Previous examples of forming a new city that “California Forever” would have to consider in debates

Previous examples of forming a new city that “California Forever” would have to consider in debates

So far as of 2024 California is waiting for the direction congress, courts and California State Legislature over the “New City” approval debate in Solano County, CA which is halfway from both Sacramento and San Francisco. For some time Solano County, CA has to respond to both the interests of Bay Area and Sacramento commuters over affordable housing and suburban sprawl, respond to statewide issues like climate change related to wildfires, earthquakes, landslides, systemic income inequality + racism rife with allegations of segregation , protecting San Pablo Bay + and security issues from the federal government related to Travis Air Force Base are some of the things the county has to respond to.

The issues surrounding “California Forever” how does making a new city meet the challenges that Solano County has to respond to today and that includes respond to residents that cannot move to another state for fear that they will simply change mortgages and get into a bigger financial issue if they leave the state due to the hype surrounding that one especially the hype surrounding Texas because an investment group decided to hype up places like Austin, Dallas, Houston to California residents without considering the long term effects when one really moves out of the Golden State. In able for us to understand why we need to consider or not we have to look at other places where New cities have either formed or currently in debate in places like the Philippines and the UK for a comparison and how they panned out.

In Clark, Philippines the New Clark City plan is in a multi decade process to put infrastructure, provide housing and bring jobs in the area. The site of the New Clark City is near an Air Force Base, Airport and the around the area where the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo took place. New Clark City is a result of two factors one to make the provinces of Tarlac and Pampanga recover from the 1991 event and to respond to overcrowding from Metro Manila to other parts of the Philippines. New Clark City promises to meet earthquake and typhoon standards on its long term project and also offset some of the jobs away from Metro Manila. Note other parts of the Philippines like Cebu City and Davao City is also aligned with New Clark City to move jobs and housing away from the Metro Manila area to ensure that the country economy and national government and social services does not die off in the event that area faces a major disaster like a 6.9 and above West Valley Fault Quake in the Manila area that is estimated to kill thousands of people. The idea of forming “New Clark City” started in 2012 when Arnel Casanova, former chief of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) floated the idea to the Noynoy Aquino Administration and Philippine Congress as part of the country’s efforts to decentralize the economy and resources. As of 2024 Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), Filinvest, Provincial Governments of Pampanga and Tarlac are building the new city and it will be a multi decade project to attract investors to go to Clark, Cebu City and Davao city for growth to happen in those places to rival Manila’s.

Another Example to consider when examining to build a new city is in the UK. So far there is an ongoing debate to build more neighborhoods and cities in Britain to address a housing crisis. There is an ongoing debate that has a resemblance to what Solano County, California is facing today responding to farmland going to developers and resistance among the current residents that is under debate. On one hand the UK cannot centralize everything in London and on the other hand the country has to spread resources and services to other parts of the country. So far this is currently under debate by the UK Parliament as of 2024. If the UK is to address their housing issues it would require multiple building multiple new medium cities for decades. Also it would have to address the root causes on Nimby politics like Solano County is facing today. All we are saying here is that we the voters need to choose wisely in the 2024 elections or some other place starts complaining that there is a Housing shortage.

We Need to choose wisely in the 2024 elections especially here in California we have to address the needs of people that cannot move to Texas because they are not connected to Venture Capitalists in the Financial District. For some of us we can’t do that because we have to pay off our families mortgage here in California and those options are off because its simply too risky to do so for some of us. Lets hope Solano County and the rest of California make the right decision when it comes to approving a new city and hope the leaders of this proposed city addresses the concerns of the residents. We will do this by taking a closer look on who the next congressional representatives are and the ballot initiatives are surrounding “California Forever” before we make the final decision in November 2024 and all in all hope for the best!