Today, I heard Jack Foster Jr. speak. The Foster family built Foster City from what was called Brewer's Island strating in 1958.
http://www.fostercity.org/community_info/Introduction-to-the-History-of-Foster-City.cfm
I always thought Foster City as a very-well planned community. Every home had water view and the engineering prevented flooding and liquefaction. I was in awe to listen to the story from the man who was there from the very beginning.
Besides his involvement in a iconic project, Mr. Foster also gained my respect when he said that we must address the housing crisis in California. He pointed out that the real estate market can crash because of 1. too much housing feeding to the economy or 2. the economy restricting b/c workers cannot afford to live here. Right now, we are heading down path number 2, with option number 1 receiving no support from the existing residents and policy makers.
I got into the real estate development business because I want to build affordable housing. Here in the Bay Area, that mission is just to build housing period. I love it here, but I will leave the Bay Area if it means that the people here are not going to support the development that is necessary to increase diversity.
