Seven generations after his family first settled in Solano County, California, 23-year-old Aiden Mayhood took to the Internet on Monday to make sure he valiantly thwarted a group of bullying tech billionaires and proved his forebears proud.
Seven years ago, a shadowy organization calling itself Flannery Associates began buying up more than 60,000 acres of farmland, pressuring farmers who resisted selling and intentionally ripping families apart. Over $800 million was spent. The New York Times Backers of the project have been revealed to include Silicon Valley heavyweights such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Marc Andresen and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.
They unveiled plans to build an ideal “walkable” city for 400,000 people from the ground up, just 60 miles from San Francisco.
The CEO of the renamed project, California Forever, is Jan Sramek, a 37-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader who immediately faced opposition from local farmers, environmentalists and advocates of orderly growth.
Grassroots opponents banded together to form Solano Together, with Mayhood at the forefront, speaking at rallies and speaking truth to power.
California Forever scored a major victory on Monday when it announced that development would be halted for at least another two years, as part of an effort to allow for an environmental impact study, according to a statement from the group.
Aiden Mayhood, 23, has been fighting for years to protect his family’s farmland and that of his neighbors.
Courtesy of Aiden Mayhood
“This is definitely a win,” Mayhood told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday after learning that California Forever’s utopia plan had been shelved. “But I’m very concerned about what they had planned for the next two and a half years. I just want to know what plans California Forever has in store, because I’m sure they have a lot on their minds right now.”
His cautious optimism was echoed by fellow activist Kathleen Threlfall, 76, who lives on the farm that was passed down to her great-grandparents.
“We are happy today,” she said.
But the other side still has billions of dollars in assets and is notorious for not wanting to lose.
“I’m really concerned about what they have planned for the next two and a half years,” Mayhood added. “I just want to know what California Forever’s plans are, because I’m sure they have a lot on their minds right now.”
Monday’s news is the byproduct of years of on-the-ground organizing in Solano County and, for now at least, a rare victory for the masses against moneyed interests.
Twenty years before Mayhood was born, in 1982, San Francisco real estate developer Hiram Wu announced plans to build a fantastic new city called Manzanita on farmland in Solano County for 5,000 residents.
But what Wu didn’t explain was why Solano needed another city: The county already had seven cities and was populated mostly by ranchers and farmers, including Mayhood’s family.
Among the new arrivals was Craig McNamara, son of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who and his wife, Julie McNamara, had just purchased a walnut farm.
“[We] “They were young, first-generation farmers, and they recognized that a development like Manzanita couldn’t stand on its own in terms of infrastructure and city services,” he recalled in an interview with The Daily Beast.
The McNamaras formed the Solano County Orderly Growth Committee (the precursor to Solano Together) and gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the ballot to limit development within the county’s seven existing city limits. The measure passed, was updated in 1994, and has since been incorporated into the county plan, not scheduled for revision until 2028.
As a result, California Forever needed voters to approve a grander version of Wu’s plan. Sramek tried to pitch it as the East Solano plan as best he could, hoping to get voter approval in November. But many Solano County residents were unclear about how California Forever would address issues like water supply, roads and the overall environmental impact.
There was also the issue of raising taxes.
On Monday, Mayhood checked the East Solano plan’s Facebook page and saw a joint statement from Sramek and Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn saying the issue had been withdrawn for further consideration and would not be on the ballot for at least two years.
“This creates an opportunity for further community input and ensures everyone has access to an objective analysis and the full terms of the development agreement, including the community’s benefits,” Sramek said. “We are confident that this process will enable us to build a shared vision that will be overwhelmingly approved and generate broad consensus for the future.”
Mayhood interpreted this to mean that billionaires turned a blind eye.
He went to the California Forever offices in Rio Vista to check on the opposition, and was surprised to find that Sramek hadn’t told his subordinates about it yet.
“They had no idea that the bill had been withdrawn,” Meyhod told The Daily Beast. “They had no notice. They’re saying, ‘We don’t think so. We’re pretty confident it’s going to be on the November ballot. Where are you looking at this?'”
Mayhood then explored what he saw as evidence of what ordinary people can do when they band together and are determined.
“This has definitely been a team effort and a lot of hard work, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.
“I think their actions show and serve as a reminder that the ends do not justify the means,” he said of the developers, who wanted nothing more than to turn his plowshares into pickleball paddles.
He spoke about people who came to Solano County before him, beginning in the late 1850s.
“Their history, their labor, the long journey they undertook,” he said. “This is where they decided to settle, and it certainly wasn’t easy for them.”
He took up a job as an accountant, but it began with the colonists’ bitter trials.
“I’m very proud,” he said, “but I think they’re proud too.”
Mayhood was asked what he thought they would say to him.
“Keep up the fight,” he said.
