Why build a new city from scratch in California, one of the hardest places in the country to build?

For @CAForever founder @jansramek, the answer is simple: California is worth fighting for.

Can't believe the Sacramento Bee cut my 76-word tribute to California's past greatness.

C'mon California, let's build again!

Brian Hanlon (@hanlonbt), CEO of @cayimby, in today's @sacbee_news:

"Founding cities is one of California's oldest traditions...every place Californians now call home began as someone's audacious plan...the real question is: when did we decide this founding spirit had expired?"

Lost projects like this, combined with housing abundance, are basically the only way to revive the California middle class; they create many thousands of good jobs, both directly and indirectly.

Texas' pro-growth disposition means that they far more of these advanced pay well, and they permit the housing needed to ensure that all that wealth turns into a high standard of living. The benefits of the growth are broad-based; hence why millions of Americans are moving there.

Conversely, California is becoming an economy of tech insider IPO lottery winners in eight-figure shacks, presiding over housing insecure poor immigrants who serve them, cleaning their homes and mowing their lawns; a vast reserve army of labor living in increasingly dire circumstances.

Americans see these two visions of the future of our country, and they don't like what they see in California. Democrats, both in California and nationally, are delusion if they think this is politically sustainable.

In a parallel world with better California governance, the San Francisco Bay Area or Greater Los Angeles would have been obvious candidates for the high-tech manufacturing boom. Instead, the American Pearl River Delta seems to be happening here.

Friendly challenge accepted!

California is too beautiful, too important, too full of incredible people and institutions to give up on.

There is nothing like it in the world.

“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.”

🇺🇲 🌁 ⛰️🌅

1/ "Give electricians and welders degrees...if you can get a degree in social anthropology, you should get a degree for being an electrician or a welder. It's way more complicated!"

@jansramek points out the obvious truth that's been hiding in plain sight all along.

2/ TLDR: make making stuff cool again.

“There’s a real opportunity to double down on not just the heart behind this project, but the vision. Becoming the place that doesn’t just prove California can still build things, but becomes known as the place to go build if you’re trying to tackle California’s biggest challenges.”

Read the full story, by @laura_waxee & @SophiaBollag, sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

3/3

This is all in the spirit of what Ed Glaeser and I urged in the @latimes last December.

latimes.com/opinion/story/…

2/3

Some hopeful housing news in a week of disappointments:

Negotiations are underway for a trailer bill to expedite CEQA litigation over @CAForever, and, critically, remove the local "LAFCO" and revenue-sharing veto points (in favor of binding arbitration).

1/3

Solano has the chance to show that California can still do big things.

On June 11th, 200+ union workers who want to build the next great American city showed up, asking elected officials to approve the Suisun Expansion and Solano shipyard and break ground, NOW.

About 18 months ago, I shared my excitement about California Forever and Esmeralda with an elder member of the Stanford Alumni Real Estate Council (SREC).

I was told these projects would NEVER happen.

Fast forward to this week: my friends @jansramek and @devonzuegel headlined treat in Healdsburg, organized around the theme of placemaking. 😁

Ambitious urbanist founders are shifting the Overton window.

Urbanist Ventures is here to find and support them before they are popular.

We're excited to announce that Jan Sramek, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of California Forever, will speak at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum.

Housing, permitting, urban development, and the question of whether America can still build the things we need — these are t conversations on American economic life, and they're central to RNEF's agenda this year. Mark your calendar for Friday, May 29 to hear this conversation live from #RNEF2026.

📅Register for the livestream: reaganfoundation.org/events/2026-re…

@jansramek @CAForever

America's fastest-growing cities are all in exurbs, and that's not going to change.

Urbanists have two choices:

1) pretend this is not the case

(2) recognize that the only way to make these projects better is to invent and prove a new, different model, like @CAForever.

I revisited California Forever this week with the Abundance Network, and I've never been more excited to build the next great American city. 🇺🇸

It's time to reopen the urban frontier.

A place where everyone who has been priced out of walkable urbanism will have a chance.

A who build the homes can buy the homes.

A place where hard-earned dollars go further than they have in California in a long time.

A place where the default is growth, not stagnation.

Let's build.

8/
Full analysis in this week's CHANGING LANES, including the cold-start problem, the transfer-penalty fix, and the two gaps I think are still unfilled:

changinglanesnewsletter.substack.com/p/california-f…

7/
@CAForever is an audacious attempt to build a city with all the virtues, and few of the vices, of a century of American auto-centric design

It deserves attention and success