Business Owner | 20 Years in Solano County
I moved to Solano County to escape the urban sprawl and expense of living in the Bay Area. I grew up in South San Francisco and Burlingame. Growing up, we knew our neighbors. Our teachers could afford to live in the same town. When billionaires like these moved to the peninsula, real estate soared. It created great wealth but at what cost? Now these billionaires want to destroy the peace and beauty of Solano County, because they don’t want to allow this type of housing in the affluent towns they live in, like Atherton and Woodside. They can afford to live anywhere but they want to sue generational farmers to steal their land for their own investment. Mr. Sramek wants Solano County to look like New York City, Philadelphia, or San Francisco. Is that what you truly believe is best for your constituents? Look at the problems that plague those cities….crime, homelessness, lack of timely medical care. In most of these cities, it takes months to get an appointment because hospital services are overwhelmed. In an article in the Vacaville Reporter, VM Ritchie stated that people like me fear the unknown. What I fear is what has been proven, time and time again.
That unmeasured and uncontrolled growth created by developments like this cause many problems and extra expenses for the citizens that live within the existing communities. Look at cities like Stockton and Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova. Look at the crime rates in these cities and counties that have grown too fast. These 15 minute cities cause strains to the budgets and infrastructure of the county they move into. If Flannery really wanted to help Solano County, they would be investing in the existing cities, redeveloping areas in Vallejo, Fairfield, Suisun and Vacaville that are currently experiencing blight and vacant, neglected buildings. Helping our existing cities to become the Utopias they imagine. But instead they want us to be the serfs that live outside their walled city. Or worse, they want to be our landlords.