Chapter 4, letter to Governor Brown: Combine the two issues to be really creative and forward-looking. And it makes financial sense.

Governor Brown, you are the perfect actor to articulate a vision of the future for California, in which carbon emissions are reduced through innovative urban design, bringing housing to its residents.

• It would reduce carbon emissions, by encouraging walking, bicycling, and public transportation. I’m a Californian, so I understand most people need a car for kids, groceries, and spontaneous trips. But let’s add other options, and reduce the use of automobiles. Existing mass transit will be used more intensively, improving its value to local governments.. 
• It would revitalize California's decaying downtown areas, bringing residents and businesses into city centers, with their need for services, groceries, and transportation.
• It would create safe, modern housing for teachers, seniors, landscapers, bookkeepers, restaurant workers, daycare workers... you get it. People who aren't upper-middle class. 
• Developers are smart in judging the market and returns. They'll be partners in revitalizing downtown areas and coming up with new ideas. I think they will suggest ideas that will improve in energy efficiency, safety and security, business interaction, and social involvement. I suggest looking at urban sites of obsolescent retail malls, vacant, and unlikely to be filled up with old-style retailers using hundreds of thousands of square feet.  
• It would create construction jobs. 
• It makes great financial sense. Future tax credits, and encouraging developers to borrow money to build affordable housing in city centers which are languishing, and getting paid back? Smart move. 

Thanks for your time reading this, or for the time it took to change the web page. To be fair to you and other state officials, nothing I'm saying is new or unique. However, no one has put it together into an effective program that creates results. This is an opportunity for you.

If you'd like, I'll make myself available to the State of California as a volunteer board member. However, I am planning on running for President in 2020, against Donald Trump and Kanye West, so I'll need to keep some flexibility in my schedule. 

Best Wishes,
Bruce Haulley, CCIM