Jan Sramek

It was people throwing rocks at Google buses.

It was companies beginning to leave the state.

And all of it was entirely self-inflicted, all of it.

This was a self-goal, 100% of it, because we had failed to build enough of everything that you need to run an actual state.

We failed to build enough housing.

We failed to build enough office space.

We failed to build enough factories.

We failed to build enough freeways and trains and energy, all of it.

And I found that profoundly sad.

Because to me, California and more broadly America, we were defined by building to the rest of the world.

I mean, we were the place that could build better than anyone else in the world.

The Golden Gate Bridge was built in four years.

The Boeing 747 went from an idea to carrying a fair paying passenger in three years.

The Navy got the idea to build a nuclear submarine in 1951.

It was in the water in 1954.

And I thought it was really sad.

Now, here's the good news.

It took a while, but in the last few years, both on the left and on the right, we have realized that this question of how do we build in America is going to be the defining question of the next 20 years.

And that brings me to this.

Shortly after coming to California, about a decade ago, I started working on what became California Forever.