again?
Of course it’s easy to lampoon, but at least the guy has constructed a somewhat practical vision of how a world with unrelenting population growth would have to be accommodated in order to ensure a sustainable quality of life. Not a world I’d care to inhabit, but my generation is going the way of the Dodo so it isn’t for me to judge.
You’ve got to wonder how this idea would have been received if it had been proposed by someone without a distinct religious bias.
I wonder if New Vista might have been received just a little better if it had been proposed by someone with better people skills.
A month or so after reportedly hiring big-time Montpelier PR man Kevin Ellis to help smooth out the rough edges locally, he blurts out this zinger: “I’m not running for office and I’m not trying to be a missionary, so I don’t care what people think,” Hall said. “I’m looking for long-term good.”
Hall may be able to design one heck of toilet but his people skills seem to begin and end there.
Yes, sadly, to do ‘long term good’ in a way which directly involves tens of thousands of people, you’ve got to care what people think.
Yes, Sue’s absolutely correct! When anyone attempts to sell anything, whether a religion, product, home or way of life like NewVista, they’ve got to win people over by actually caring what they think!! Hall can’t expect thinking people to buy into his way of life, simply because he’s got a bunch of millions to throw around buying up more properties and doing more planning, research and development. Hall is wasting his time and money if he doesn’t care what future residents might think about his NewVista utopia. They don’t and never will want such a way of life, many steps down from Vermonter’s current way of life, which they love and appreciate! Money can’t and won’t change hearts and love of the current way of life.
David Hall is not a Mormon. His ancestors were. His project is not in anyway similar to Joseph’s vision, which is totally different and is for the future. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( Mormon), and those of us who have found out about this are totally disgusted. Listening to more details of the project, first had me laughing hysterically, and then horrified me. He is a control freak, and delusional. His wife and children are against this project, and his wife is putting their personal assets into her possession and files taxes separately from her husband. His children have no interest. And his posing as a Mormon and saying that his plan is exactly the same as the paper he showed is a lie.
The single-minded control freak determination of Hall’s planning coupled with what seems to be bottomless funds are a bigger concern than any religious issue to me.
But the fact that Hall chose Joseph Smith’s birthplace for New Vista ground zero must indicate some degree of attachment in his own mind.
Our church is opposed to what he is doing. I live in Provo, Utah, and as we are learning more about this, we are highly opposed to it. It totally disgusts me and is very frightening.
I was mistaken. At one time he was a Mormon, but did something terrible to an elderly lady in a chapel that he was in charge of. We are trying to figure out if he is still a member. Whether or not he is, I feel that the way he secretly buys up property, without the knowledge of those who live in Vermont, and other places, such as in Utah, shows that he should not be trusted. What he has done is repulsive to me, and several of us are discussing what we might be able to do about it here, where I live.
Members of the LDS religion value freedom for all. This Utopia, suggested by Hall, sounds like a jail. No one can ever leave because no one is allowed to have money, nor transportation. Say goodbye to camping trips, Disneyland trips, or even swimming and outdoor fun for children. What about traveling to visit family outside of the community?
I could see this type of set up working for people who need a temporary place to live. But even then, there is no room for personal growth, such as getting a college degree, that would allow a person to get a good job and leave if they wanted to. How would a person save up money when you are paid in food and 200sqft of living space. Has anyone read, The Giver???
What about going to church? How would the schools be run? Are there even schools available? Are there indoor and outdoor playgrounds, and biking trails for children? Would children be allowed out of the community for field trips? Where would the money for excursions come from?
What happens if children, the elderly, or other members of the community are abused as they were in the cult in Utah?
This Utopia sounds like isolation surrounded by too many people to me. If I wanted to be isolated, I’d at least want some land between me and the next person.
The thing that worked best when the Mormon Pioneers settled in Utah was when each family was given an acre of land to do what they wanted with it. People could trade goods with each other, and they had a storehouse for the extra food and things, which was used to help those who didn’t have enough.
I agree with Sue, that this plan makes Hall sound like an extremely narcissistic and controlling person. He gets to go around in his helicopters, and jets, and cars while everyone in his communities work for his vision without the possibility of individual gain for it’s residents. He is setting himself up as a king. We don’t want kings in America.
This type of set up only works with a fair and loving God in charge. Even God, the greatest of all, promises those who love Him, a mansion to live in (after we die), gifts of every kind, personal growth, and freedom; not 200sqft of living space and a restricted diet, in exchange for free labor.
I really thing he is delusional. To me it desecrates that place. The city of Zion plat is nothing like that at all. It has houses with gardens along streets, it has temple in those orange spots in the middle. It is not controlled like what this man is proposing. It is frightening to all of us that he claims it is like what Joseph Smith had planned, and that people believe him when he says that. It is nothing like it at all. This entire matter just totally horrifies those of us who are members of our church. I saw the picture of the plan a few years ago, and it gave me the creeps then. In the past week, a few of us have been learning more and more about it, and we want to stop what he is doing.
I moved to Utah several years ago. The streets are set up differently here. I am actually a native of Connecticut, who has moved around quite a bit. So it took me awhile to understand the street system that was designed by Brigham Young, when the area was first settled. It is like a grid.
So, there is a temple in the middle of the streets going East-West, and North and South
The first street that is North or South of the temple, would be called 100 North or 100 South. The next ones would be 200 North or South and so on.
On the East or West side of the temple, the streets run North and South. So you would have 100 E, 200 E, or One hundred West, and so on.
Once you understand it you can find a house easily. An address for a house here might be 150 N, 255 E. It took me 2 years to grasp it.
So Joseph’s Smiths idea is based upon this grid system. There are streets and sidewalks, with houses that have their own gardens, along all of the streets. There are temples in those yellow places in the middle of the plan. There is also something that we call a Bishop’s Storage House. And there are administrative offices. Our church has so many supplied stocked in the main storage house that we constantly send out supplies of all types to any place where there is an emergency. We do it for everyone all over the world. We do not discriminate against anyone. We tithe 10% of our income which helps to build chapels around the world. And we personally make donations that are used to build up these supplies that can be sent out to help others in times of need. Many members work on our welfare farms picking, bottling and packing everything. There are professional members who go to countries and give needed help for free. Even individuals do things on their own or in groups to help others around the world.
There is freedom, and you are not locked into some weird, controlled system. It looks l a well designed neighborhood that has streets, houses with their own gardens, and temples in the middle.. It is based upon something sacred, that I don’t want to talk about in public. But you can actually google “city of Zion Plat,” and find out about it. But it is totally an LDS concept that will not happen for a very long time. He is lieing when he claims that he is the only person who has studied this document. Many of our scholars have written about it.
I and others would be happy to sign your petition.
Green Mountain Daily is a political news and commentary blog and not associated with any anti-New Vista groups or a petition.
Stop New Vistas website of this a local anti-New Vista facebook page might the place to look for or ask about a petition or more information