I know a fair bit about California water and I ask again, where does Mr. Sramek expect to get the water for this project? Ground water and unspecified sources is not acceptable for planning and engineering purposes. This is California. Every cubic foot of water is owned, managed, and accounted for.
Hi Martha, happy to clarify. The details for water supply are on page 169 and onwards in the Specific Plan on Suisun City's website, and there is nothing vague about them.
In addition, a much more detailed full Water Supply Assessment, which will run to hundreds of pages, with full hydrological studies, will be available as part of the Environmental Impact Report.
Finally, there are lots of parties that use groundwater in southeastern Solano, including several of the cities, and many almond farms.
I'm not clear on what the basis of the objection is. Is it somehow bad that water currently used to irrigate pasture will be used for a city? Is it beyond our engineering capabilities, or prohibitively expensive, to remove these contaminants from ground water? Is it that the real water demand is being underestimated?
If the argument is that agricultural water use is somehow sancrosanct, that is one of the greatest con jobs that famers have pulled on city folk for decades and it needs to stop.
I think you could look up the cost of removing these specific contaminants from groundwater as easily as I can. But for some reason I don't know, you appear to think that someone else should do the research for you. It's easy enough, so just in case you want to learn how to do it, here's your search string: cost to remove boron from groundwater in solano county ca.
As a CO river basin resident, I concur. At least "buy and dry" is honest. My understanding from some deee-velopers is that one acre of irrigated farmland dried out will supply one acre of sub-urban-ish development. 8-ish units/acre? But the water needs to held and available for 12 months of the year, not just 5 or so.
For what it's worth, this was a fantastic episode.
While the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Mr Sramek has clearly thought and read a lot about what makes a good city. I mean, putting schools in a place where kids can get to them safely without parental involvement and without a school bus. That simple change alone makes a huge impact on the livability of a place for parents.
In any case, California desperately needs more housing. This seems to be worth a try.
VERY interesting. I lived in Columbia, Maryland for 33 years - one of those planned cities from 60 years ago - and it's interesting to hear people revisiting cities-from-scratch today. Columbia is not a high-density development, but it did take an intelligent and comprehensive approach to planning that made it a good place to live and raise kids. And it was brilliantly located between Baltimore and D.C. Perhaps halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento has some of the same mojo...
Hi Jim, that's the idea! Columbia, Reston, Irvine, and Woodlands are all good examples. We're aiming to build something more walkable and medium density, but otherwise great examples that managed to bring jobs, great schools, and high quality neighborhoods.
I love this episode and others like it about livable cities. I grew up in a walkable community with population density, walk to school, know my neighbors, etc. My only regret with Mr. Sramek's city is that I am too old to be around for its completion and do not expect to get a chance to visit or live there.
It’s all going to be run and supervised by a vanilla, regular city government. Sounds ok, right? Who doesn’t think that the future city government of Suisun City will be bought and paid for, by stakeholders of CF? That’s how politics seem to work, and with so much at stake, it’s reality.
I live in the corridor down valley from Aspen and a microcosm of this is being debated right now. Lots of demand for resort and maintenance/construction "staff" and the influx of Zoomers and retirees and multi-homeowners buying up what had been "workforce housing." Resulting in increasing numbers and lengths (hours!) of commutes.
A large for us development (1500 homes + comm'l) just turned down by County Commissioners. A fair bit of infill built, and sort of one new "town" in the last 20 years, but not enough to keep up.
Mr. Sramek once again reveals his lack of seriousness by his mischaracterization of the Capital Corridor train service. Too twisty/windy? The trains are operated by Amtrak, and it is Amtrak’s fourth busiest route in terms of ridership—in the country. The Joint Powers Authority responsible for the service has a 57% fare box revenue recovery. Rolling stock will gradually incorporate new Venture passenger cars and Charger locomotives, both from Siemens. Dave Roberts—don’t drink the Kool-aid!,
“A lot of the angst in America … is downstream of urban design” is a great line, but it’s just not true. If walkability alone created social trust, Italy, home to some of the most walkable cities on Earth, wouldn’t have elected a hard‑right government, and London wouldn’t be dealing with its own well‑documented loneliness problem despite its dense, transit‑rich core.
Urban design won’t fix polarization, inequality, or our fractured media ecosystem. But it can make daily life better: more steps, more casual encounters, fewer stressful car trips, more third places, quieter streets, cleaner air, and more chances to feel part of a community.
That won’t solve America’s biggest problems, but it will make everyday life healthier, friendlier, and more humane, and that’s enough! No need to exaggerate the benefits. Keep up the good work, David, and good luck, Jan.
Hi Jan & David. Thanks for posting this discussion. It does cut to the core and the nexus between energy planning & city planning, which we really have not been doing a good job addressing. In California, we're paying among the highest rates for transportation fuel and utilities. It appears that for 20 years or so, the primary energy resource for this new community will be solar + batteries on a very large tract of undeveloped land located within the ultimate project boundary. What happens after that is unclear, and falls short of a satisfactory answer.
Of course, existing California communities have similar issues, but there are some credible solutions. France & South Korea have already adopted policies mandating solar canopy micro grids, including on-site BESS +Vehicle-2-Grid chargers at ALL existing parking lots over 80 spaces, nationwide, within 3 to 5 years. That's a startling quick roll-out of comprehensive community solar capacity on under-utilized urban land. It equates to a new gas peaker plant for a CA city of 150k population. If we don't get busy developing our community solar energy tier, we're going to continue being exploited by the existing industrial scale BigOil&Gas and utility monopoly tier. We need to do better, starting at the local city council and Community Choice Aggregator level of governance.
I listen every week and always like the conversation, but these two were of another dimension all together! Let's do provide answers to a whole basket of problems with one well designed city for others to immulate.
How will this city manage waste and sewage? For waste, how will it be minimized as well as picked up and then taken for processing? How will this waste infrastructure be created without creating environmental justice neighborhoods? How will food and yard waste be managed? Will there be composting or will it be managed with AD or other methods? Will there be community gardens? If composting, would it be possible to create a circular market for compost both in the city and with local farms? With recycling, would the city restrict or prevent single use plastic? Could it require restaurants and coffee shops use reusable containers? With sewage or waste water, there is an unfortunate prevalence of PFAS, heavy metals and microplastics. It is wonderful to reuse the water, but how will the city prevent against bioaccumulation of PFAS, heavy metals, and microplastics if the water is used on yards and farmlands in the area? Super interesting!
David, I feel compelled to correct you (17th time today, I'm sure. 😄) If a cat turns its ass towards you, that means, "Hey friend, I trust you enough to turn my back on you, and I invite you to smell my ass so that you will recognize my smell on things in the environment that I have rubbed my ass on."
Curious if anyone has done the math on a triangle grid? As in, dot paper?
Edit to follow up: The point is not just flow or minimizing distance but also about maximizing the quality of the spaces between. I have to admit my bias -- cities of pure square grids leave me cold. Emotionally and physically.
I know a fair bit about California water and I ask again, where does Mr. Sramek expect to get the water for this project? Ground water and unspecified sources is not acceptable for planning and engineering purposes. This is California. Every cubic foot of water is owned, managed, and accounted for.
Hi Martha, happy to clarify. The details for water supply are on page 169 and onwards in the Specific Plan on Suisun City's website, and there is nothing vague about them.
https://www.suisun.com/files/sharedassets/suisuncity/v/1/training/resources/images/michaels-images/documents/c.-suisun-expansion-specific-plan.pdf.
In addition, a much more detailed full Water Supply Assessment, which will run to hundreds of pages, with full hydrological studies, will be available as part of the Environmental Impact Report.
Finally, there are lots of parties that use groundwater in southeastern Solano, including several of the cities, and many almond farms.
Hope this helps!
Mr. Sramek, I expect that as this proposal proceeds through the regulatory process, engineers, hydrologists, transportation planners, urban planners, and others will ask their questions and make their comments. As I am not assigned to this area, and not getting paid to do the analyses and reviews, I will not be reading the detailed full water supply assessment section of the environmental reviews. I will comment that the groundwater contamination for the Suisun - Fairfield area includes high levels of boron, volatile organic compounds, and total dissolved solids; the California Water Boards Geotracking water base https://www.google.com/search?q=California+Water+Boards+GeoTracker+database&rlz=1C1JSBI_enUS1072US1072&oq=groundwater+contamination+under+suisun&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBECEYoAEyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigAdIBCjEwNTE1ajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBXyczY1ozq2Q&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&mstk=AUtExfCGpAy70cvdhgyXS62Ya5EOiENvpj8CZ54qveK-YYY8wPgHEMNDyI-owI1VqZz4rByFRnS3RpPIXmlrou2uXgkWGH3QE-hCi-_q0plUOaw8NJLyzXeBlRMloTHCqzztxYG7ZSlm4a_bjQt0yLj8yO3XcZgm9bvgCMCfJ9YGCfcPqWU&csui=3&ved=2ahUKEwiSpt2x3p-TAxUOJzQIHej9JeAQgK4QegQIBRAB. provides specifics for your area.
I'm not clear on what the basis of the objection is. Is it somehow bad that water currently used to irrigate pasture will be used for a city? Is it beyond our engineering capabilities, or prohibitively expensive, to remove these contaminants from ground water? Is it that the real water demand is being underestimated?
If the argument is that agricultural water use is somehow sancrosanct, that is one of the greatest con jobs that famers have pulled on city folk for decades and it needs to stop.
I think you could look up the cost of removing these specific contaminants from groundwater as easily as I can. But for some reason I don't know, you appear to think that someone else should do the research for you. It's easy enough, so just in case you want to learn how to do it, here's your search string: cost to remove boron from groundwater in solano county ca.
As a CO river basin resident, I concur. At least "buy and dry" is honest. My understanding from some deee-velopers is that one acre of irrigated farmland dried out will supply one acre of sub-urban-ish development. 8-ish units/acre? But the water needs to held and available for 12 months of the year, not just 5 or so.
For what it's worth, this was a fantastic episode.
While the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Mr Sramek has clearly thought and read a lot about what makes a good city. I mean, putting schools in a place where kids can get to them safely without parental involvement and without a school bus. That simple change alone makes a huge impact on the livability of a place for parents.
In any case, California desperately needs more housing. This seems to be worth a try.
VERY interesting. I lived in Columbia, Maryland for 33 years - one of those planned cities from 60 years ago - and it's interesting to hear people revisiting cities-from-scratch today. Columbia is not a high-density development, but it did take an intelligent and comprehensive approach to planning that made it a good place to live and raise kids. And it was brilliantly located between Baltimore and D.C. Perhaps halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento has some of the same mojo...
Hi Jim, that's the idea! Columbia, Reston, Irvine, and Woodlands are all good examples. We're aiming to build something more walkable and medium density, but otherwise great examples that managed to bring jobs, great schools, and high quality neighborhoods.
This episode was fascinating
I love this episode and others like it about livable cities. I grew up in a walkable community with population density, walk to school, know my neighbors, etc. My only regret with Mr. Sramek's city is that I am too old to be around for its completion and do not expect to get a chance to visit or live there.
great episode. have no clue if this will be built, or come anywhere close to the lofty goals Mr. Sramek described, but love the idea
It’s all going to be run and supervised by a vanilla, regular city government. Sounds ok, right? Who doesn’t think that the future city government of Suisun City will be bought and paid for, by stakeholders of CF? That’s how politics seem to work, and with so much at stake, it’s reality.
I live in the corridor down valley from Aspen and a microcosm of this is being debated right now. Lots of demand for resort and maintenance/construction "staff" and the influx of Zoomers and retirees and multi-homeowners buying up what had been "workforce housing." Resulting in increasing numbers and lengths (hours!) of commutes.
A large for us development (1500 homes + comm'l) just turned down by County Commissioners. A fair bit of infill built, and sort of one new "town" in the last 20 years, but not enough to keep up.
Mr. Sramek once again reveals his lack of seriousness by his mischaracterization of the Capital Corridor train service. Too twisty/windy? The trains are operated by Amtrak, and it is Amtrak’s fourth busiest route in terms of ridership—in the country. The Joint Powers Authority responsible for the service has a 57% fare box revenue recovery. Rolling stock will gradually incorporate new Venture passenger cars and Charger locomotives, both from Siemens. Dave Roberts—don’t drink the Kool-aid!,
“A lot of the angst in America … is downstream of urban design” is a great line, but it’s just not true. If walkability alone created social trust, Italy, home to some of the most walkable cities on Earth, wouldn’t have elected a hard‑right government, and London wouldn’t be dealing with its own well‑documented loneliness problem despite its dense, transit‑rich core.
Urban design won’t fix polarization, inequality, or our fractured media ecosystem. But it can make daily life better: more steps, more casual encounters, fewer stressful car trips, more third places, quieter streets, cleaner air, and more chances to feel part of a community.
That won’t solve America’s biggest problems, but it will make everyday life healthier, friendlier, and more humane, and that’s enough! No need to exaggerate the benefits. Keep up the good work, David, and good luck, Jan.
Hi Jan & David. Thanks for posting this discussion. It does cut to the core and the nexus between energy planning & city planning, which we really have not been doing a good job addressing. In California, we're paying among the highest rates for transportation fuel and utilities. It appears that for 20 years or so, the primary energy resource for this new community will be solar + batteries on a very large tract of undeveloped land located within the ultimate project boundary. What happens after that is unclear, and falls short of a satisfactory answer.
Of course, existing California communities have similar issues, but there are some credible solutions. France & South Korea have already adopted policies mandating solar canopy micro grids, including on-site BESS +Vehicle-2-Grid chargers at ALL existing parking lots over 80 spaces, nationwide, within 3 to 5 years. That's a startling quick roll-out of comprehensive community solar capacity on under-utilized urban land. It equates to a new gas peaker plant for a CA city of 150k population. If we don't get busy developing our community solar energy tier, we're going to continue being exploited by the existing industrial scale BigOil&Gas and utility monopoly tier. We need to do better, starting at the local city council and Community Choice Aggregator level of governance.
I listen every week and always like the conversation, but these two were of another dimension all together! Let's do provide answers to a whole basket of problems with one well designed city for others to immulate.
How will this city manage waste and sewage? For waste, how will it be minimized as well as picked up and then taken for processing? How will this waste infrastructure be created without creating environmental justice neighborhoods? How will food and yard waste be managed? Will there be composting or will it be managed with AD or other methods? Will there be community gardens? If composting, would it be possible to create a circular market for compost both in the city and with local farms? With recycling, would the city restrict or prevent single use plastic? Could it require restaurants and coffee shops use reusable containers? With sewage or waste water, there is an unfortunate prevalence of PFAS, heavy metals and microplastics. It is wonderful to reuse the water, but how will the city prevent against bioaccumulation of PFAS, heavy metals, and microplastics if the water is used on yards and farmlands in the area? Super interesting!
David, I feel compelled to correct you (17th time today, I'm sure. 😄) If a cat turns its ass towards you, that means, "Hey friend, I trust you enough to turn my back on you, and I invite you to smell my ass so that you will recognize my smell on things in the environment that I have rubbed my ass on."
Curious if anyone has done the math on a triangle grid? As in, dot paper?
Edit to follow up: The point is not just flow or minimizing distance but also about maximizing the quality of the spaces between. I have to admit my bias -- cities of pure square grids leave me cold. Emotionally and physically.