#Sramek

[psramek]

A chapter that discusses using art collaborations for activating new sustainability thinking appears in this Routledge Handbook. Co-authored with INTAC partner Juha Suonpää at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

[blogarteplus]

desde Blog Arte Plus:

Ilustraciones de arquitectura brutalista en República Checa por Jan Šrámek.

[ acceder ]

[richdadpoor]

Silicon Valley Tech Moguls Want to Build a New City in California

When rich people start buying up land, it’s always fairly disturbing. If and when those same people start telling you that they’re going to use the land to make the world a better place, it’d only be natural to feel certifiably creeped out. Unfortunately, this is what’s been happening in northern California, where some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent bigwigs have snatched up a huge amount of…

[3mmet]

Peter Šrámek likes this

Azt álmodtam, hogy Jimmy megjelent az edzőtermi öltözőben és énekelt nekünk.

[beardedmrbean]

OAKLAND, California — The organizers of California Forever, a tech billionaire-backed plan to build a new city outside San Francisco, pulled their initiative from the local Solano County ballot in a surprise move on Monday.

The plan is supported by Bay Area tech investors and venture capitalists, including the co-founders of LinkedIn and Netscape, seeking to transform the wheat fields 50 miles north of San Francisco into a futuristic city.

Organizers hoped to use the ballot measure process to win approval in Solano County more quickly, bypassing much of the red tape and planning requirements typically involved in such projects. The California Forever campaign said it will continue to work on the project and return to the ballot for zoning approval in 2026.

But the withdrawal nevertheless marks a setback for a campaign that has already spent over $2 million to bypass the typical county planning process and rezone nearly 20,000 acres of wheat fields for urban development. It also shows how even campaigns with major resources can run aground in the face of local resistance, with farmers, small-town mayors and recent college graduates banding together in recent months to lobby against it.

Jan Sramek, the CEO and founder of California Forever, said pulling the ballot measure would not impact their “ambitious timeline” to build the new city. He said in a statement they were simply reordering the steps needed to complete the project to allow for more community input, while also arguing California no longer offers the same “opportunity and optimism” that it used to.

His group will now try to push the plans forward through the normal county planning process, which includes negotiating environmental impact reports and development agreements. Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn said California Forever has agreed to reimburse the county for these costs.

“Delaying the vote gives everyone a chance to pause and work together,” Mashburn said in a statement. “With the ballot measure off the table, it will be far easier.”

California politicians skeptical of the project quickly applauded the move and said the county process would allow it to be properly scrutinized. Democratic Rep. John Garamendi, whose district contains Solano County, called the original plan a “pipedream” and said in a statement California Forever’s decision would ensure the community was “sustainable, transparent, and beneficial for all residents.”

State Assemblymember Lori Wilson, also a Democrat representing the area, said the plan for a new city could offer benefits to the county, but only after careful consideration.

“The initiative being pulled is the best outcome for Solano County,” Wilson said. “Now we can properly vet the full impact of the development without lingering ballot deadlines.”

California Forever organizers had tried to soften their approach to the project over the past year, including by rebranding it as the East Solano Plan, amid local resistance and skepticism. They shifted from suing farmers who refused to sell their land for the project to promising to build a state-of-the-art sports complex and new urgent care facilities in the county, among other sweeteners.

That approach seemed to be showing early returns after their plan won the support of the Bay Area Council, a business-backed public policy and advocacy organization, last week.

But local opposition groups argued Monday’s decision showed the project still had an uphill battle to win broader support.

“You can paint it a lot of different ways, as they obviously have, but they pulled their initiative because they knew they weren’t going to win,” said Sadie Wilson, whose regional Greenbelt Alliance nonprofit had led the main opposition group to the plan. “This is a major victory.”

[lesser-known-composers]

Juan de Anchieta (1462 – 1523) - Missa de Nuestra Señora: I. Kyrie ·

The Rose Ensemble : Jordan Sramek

[collapsedsquid]

Two area congressmen who sought for years to find out whether foreign adversaries or investors were behind the buying spree around a U.S. Air Force base vital to national security and the local economy are furious that Flannery kept its identity hidden for so long. The website say 97% of its funding is from U.S. investors and the rest are from the United Kingdom and Ireland. “The FBI, the Department of Treasury, everyone has been doing work trying to figure out who these people are,” U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents much of the county, said this week after meeting with Sramek. “Their secrecy has caused a lot of problems, a lot of time, and a lot of expense.” The investment group said secrecy was required until enough land was purchased, in order to avoid short-term speculation, but that it is now ready to hear from Solano households via a mailed survey and creation of a community advisory board. Past surveys showed parents were most concerned about their children’s future, the website said. [...] In many ways, Solano County is ideal for development. It is 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco and 35 miles (56 kilometers) southwest of California’s capital city of Sacramento. Solano County homes are among the most affordable in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a median sales price of $600,000 last month. But Princess Washington, mayor pro tempore of Suisun City, said residents deliberately decided to protect open space and keep the area around Travis Air Force Base free of encroachment given its significance. She’s suspicious that the group’s real purpose is “to create a city for the elite” under the guise of more housing. “Economic blight is everywhere. So why do you need to spend upwards of a billion dollars to create a brand new city when you have all these other things that can be achieved throughout the Bay Area?” she said. Flannery further infuriated locals in May when it sued several landowners in court, accusing them of conspiring to fix prices for their properties. The company disclosed it had purchased or was under contract to buy about 140 properties for more than $800 million.

DIsappointed that Marc Andreessen doesn't believe in the free market and immediately calls on Big Government

[sarkos]

After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Their goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy. The project was spearheaded by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former trader for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, and is backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors including Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist; Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linkedin; Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the philanthropic group Emerson Collective and wife of Steve Jobs; Marc Andreessen, an investor and software developer; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment processor Stripe; and the entrepreneurs Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, the Times reported. Though Flannery has been purchasing farmland and empty plots over the past five years it has only recently started interacting with local officials and residents, according to the Times and local reports. Flannery has purchased land from farmers for several times more than the market value and become the biggest landowners in Solano county, an area 60 miles north-west of San Francisco. The land bought by the firm encircles Travis air force base in Fairfield, a city of about 120,000 residents and home to the Anheuser-Busch Co brewery and the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory.

Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city | California | The Guardian

[legarski]

Exploring the Vision Behind the Book "Comprehensive Technology Solutions Offered by SolveForce and Partners"

In a world increasingly driven by digital infrastructure, the need for comprehensive, scalable, and future-ready telecommunications and technology solutions has never been more pressing. The newly released book Comprehensive Technology Solutions Offered by SolveForce and Partners arrives at a pivotal moment in that evolution. Authored by industry leaders Ron Legarski, Steve Sramek, and Bryan…

[automaticvr]

Ether Navigation (2005) - Peter Sramek

[hackernewsrobot]

When Was the Last Time We Built a New City?

https://asteriskmag.com/issues/06/california-forever-jan-sramek

[le-fils-de-lhomme]

Ah, a new ghost town candidate.

[warraichh]

The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted

When Jan Sramek walked into the American Legion post in Rio Vista, Calif., for a town-hall meeting last month, everyone in the room knew that he was really just there to get yelled at. For six years a mysterious company called Flannery Associates, which Mr. Sramek controlled, had upended the town of 10,000 by spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy every farm in the area. Flannery…

[californiaprelawland]

The Possibility of a New California City

By Anakalia Casperson, Menlo College Class of 2025

January 19, 2024

A group of billionaires out of Silicon Valley have proposed the development of over 800 million dollars worth of rural land between San Francisco and Sacramento. It is mostly agricultural land that the acreage consists of in favor of a new California city. The group of billionaires that are behind the plans to build a new city is California Forever. California Forever is an American Land Company and Corporation founded by Jan Sramek and is in partnership with Flannery Associates. The company had announced in August of 2023 plans to build a walkable city of 50,000 people in southeastern Solano County, near the San Francisco Bay Area, California. There is some discussion of voters possibly being involved with the development of the potential city. Less than a few days ago, on January 17th, 2024, the California Forever company submitted a ballot initiative to the Solano County Registrar of Voters. The initiative essentially outlines the proposal to ‘build a dynamic new community, with middle-class homes in safe, walkable neighborhoods’[2]. California Forever hopes to lay a foundation for Solano County with a deemed reputation of being safe, especially considering the area that is being pitched. The county of Solano is mostly flatland which makes it easier to lay out the city’s possible plans. The initiative proposed also shows a great deal of commitment to the development overall by enacting the implementation of ‘good-paying jobs in advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, construction, and other industries…’[2]. The dream definitely sets the scene, however, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who don’t necessarily share the same dream.

  Although some residents have shown to be in favor of the new and proposed potential city, this new plan has ‘drawn the ire of residents and environmental groups, who have raised concerns about the loss of arable land…’[3]. This expansion has drawn the attention of residents who reside both inside and outside the community. Mostly the environmentalist groups that share a specific role with the said area. In September 28th, 1984 the United States Congress passed a federal law which is known as  ‘The California Wilderness Act of 1984’[4].

 This law authorized the addition of over 3 million acres (12,000 km^2) within the state of California to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Over 30 national forests throughout the Northern California region, ‘from the Lassen National Forest to the Sequoia National Forest’ [4]. It is this federal law that prevents the occupation of wilderness areas from being obtained by companies or corporations. However, it may have been possible the the California Forever Company to have attained a loophole through the use of their ballot initiative and their need for voters.

  The image above is a clear and concise visual representation of where the new city would be, it would be ‘built between Rio Vista and Travis Force Base’[3]. The California Company has obtained around 62,000 acres of land within southeastern Solano County, but the initiative had outlined that the city would only occupy 18,600. It may be relieving that only a quarter and some change of the acreage will be used, but it is still very important that it doesn’t interfere with the federal laws that are intact concerning preserving the wildlife in the area. Also, Democratic U.S. Representative, John Raymond Garamendi commented on the overall proposal from California Forever to be nothing more than a ‘pipe dream’[1]. Garamendi was ‘furious with backers for their secrecy about property close to a U.S Air Force Base’. The California Forever had attracted a great deal of attention from not just locals, but now legislation. The legislation worries from an environmental perspective as far as where the city will be located and the specific regions it will be near. Garamendi had felt that there was little to no benefit for the occupancy of a new city since the acreage is ‘surrounded by wind farms, gas field, endangered species, no water, no sanitation system, and no road system let alone a highway system’[1]. The environment is taken into an extensive level of consideration beyond the region and placement, it is also no systems that are to supply the means of survival to keep such a city in proposition afloat.

  The proposed initiative brought forth by California Forever Company reflects upon the growth of the state and its potential that lies within the variety of possibilities that could take place, especially the possibility of a new California City.

______________________________________________________________

[1] Har, Janie. “Billionaire Backers of New California City Reveal Map and Details of Proposed Development.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 18 Jan. 2024, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/billionaire-backers-of-new-california-city-reveal-map-and-details-of-proposed-development.

[2] Sramek, Jan. “California Forever.” California Forever, californiaforever.com/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024.

[3] Sjostedt, David. “California’s ‘utopia’ Plan to Offer $400m in Homebuying Aid for New Residents.” The San Francisco Standard, 17 Jan. 2024, sfstandard.com/2024/01/17/billionare-utopia-ballot-initiative-revealed/.

[4] H.R.1437 - 98th Congress (1983-1984): An Act Entitled the "California ..., www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/house-bill/1437. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024.

[dertaglichedan]

Billionaire-backed tech group says it’s bought all the land it needs for utopian city

A Silicon Valley group backed by billionaires said it’s acquired all the land it needs to build a utopian city in Northern California, after quietly buying more properties in the past month.

Flannery Associates LLC, the company behind the California Forever project, acquired at least seven more land parcels totaling about 814 acres in Solano County in October, according to county records. The company now owns more than 53,000 acres in the area — after some parcels traded hands — where it plans to create a walkable, green community they say would generate thousands of jobs.

“With regards to future purchases, except for a few remaining properties that Flannery has under contract and will close on in the coming weeks, Flannery has assembled all the land it needs and does not anticipate making any additional purchases,” the company said in a statement.

The investor group is led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, and backed by tech moguls like former Sequoia Capital Chairman Mike Moritz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

They’ve spent more than $800 million scooping up land for the project, a buying spree done extremely discreetly over several years which was first revealed in late August by the media. The project has since faced criticism from local officials and residents who fear the impact of their plans on the environment, local agricultural economy and for the security of the nearby Travis Air Force Base.

Adding to the tensions, Flannery is suing a group of Solano landowners for allegedly colluding to inflate the values of their property by $170 million. Flannery is seeking at least $510 million in damages, or triple the amount allegedly inflated by price fixing. The landowners deny the claim and are seeking to dismiss the suit.

Some of the parcels that Flannery bought in the last month were owned by Barnes Family Ranch Associates, Lambie Ranch Associates and Kirby Hill Associates, three of the defendants named in the lawsuit that the company filed in May in Sacramento federal court.

[1hotjudogirl]

The Search with Lisa: The Disappearance of Sunny Sramek