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Yan shamak is the CEO and founder of
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California forever his company with the
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help of some Silicon Valley billionaires
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has acquired 62,000 acres in Solano
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County California which is north north
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and slightly east of San Francisco over
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the last few years with a goal of
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building a new community so we've wanted
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to have you on for a while we have so
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many questions SC Scott particularly has
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a lot of questions but there's been a
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lot of mystery around California forever
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I I need you to explain exactly what
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you're planning and I and I get a sense
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of why it was Secret at the beginning
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because you're buying up about 62,000
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acres in this area Northeast of s just
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Northeast of San Francisco um centered
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in you know in Solano County um so talk
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a little bit about what you're doing for
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people who don't know we are trying to
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get California to build again uh and
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solve this problem that we have um it's
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still the center of innovation it's
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still this economic engine for the whole
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country but it's the first time in the
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history of the country where people are
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moving out of a place like that um and
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we're doing that by building a new
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community in Solano County about an hour
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North of San Francisco uh and in some
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sense this should be the um this is the
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oldest kind of business model um in the
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world we run out of houses we should
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find some land um that is not prime
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Farmland that is not sensitive
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ecological habitat and build a complete
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Community there and then I think what's
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different is we know not building a
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subdivision we're building a complete
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community and so we're building
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something that someone who grew up in an
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old neighborhood like noi Valley or the
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marina built 100 years ago recognize a
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complete Community with homes and
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apartments and schools and shops and
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jobs and churches um and uh we believe
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that this can be a really unique
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economic engine for Solano County which
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is a part of the Bay Area that has been
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left out of the prosperity that that's
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happened here over the last 20 years so
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most cities just happen you know you
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know they just sort of occur and then
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and then cities build on top of cities
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right that's the whole concept is like
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Rome has 10 different versions of itself
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depending on the era creating something
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of nothing a lot of cities that do this
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in the history have not worked out well
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Brazil you I was thinking lots of
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different things have they've been
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trying to create the perfect City why
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did you besides California needs more
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housing which obviously is is a big deal
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um why do you think it'll work by just
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creating it out of nothing where people
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weren't naturally going to build
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themselves or settle themselves I mean I
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I think that first of all it's a
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um I mean in
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America it's it's a fairly Young country
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right and so almost all cities are new
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cities and we have really good examples
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of cities that were started by a person
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or a company that turned out to be
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spectacular some of our most beloved
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cities in America were started this way
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I mean Savannah Georgia um Philadelphia
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um Irvine in Southern California we have
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a lot of really good examples of places
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that were basically started by a company
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um and I think what's um the other part
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of it is we building in an area that
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actually people have said before should
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be built uh the US Commerce Department
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um the US Army Corp of Engineers the
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association of Bay Area governments all
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said in the 50s 60s 7s that sometime in
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the 2020s we are going to run out of
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space in the Bay area and we should
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build some were and they all concluded
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that this was basically the best place
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to build that by that point we will have
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run out of space in the inra area and
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this would be a really good place to
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build and so there's a lot of precedent
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for why this would happen and I think
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the cities that have
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um the plan cities that have failed I
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think they failed for two reasons and I
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spent I spent two years before I started
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working on this kind of going back and
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reading the history of all of these
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projects Brazilia and all and every
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project that you can that you can name
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and I think they failed in one of two
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ways I either people were building them
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in a place where there was no demand
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which is not the Bay Area or the
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developers came in with some kind of
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singular Vision they were going to
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impose on the city and it's going to be
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this perfect kind of um master plan and
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and our approach to it is very very
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different our approach to it is very
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similar to how a place like San
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Francisco or New York were built or
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indeed kind of locally Rio Vista or
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bisha Ojo which is you lay down a street
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grid and um you do a really good job
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doing that and then you think of the
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city as a platform and it's it's you
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don't say the houses are going to be
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beige and they're going to have these
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windows and this is where the
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residential is going to go and this is
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where the um the small houses will go
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and this is where the big houses will go
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instead you do the bare amount of
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correct planning in the beginning and
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then we let the city kind of emerge out
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of that and a lot of different people
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and Builders and Architects and
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companies and residents come and they
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build their lives and and I I think
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cities are this unique invention that we
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have where particularly in the society
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that we live in today and it's uh it's
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it there there's challenges now but I
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think cities are still the place where
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people with a lot of different values
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can come together and build something
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really special and out of that
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disagreement and CH chaos and conflict
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something really special emerges and
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that's what we trying to do here Scott
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and IU so I I want to try and if I can
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describe the tension around what I think
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I think some of the tens you're facing
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or the questions so when I first heard
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about this I love the idea of of
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creating massive housing such that young
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people finally have their shot right I
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think that uh slowly but surely
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homeowners have weaponized local
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governments to restrict housing permits
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and the American dream if that's buying
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a home is increasingly sequestered from
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young people so I like the Innovation I
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like the idea that they're doing
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something similar in Florida where
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they're incorporating a city tons of new
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housing units I love that
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the the thing I think that sent chill
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down my spine or chills down my spine
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when I was when I read some of the
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comments from bellagi
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shavasan
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and is I I think people are worried that
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is this this new techno Neo neol
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libertarianism where people who are very
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blessed want to start their own want to
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basically secede from the nation and
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want to create their own government want
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to create and you know everyone has the
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right to create local politicians but I
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guess this is my question is is this
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rooted an opportunity for young people
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that haven't participated in the spoils
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that a lot of these people have enjoyed
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or is it a vision for a different type
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of society which quite frankly just
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makes me very kind of scares me a little
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bit can you can you walk us through that
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I'm going to just put some update for
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for Scott was just referring to former
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andri and Hood's partner uh sky is
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calling for something like Tech Zionism
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he said his vision is to ethnically
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cleanse San Francisco of liberal
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he has some scheme around colored shirts
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that people wear it's demented actually
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but a lot of tech people are trying to
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take over San Francisco government with
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donations and their own mayal candidates
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which is their right to do so although
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some of the things that pop out of their
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mouth are just so heinous and stupid at
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the same time which is very hard to do
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um so talk about this because a lot of
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people feel like given some of the
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investors which I think does include
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Mark andreon uh who is a big backer of
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apology um California forever connection
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to a movement that wants to build a
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place where Tech Elite can live under
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their own rules or or the idea that
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you're trying to do a different kind of
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governance new kinds of governance and I
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know Mike Moritz who has been an
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investor has talked about that the idea
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of a new kind of governance
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so perhaps separate yourself from that
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or not or just say what we're trying to
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do here is yeah no I mean I think we're
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not trying to do any of that and I think
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there's a lot of baggage that Tech has
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created in building new cities that
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unfortunately we at the receiving end of
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it but um my interest in this from the
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beginning was um very simple I I really
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care about the built environment I I
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really think that walkable dense places
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um are special I think walkable cities
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have amazing impact on um this the sense
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of community and creativity and human
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health and uh knowing your neighbors and
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all of these things and so for me the
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primary interest has always been how do
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we build more housing so there's more
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opportunity and then how do we make the
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place walkable because if you look at
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these old neighborhoods um like big
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pants of San Francisco or Georgetown or
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the West Village um it's clear that a
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huge proportion of Americans love them
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but they've become these Oasis for the
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rich because we've stopped building them
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and so these walkable communities today
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Working Families just can't afford them
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and so for me it was about building a
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place like that I have very little
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interest in innovating on um in
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particular two things that Tech has done
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and the first one is does this um Tech
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libertarian kind of um floating cities
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um Network States and so on I have zero
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interest on any of it um Balaji is not
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an investor um and um there's also this
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kind of smart City component of it what
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some other people have tried to do and I
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have zero interest in that as well I
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mean we building a place that actually
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is from that perspective really really
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boring um we're building a place where
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if all we did was build a great
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combination of some of these old
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neighborhoods I mentioned like noi
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Valley and Marina and Mission and West
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Village and P of Philadelphia and
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Georgia Sav Georgia moreable correct
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more affordable absolutely because
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because we they are expensive because we
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don't have very many of them if all we
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did over the next 30 or 40 years was
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build something that people looked at in
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50 years the way that they look at those
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places I would be over the moon we don't
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need to do anything but you are going to
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get saddled with that Tech thing given
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some of your investors you know they're
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very among the wealthiest people on
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Earth so it and you know some of them
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are have their nonsensical I'm moving to
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Australia some of them I'm going to go
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in space like you that's the Jeff Bezos
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thing the floating city that's his dream
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of the world um of course in sci-fi
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that's always a bad dream for most
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people and a good dream for rich people
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um so you you're going to carry that
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baggage no matter what like no matter
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what given your investors right one two
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they they feel um anti-democratic in a
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lot of ways so presumably the governance
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here even when Mike and I happen to like
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Mike Moritz um talking about new kinds
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of governance presumably democracy is at
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the center of that correct it's not
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what's a new kind of governance I don't
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even there's I think what what Mike was
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referring to I think what Mike was
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referring to in that email I think it's
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an old email from 2017 um was new kinds
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of governance when it comes to making it
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easier to build I see the thing that
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we've been obsessed about since the
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beginning is why does it take two years
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to get a permit to build a small
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apartment building in San Francisco I
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sat at a door it took me forever in San
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Francisco but go ahead exactly exactly
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and so if you look at the ballot measure
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that we proposed the only Innovation I
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mean it's a 80 page ballot measure and
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the only innovational governance that's
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in it the only one is it says it should
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be easy here to build buildings we're
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going to do an environmental impact
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report on the whole Community we're
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going to study all of the impacts going
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say important because it's San Francisco
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yeah
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exactly and we said as long as you
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building something that fits in here you
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should be able to get a building permit
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in 60 days and so that's the only kind
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of governance Innovation that we have
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but the governance is democracy correct
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I mean it's not like you're not going to
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innovate on some let's have a king or
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let's have you know Mark indre to be
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king for a day or whatever let's not
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have him be a king any day but um when
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you when when you were doing this at the
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beginning you had to be very secretive
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and obviously there was a lot of back
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and forth with local land owners
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um did you talk about why you did it
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that way presumably because you didn't
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want the prices to go up like crazy like
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oh rich people are here with their money
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bags and um uh you you also um uh filed
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a lawsuit against accusing 40 Solano
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farmers are price fixing their land
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which they've denied so talk a little
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bit about that because you got to get
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the support of the community moving
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forward too and the elected officials
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that are there
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now yeah I mean on the on the buying the
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property quietly um we we've done the
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same thing that um for example Disney
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did when they were buying the property
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in Florida for for Disney World which um
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it's just standard practice I think for
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us it was partially about the prices but
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it was also we felt that you could
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design a really great Community here but
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someone had to basically control a large
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amount of the land so you could place
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things correctly for example one of the
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things that we did is um in the ballot
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measure is we doubling the security
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buffer around the Air Force Base here
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and we would not be able to do that if
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there were 40 different land know as
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trying to build a project in the
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community so that was part of it and
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then um people don't know there a Big
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Air Force Base nearby for people right
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exactly um which by the way one of the
00:13:09
biggest challenges for the Air Force
00:13:11
Base number one the people who work
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there are struggling to afford to live
00:13:14
here and number two their spouses often
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commute one and a half hours every day
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to paloo because there's very few jobs
00:13:20
here and so we've had an amazing
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response from many of the people who
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serve on the base saying you know what
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actually this is the best thing that's
00:13:26
happened to the base um and then on the
00:13:29
lawsuits I mean the main thing I would
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say is is we've settled the majority of
00:13:33
them um there was a recent ruling in the
00:13:36
case from the court that basically said
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there is evidence that this happened um
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but we've been very reasonable on
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settling it and and uh we hope we'll be
00:13:44
able to put that behind us soon so first
00:13:47
off I find your comments really
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heartening um and I also want to point
00:13:50
out that masking your identity when
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you're a buyer is common practice NYU
00:13:55
does the same thing um because anyways
00:13:58
for a lot of reasons you don't
00:13:59
necessarily want the seller to know who
00:14:00
you are get our greed glands going young
00:14:04
people have been held out from the
00:14:06
American dream of buying a home what do
00:14:09
you envision what does Victory look like
00:14:10
in 10 years out in terms of the price of
00:14:13
the home the amenities you know paint
00:14:15
the vision here for why this will be a
00:14:17
net positive for society yeah
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affordability was a really big Criterion
00:14:21
for us from the beginning and we
00:14:23
designed the whole Community with that
00:14:25
in mind and the biggest component of
00:14:27
that is if you look at what Developers
00:14:29
are actually building today we've
00:14:30
basically stopped building starter homes
00:14:33
and that's a big part of the problem if
00:14:34
you talk to people who've bought a home
00:14:36
in the Bay Area in the 70s or ' 80s or '
00:14:39
90s their first home would be 1,000
00:14:41
square F feet 1200 square ft kind of
00:14:44
three three-bedroom one bathroom small
00:14:46
single family home and then they would
00:14:47
build equity and and they would grow in
00:14:49
it and eventually trade up um for all
00:14:52
kinds of reasons in the real estate
00:14:54
business we've stopped building those
00:14:55
homes um the community we have is UN the
00:14:58
kind of we proposed is unusual in that
00:15:01
um California has a standard that says
00:15:04
affordable by Design and what it
00:15:05
basically says is if you can build a
00:15:07
walkable Community where you have grow
00:15:09
houses and adus and small apartment
00:15:11
buildings they can be affordable by
00:15:13
Design you can actually build units that
00:15:15
you can buy that are not de restricted
00:15:18
um from the beginning and so I think we
00:15:21
would have homes or apartments starting
00:15:24
at probably
00:15:25
$400,000 um which even by Solano County
00:15:28
standards is really affordable I mean
00:15:30
you can't buy a new home here for
00:15:32
$400,000 and we we do that by really
00:15:36
innovating on what we build and the
00:15:37
density and then using the land much
00:15:39
more wisely um in a much more compact
00:15:42
footprint so what you want to get this
00:15:44
built presumably correct what what what
00:15:47
do you think the timing is on this and
00:15:50
how it's happening and is there a chance
00:15:52
it wouldn't happen and and and that it
00:15:54
could couldn't happen what do you need
00:15:56
to succeed to go forward certainly
00:15:58
there's interest in more housing in
00:16:00
California that said a lot of people are
00:16:01
in fact moving back all those people who
00:16:03
insulted California on their way out are
00:16:05
now ai is back like there's there's a
00:16:07
lot of there's you can see it in San
00:16:09
Francisco and the in the Palo Alto area
00:16:11
there's real growth and you know Google
00:16:14
killed it this in the you know they
00:16:16
haven't moved anywhere you know there
00:16:18
there's other things so there's there's
00:16:20
a little more excitement around living
00:16:22
in California than there was a year ago
00:16:24
even or two years when a couple years
00:16:26
when you started this what is the
00:16:28
prospects of and what's your biggest
00:16:29
challenge and if you had to go back
00:16:32
and repair a mistake you made uh what
00:16:35
would it be yeah I mean first of all I I
00:16:37
started this eight years ago not two
00:16:39
years ago I've been I've been working on
00:16:40
this for eight years and so we've been
00:16:42
through the whole cycle in California of
00:16:44
excited people are leaving people are
00:16:46
coming back I think to your point of
00:16:48
people are coming back to California
00:16:50
that that makes the need for this even
00:16:52
more
00:16:53
preed because if the AI boom continues
00:16:56
and the salaries continue in in in the
00:16:58
bay area that's going to just increase
00:17:00
the pressure on the housing market and
00:17:01
it's going to be harder and harder and
00:17:03
harder for Working Families to stay in
00:17:05
San Francisco or or in in in paloalto uh
00:17:08
and so I think the AI boom is just
00:17:10
another huge reason for why um this
00:17:13
needs to happen because the bay area
00:17:15
needs more housing otherwise it's just
00:17:16
going to be an oasis of the rich um in
00:17:20
terms of what we would do differently I
00:17:22
I think we we would have liked to
00:17:24
introduce the project to the community
00:17:26
differently we were preparing for that
00:17:28
when Connor wrote the article we were
00:17:30
probably a month away from New York
00:17:32
Times Reporter yeah exactly we were
00:17:34
about a a month away from wanting to
00:17:36
talk about it um I I also wish that some
00:17:41
of the elected officials had kept more
00:17:43
of an open mind instead of condemning
00:17:45
the project in the beginning I think um
00:17:49
it's totally fair for people to say you
00:17:51
know this looks like a really big idea
00:17:54
I'm not sure it works but I'm going to
00:17:55
stay open-minded and I'm going to look
00:17:57
at it when there's more details I think
00:17:59
a lot of people rush to conclusions um
00:18:02
um without Merit and I think that's
00:18:05
particularly concerning when they have
00:18:09
presided over the situation getting
00:18:11
worse and worse and worse for Working
00:18:13
Families for the last 20 years and they
00:18:16
haven't been able to do anything about
00:18:17
it and I think we should be a bit more
00:18:19
open to Scott's point about new
00:18:20
Solutions because whatever is it that we
00:18:23
doing California is no longer working
00:18:25
for Working Families I don't think
00:18:27
anyone is disputing it yeah I think
00:18:28
that's a very good point I just think
00:18:30
when you're coming in hot with a lot of
00:18:31
rich people and you've already
00:18:32
experienced some of their behavior you
00:18:35
you you you don't trust them necessarily
00:18:37
even if it's a good idea um which I
00:18:39
think this actually is uh Scott do you
00:18:42
see this more as the folks who are
00:18:44
funding this and there's nothing wrong
00:18:46
with the profit motive but do they see
00:18:48
an opportunity to um find a place where
00:18:52
there's less owning requirements and
00:18:53
they want to be in the business of of
00:18:55
development or do they see this as an
00:18:57
opportunity and the two AR the two are
00:18:59
mutually exclusive a social ill how
00:19:01
important is it is it a new form of
00:19:03
governance or just bringing housing
00:19:05
prices down it when
00:19:07
you're like what are your investors up
00:19:10
to here what when they sit down with you
00:19:12
what does success look like for them
00:19:13
because these guys have enough well they
00:19:16
have enough money that's ridiculous they
00:19:17
I was want more money um what do you
00:19:19
think their objective is do they see see
00:19:21
this as a social good or do they see
00:19:23
this just as a great Economic
00:19:25
Opportunity I think it's both and I mean
00:19:26
we've been we've been very clear from
00:19:28
the beginning that it's a for-profit
00:19:29
investment and over the long run this
00:19:31
can be a pretty good investment it does
00:19:33
require kind of a 20-year um time
00:19:36
Horizon which is part of the reason for
00:19:37
why um I went to the people that I went
00:19:40
to to raise the capital it's much longer
00:19:42
term much more patient Capital um I
00:19:46
think for all of our investors it's a I
00:19:49
I started to say profit plus investment
00:19:51
and so if you look at the people who've
00:19:52
invested in it um they all have causes
00:19:55
that they really care about and I think
00:19:57
if you ask them I I can't speak for them
00:19:59
but um for someone like Loren Powell
00:20:03
jobs I mean a lot of her work has been
00:20:05
about Economic Opportunity and economic
00:20:07
mobility and sustainability and and and
00:20:10
whenever I talk to um um her or the team
00:20:14
those are the questions I get asked is
00:20:16
how do we make it more sustainable how
00:20:17
do we make sure that teachers can live
00:20:19
in the community how the way you build
00:20:21
it how do we make sure that um we have
00:20:25
that it's not a food desert how do we
00:20:26
make sure that there's really high
00:20:28
quality food available for kids in the
00:20:30
schools um when we talk to when I talk
00:20:33
to someone like um like like Reed
00:20:35
Hoffman uh I mean for him Reed is an
00:20:37
eternal optimist I mean he believes that
00:20:39
we can solve things he believes that
00:20:41
technology can solve them and he
00:20:42
believes that um a lot of the
00:20:44
Innovations coming out of the Bay Area
00:20:46
have really made the world better and so
00:20:48
he asks how do we make the opportunity
00:20:50
as broad as we can possibly make it um
00:20:53
for um someone like Nat Friedman or the
00:20:57
cison they are really passionate about
00:20:59
high quality walkable places and so we
00:21:01
talk about design and how do we make
00:21:03
this an amazing place um I think Mike
00:21:07
morit has been extremely invested in
00:21:09
improving things in the in the in the
00:21:10
Bay Area I mean um he spent hundreds of
00:21:14
millions of dollars in philanthropy in
00:21:15
San Francisco trying to make it better
00:21:17
and um
00:21:20
so uh when I talk to Mike it's about how
00:21:23
do we create homes that people who work
00:21:26
in the Bay Area can afford and and how
00:21:28
do we make
00:21:29
the last discussion I had with Mike
00:21:30
about can we help nurses be able to live
00:21:33
here instead of flying here from Idaho I
00:21:35
mean that started to happen it's so
00:21:37
expensive to live here the nurses are
00:21:38
flying from Idaho
00:21:41
yeah yeah I think it's you know I think
00:21:44
it is easy to be suspect of some some of
00:21:46
the people um and and intentions of them
00:21:49
from the get-go um because of but you
00:21:53
know I think a lot of I think that at
00:21:54
the heart of the good part of it is
00:21:56
believing in California and you know one
00:21:59
of the reasons I call my book a tech
00:22:00
love story is cu I do believe in the
00:22:02
great possibilities and I hate what
00:22:04
they've done to the place so why don't
00:22:05
they use the better parts of their
00:22:07
nature to do things which is um I'm glad
00:22:09
to hear you saying it's not going to be
00:22:10
some demented I hate I hate the term I
00:22:12
hate the term I found the term
00:22:14
internally and U I mean if I if I can
00:22:17
cities aren't smart that's why they
00:22:19
exactly exactly and and if I can just
00:22:21
comment on the investors you
00:22:23
know I I think when I started working on
00:22:25
this in 2016 there was this popular
00:22:27
narrative that um kind of venture
00:22:30
capitalists and billionaires in general
00:22:32
are wasting the capital they have
00:22:35
investing in Dumb messaging gaps and
00:22:37
they should really do something in the
00:22:38
in the real world to make life better
00:22:40
for working families and then three or
00:22:42
four years ago during Co the popular
00:22:44
narrative was how dare all of these
00:22:47
people who've made their Fortunes in
00:22:48
California take the money and go to
00:22:50
Texas and go to Florida and just take it
00:22:53
away and I think we found a group of
00:22:55
people who really believe in California
00:22:57
who really want to down and they did
00:22:59
exactly what people have been calling
00:23:01
for invest in hard things in the
00:23:02
physical world with an uncertain payoff
00:23:05
that requires 20 years patients and um
00:23:08
that doubles down on California and so
00:23:10
I'm really proud of um the cap table
00:23:12
that we have and I know why people um
00:23:15
kind of see this as controversial but
00:23:18
these are just people who love the Bay
00:23:20
Area and they wanted to work for
00:23:22
everyone last question Scott yeah I I
00:23:25
just want to say I I that's not even a
00:23:27
question it's just a that's a great
00:23:28
point and some of the people on your cap
00:23:30
table I do not think a great deal of but
00:23:32
I I think I think what you're doing here
00:23:35
assuming that you're being honest about
00:23:36
this you're exactly right they're not
00:23:37
going into space they're trying to make
00:23:39
the this place more habitable I I think
00:23:41
it's a really a really excellent point
00:23:44
what if you could if you could say
00:23:47
anything what is the level of
00:23:49
cooperation or
00:23:51
non-cooperation from either the state
00:23:53
government or the federal government do
00:23:54
they have they embraced this as as
00:23:56
another signal of innovation that'll
00:23:58
bring more people to California are they
00:23:59
suspect of it and feel threatened by it
00:24:01
you know the the state government and
00:24:03
the federal government is is not a
00:24:05
unitary body there's a lot of different
00:24:06
stakeholders in there but I think what
00:24:08
we've seen in general is people are
00:24:10
really excited um housing used to be a
00:24:13
priority for the California government
00:24:15
the the um to your point Scot it's
00:24:17
become a priority for the federal
00:24:19
government because house prices across
00:24:20
the country have just gotten so crazy in
00:24:22
the Last 5 Years and so what we've seen
00:24:25
is a lot of excitement from people
00:24:27
saying um boy if if you can get the buy
00:24:30
of the local community we would love to
00:24:33
help and so I think the opportunity for
00:24:35
Solano County which is which is a part
00:24:37
of the Bay Area that really has been
00:24:38
left out um um one data point that is
00:24:42
incredible in 2002 the average household
00:24:45
income in Solano County was 90% of the
00:24:48
rest of the Bay Area it was about $6,000
00:24:50
a household less over the last 20 years
00:24:54
it's the Gap has widened to 30% the
00:24:57
average household in County makes
00:24:59
$40,000 less than anyone else in the Bay
00:25:02
Area um and the county hasn't gotten its
00:25:04
fair share of employers it hasn't gotten
00:25:06
its fair share of um tax dollars
00:25:09
infrastructure dollars and so the
00:25:10
opportunity that we've seen from state
00:25:12
and federal government is to say if you
00:25:14
can get the buying of the local
00:25:15
community we would love to help and I
00:25:17
think there's a real opportunity to
00:25:18
bring a lot of state and federal funds
00:25:20
to Solano County um and and really make
00:25:23
this make the county better for the
00:25:25
people who live here uh and it's it's a
00:25:27
really special place I mean I I moved
00:25:30
here uh with my wife and two kids we
00:25:32
live here uh We've made so many friends
00:25:34
in the last year that we've been here
00:25:36
and I really care about uh it getting
00:25:39
its share of The Economic Opportunity in
00:25:40
the Bay Area and I think we have the
00:25:42
most credible plan to do that that's
00:25:44
been proposed here in the last 30 years
00:25:46
but what about the cows what about the
00:25:49
cows it's a the town one of the main
00:25:51
towns there was Vacaville which means
00:25:53
cille that's true you know we have uh
00:25:56
it's a good question I mean the
00:25:59
just don't let Christy know just bring
00:26:00
in christe she'll we will we going to
00:26:02
build an amazing place for the cows in
00:26:04
the green belt you you know what we
00:26:05
doing now uh we the community is going
00:26:07
on about a third of the land that we
00:26:09
building on on the rest of it we
00:26:10
building solar Farms it turns out that
00:26:13
the Sheep really like grazing underneath
00:26:15
the solar panels because they don't have
00:26:16
to stand in 105 degree heat in the
00:26:19
summer it's hot out in salano County um
00:26:21
much more than people realize how warm
00:26:24
it is in the out because the Bay Area
00:26:26
seems like a cooler environment you know
00:26:28
what's the most special thing about um
00:26:31
um designing this ride it turns out that
00:26:33
it's windiest in the summer and so if
00:26:35
you design the street grid correctly and
00:26:36
you Orient it correctly the wind can
00:26:38
cool it off kind of like it does in on
00:26:41
some of the islands for example in uh in
00:26:43
in take carabano or the Mediterranean
00:26:45
yeah it's a beautiful land out there I
00:26:47
love it out there I think it's so
00:26:48
beautiful well in any case Yan thank you
00:26:50
for coming on and answering questions
00:26:52
we'll be watching it carefully um you
00:26:54
know it's you're right you're 100% right
00:26:57
bugging them to do bigger things is what
00:26:59
I've been doing and this is definitely a
00:27:01
bigger thing and they're not building
00:27:03
space colonies so that's always a plus
