Utopia in Solano County

Flannery Associates has published drawings of the new city it plans to build in Solano County. As others have noted, the new city seems positively utopian: [bold added]

The Silicon Valley billionaire-backed plan to build a 21st century utopian city on agricultural land on the edge of the Bay Area has a name and a website featuring the first renderings of what the Solano County dreamland might look like.

The initiative’s name — California Forever — was unveiled Thursday afternoon after a two-week period in which the group’s acquisition of 55,000 acres in southeast Solano County has come under fire from politicians, farmers and environmentalists....

The first renderings from California Forever evoke a cityscape with a dreamy white stucco and red rooftop Mediterranean vibe that might be found in a Greek or Italian village. There are hillside neighborhoods stepping down to what must be the banks of the Sacramento River, kayakers tooling through lily pads and anglers fishing from the riverbank at sunrise.

The irony of this plan is that, toward the end of the 20th century, San Francisco was well on its way to becoming just the sort of paradise that California Forever envisions for Solano County.

What derailed San Francisco was not sinister outside forces but its own policies toward drug use, homelessness, and crime and punishment.

Without firm actions to prevent the same from happening to their utopia, the California Forever reality will never come close to the idyllic pictures that were shown us this week.

On the bright side, these "average billionaire" investors are in their 50's and 60's and have experienced triumphs, failures, and a few tragedies. They're not teenagers who have no idea how to execute a utopian construction plan (for example, see high-speed rail).

They've earned the benefit of the doubt.