Who: Jan Sramek is the Founder & CEO of California Forever, a company that acquired over 60,000 acres of rangeland an hour north of San Francisco, and that's working on building a new walkable, sustainable city for up to 400,000 people on about 13,500 acres of that land, surrounded by greenbelt of renewable energy and agriculture.
What: Ask anyone you know to list their most beloved neighborhoods in America. The odds are, they will name places built about a century ago. Even if you then press them and ask for their favorite neighborhoods built in the last 40 years, most people will come up blank. What happened? Why did we stop building beautiful places, and what can we do about it?
The reasons here are not easily explained, and as much as many urbanists would like that to be the case, it's not clear that "blame the car" is the full answer. For example, attempts to build new urbanist communities and towns have often fallen short of expectations when it comes to design and character.
I have some ideas for how we got here, but I'm not actually sure I have the right answers. This session will be an interactive discussion about our favorite neighborhoods, what made them special, whether any new places come close, and what would it take to build an amazing new neighborhood.
At California Forever, we really care about getting this right, and we hope you'll come chat with us and share your take on this topic.
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