California Forever has hired Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman to serve as its Head of Public Affairs, according to a press release for the company. Wunderman worked with and praised California Forever in his previous role, and is a longstanding advocate of growth in the Bay Area and broader Northern California Megaregion.
“Jim has spent his career bringing people together to move California forward,” said Jan Sramek, Founder & CEO of California Forever. “He’s been a tireless advocate for expanding opportunity, revitalizing manufacturing, and ensuring that Northern California continues to lead the world in innovation. It’s been a privilege to get to know him over the past two years, and we could not be more thrilled to have him on our leadership team as we work to build the next great American city.”
Wunderman ran the Bay Area Council for the past 21 years, working to expand economic opportunities and bring jobs to the region while promoting growth and innovation.
“Under his leadership, the Council championed the principle that a megaregion has formed and must be nurtured, and that the Bay Area, Sacramento, and the Central Valley must work together as one cohesive Northern California Megaregion to remain globally competitive,” California Forever’s release read.
The Northern California Megaregion claims 12 million residents and $1.5 trillion in economic value, and California Forever described it as “one of the most influential places in the world.”
“Historically, Solano County has been left out of the growth and opportunity that has allowed both the Bay Area and Sacramento to thrive,” the release reads. It’s time to change that, and for Solano County to assume its role as a leader, and a unique bridge, between these two regions, and between California’s past and its future.”
Wunderman said Solano County is too strategically important to be kept remote for open space and “low value agriculture.” While he emphasized that open space is important, he said he believes the Bay Area has too much of it.
“If you really like empty, there are other places to go that are emptier than Solano County, and you should go,” he said.
Wunderman argued that California has overprotected open space in its regional planning efforts rather than evaluating the needs of the community as a whole and the opportunities for everyone to share in the benefits that the region’s natural resources provide.
“I have dedicated my career to smart regional planning, that is what the Bay Area Council sort of gets to, and I don’t think it’s fair for a person to ascribe their values and say ‘I have a home over here, but you cant have one over there,’” he said.
Over the last couple of generations, Wunderman said, California has been too oriented toward saying “no” to growth and development. He said a tour of the site proposed for the Solano Shipyard illustrated this point.
“I was kind of shocked at how nothing was there,” he said.”Is this a good use? The land is kind of all of ours.”
Wunderman said he has been involved with bringing new cities to California for the last decade and a half, and has long been interested in the opportunities greenfield development offers that infill efforts do not. After working with the company, discussing it with Head of Planning Gabe Metacalf and meeting with Sramek, Wunderman found himself increasingly excited about the opportunity California Forever presents to the area. As the Chairman of the San Francisco Bay Ferry System, he said he is particularly interested in the opportunity to bring shipbuilding back to the region.
“I am frustrated, and I publicly and consistently state my frustration that the ferries we are building are in Washington state,” he said. “We should be building them here.”
Having advocated for regional economic and housing growth for decades, Wunderman feels the new role is a logical and consistent next step for his career.
“This project really epitomizes what the Bay Area Council is about and the turn we have to take as a society,” he said.
Wunderman said he believes regional political leadership needs to do more to create opportunities for young people in the region. He acknowledged the need to balance preservation with bold new ideas, but argued that leadership’s primary responsibility is to the next generation.
“I think there is a penchant for the status quo, and it tends to reflect itself in political leadership,” he said.
Wunderman argued that Solano County currently faces an important choice: The county can remain on the fringes of two very important economic areas, or it can choose to benefit from becoming the beating heart and crossroads of a larger one.
“I think if we can open up Solano County a little bit, it really does create a bridge for this greater megaregion,” he said. “It’s going to put Solano County in the middle of it.”
Wunderman also said California needs more new cities statewide to serve as engines of economic growth.
“I love the name California Forever, because I think this can be replicated in other parts of the state and I think it needs to be,” he said.