Mark Zuckerberg Had Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. Neighbors Revolted

Billionaire compound in a dense neighborhood

• Commenters highlight that the billionaire bought up many adjacent properties in a normal single-family neighborhood, turning it into a walled-off compound.
• Neighbors report years of noisy construction, heavy staff traffic, intrusive private security, and harassment on public sidewalks.
• Several people question why he didn’t just build in more secluded, wealthy areas nearby (Woodside, Atherton, Portola Valley, etc.) where such a compound would be less disruptive and more typical.

“Regular people” vs millionaires vs billionaires

• There’s a long argument over whether neighbors are “regular people” given that many own $4–5M+ homes and are doctors, lawyers, executives, or professors.
• Some say these are clearly elites (often decamillionaires) and not representative of average Americans.
• Others argue many bought decades ago, live upper‑middle‑class rather than jet‑set lives, and are still far closer to normal people than to billionaires.
• Multiple comments note the massive gulf between even well‑paid professionals and billionaires, both in wealth ratio and lived experience.

Illegal school, zoning, and NIMBYism

• Non‑US readers ask why an unpermitted school is a big deal if it “just educates kids.”
• Replies cite zoning, licensing, safety inspections, traffic, parking, and commercial use in a residential area, plus the fact that this was an elite private school serving the billionaire’s circle, not the neighborhood.
• Some frame neighbors’ objections as reasonable; others see them as classic Bay Area NIMBYism, noting that residents often fight even new schools on old school sites and broadly resist new development.

Wealth, entitlement, and impunity

• Several comments use this story to illustrate billionaire entitlement and a belief that laws are for “little people.”
• Others zoom out to anger at broader US oligarchic dynamics: political corruption, military spending, and neglect of social needs.
• A few treat the conflict cynically as “billionaire vs millionaires,” with some saying both sides deserve each other.