Mark Zuckerberg gifts neighbors noise-canceling headphones in response to nonstop construction on 11 properties: 'He's been finding loopholes'

The once-quiet, neighborly enclave of Crescent Park in Silicon Valley's Palo Alto has been turned upside down as Mark Zuckerberg has snatched up properties and engaged in massive, disruptive construction projects, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, neighbors and local officials alike have been left baffled at how this all could have happened in their once-peaceful neighborhood.

"He's been finding loopholes around our local laws and zoning ordinances," Greer Stone, a Palo Alto City Council member, told the Times. "We should never be a gated, gilded city on a hill where people don't know their neighbors."

Zuckerberg has purchased 11 properties in an effort to amass the land necessary for a massive compound, paying out at least $110 million in the process, according to the Times. 

As a result, neighbors said that Zuckerberg has subjected them to endless construction noise, security cameras pointed at their properties, and even security guards who harass them for walking on public sidewalks. 

Peter Baltay, a local resident who sat on the city's review board, said members of Zuckerberg's security force confronted him while he was reviewing a potential project site from a public space. 

According to Baltay, a security guard questioned what Baltay was doing while standing on the sidewalk.

"I said, 'I'm standing on the sidewalk looking at this project for review,'" Baltay told the Times. "He said, 'Well, we'd appreciate it if you could move on.'

"I was pretty shocked by that," Baltay added. "It's a public sidewalk!"

While a spokesperson for Zuckerberg assured the Times that the multibillionaire cares about his neighbors and has remained in compliance with local rules and regulations, the facts have suggested otherwise. 

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For example, Zuckerberg appeared to have used one of the homes he purchased to operate a private school that employed six adults, four of whom were teachers. Such a use would be in violation of local land-use ordinances, the Times reported.

In response to his neighbors' complaints, the Times reported that Zuckerberg has, at times, made modest accommodations, some of which have appeared condescending if not downright insulting. 

For instance, rather than curb the noise from construction and frequent parties at the property, Zuckerberg decided to give his neighbors free noise-canceling headphones, according to the Times. 

Zuckerberg's reported bull-in-a-china-shop behavior in the once-quiet bedroom community has provided yet another example of the ultrawealthy engaging in behavior seemingly without any consideration for their impact on others. 

From the heavily polluting megayachts that billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison have flaunted, to Elon Musk's highly damaging foray into government, many of the megarich give off the appearance of being unrestricted by the societal rules and basic sense of decency to which others adhere.

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