Billion Dollar Tech Company Set out to Build a Utopian California City Might Be Compromised
California Forever - California Forever was created to bring back the California Dream. We want to do that by building a new community, solar farms, and a greenbelt of agriculture and habitat in eastern Solano County. Doing so would bring thousands of good paying jobs, new paths to middle-class home ownership in safe, walkable neighborhoods, new sources of clean energy, and stronger county tax base to fund essential services for every resident of Solano County.
Today I learned about a fun little place called California Forever. It all started back in 2017 when a group of Silicon Valley tech millionaires had an idea. Their idea was to buy up thousands of acres of land in beautiful Solano County California, and build the perfect Californian community.
But what will the perfect California community look like? What does the perfect California day entail? I can only imagine. You wake up every morning at the crack of dawn to a real life rooster screaming at the top of his lungs outside your bedroom window. But not in annoying way. In a cool, makes for a cute Instagram post kind of way. You walk downstairs and cook yourself a delicious breakfast of bacon & eggs made from branches, and grass fed toast browned to perfection in your solar powered toaster. Then you hop on your breakless bicycle and ride off to your 7-figure job at your friend's start-up. He invented an app that allows you to vote for Joe Biden every day. It made $800 million in the first week. You work all morning from an exercise ball before taking the afternoon off to protest the construction of a Children's Hospital. They're trying to build it on a thriving ant hill, and you simply wont stand for the displacement of ants. After the protest you enjoy dinner with your lesbian book club, drink 12 Xanax & tonics, then bike home blacked out drunk and wake up the next morning to zero consequences.
That sounds perfect. Unfortunately, the dream of a California utopia has hit a bit of a snafu. It's come to the U.S. Government's attention that the architects of California Forever may be in bed with the Chinese.
NY Post - A planned utopian city in California continues to face a high-stakes probe by a US national security panel – and state politicians still aren’t satisfied that the secretive project isn’t linked to China.
Since 2017, a little-known firm called Flannery Associates has stealthily bought up nearly $1 billion in land next to Travis Air Force Base, sparking alarms on Capitol Hill that a foreign entity could be backing the project for nefarious purposes.
Has California Forever been compromised by Chinese funds? How could that be possible? These Silicon Valley millionaires want nothing more that to create a thriving self-sustaining community. A community for Californian's, by Californians...
Well actually... it's more of a community for Californian's, by some dude named Jan Sramek from the Czech Republic.
Not to imply that Flannery Associates CEO Jan Sramek of the Czech Republic would be anything less than trustworthy. I'm sure Jan and his billion dollar company have of a track record of doing business ethically. I'm sure they've never been accused of anything nefarious, or been compared to the mob in any way shape or form.
NY Post - Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif), who previously blasted Flannery for using “strong-arm mobster techniques” to acquire land from local farmers, told The Post that the firm’s explanation to date is “only half of the story” – and claimed the project bears the hallmarks of a “patient” foreign investment scheme.
“To say it’s ‘American money’ is not a complete explanation of who is the investor,” Garamendi said. “I’ve been around long enough to understand the way foreign money – legitimate and illegitimate – is invested in the United States. Usually in an LLC, in a real estate transaction.”
Ok… well I guess there was that one time they were accused of shaking down local farmers and taking their land like Christopher Columbus pillaging in the Bahamas. But you know what they say, "If you want to build a California utopia, you gotta displace a few farmers with Chinese money." You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet. The ends justify the means.
I hope that Jan Sramek gets himself out of this silly little mix up, and someday gets to live out the California dream he's been envisioning since he was a young boy in a small Czech village. A place where, in California Forevers' words, children will grow up and never leave.
California Forever - Our goal is to make sure that when that question is asked in 5 years, the vast majority of Solano parents say that their children are staying in Solano County, because everything they need to live a great life is right here.
That's what any good cult leader parent dreams of. That their children grow up in a self-sustaining community and never bother setting out on their own and learning about the world for themselves. How about you mind your own business U.S. Government. Let Jan Sramek cook. I'm sure nothing bad is going to happen.