Dream Bigger. Solve Better. Fly Higher.
It's comforting to have certainty in what the answers are to the problems we face in the world. But that's usually not how the world works. We can't control what works and what doesn't work, but we can control how big we dream and how hard we work at solving the problems that stand between us and the realization of our dreams.
Dreaming Bigger
Mojave and California City have tremendous potential to be shining beacons of municipal success and engines for innovation across California, the Unites States, and the world. It really is not far-fetched to envision California City as a desert tourism destination and West Coast renewable energy grid management hub and Mojave as a global hub for aerospace testing, horizontal payload launches, and logistics.
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Together, the two communities could be a terrific "one two punch" to attract investment, create jobs, and make East Kern a region with above average income levels, rather than below average ones. But that's just my dream - I want to hear from everyone in the community about what dreams we could and should be pursuing and then work together to make them happen!
Solving Better
You never know what's going to work and what's not going to work until you try, and anyone who tells you differently is either giving you false hope or unnecessary defeatism. As an entrepreneur and business development consultant, I've found over the years that the best you can do is to be proactive about trying new things and transparently cooperating with everyone else as much as possible.
Two solutions I'd like to try for our community are creating a resume database for local residents and creating pitch decks to promote local tourist attractions. I'd love to hear from all stakeholders in California City and Mojave about how we can build on efforts already underway for both these projects. Once we've coordinated our joint efforts, we should track monthly the number of resumes in the database, the number of new employers, investors, and regional and national community leaders engaged in discussions about East Kern development projects, the number of residents getting better jobs or higher incomes, and the revenue levels of key tourist attractions in and around California City and Mojave.
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If we see those numbers going up each month, we'll know we're on the right track. If we don't see those numbers going up, we have to be willing to pivot and try something else. There’s a big difference between pivoting and quitting, though. There’s an art to balancing “not throwing the baby out with the bathwater” on the one hand and not being afraid to make changes that produce results on the other, and I look forward to working with all the leaders in our community to build on the good things we already have going on to produce constantly improving results.
Flying Higher
California City began over half a century ago as a bold urban planning dream, and over the years, the city has grown to host a wonderful desert tortoise preserve, great off-roading activities, fun regional festivals, cutting-edge automotive testing facilities, significant solar farms, and most recently a growing cannabis industry.
Even longer ago, Mojave began as a key aerospace training and testing location during WWII and now hosts the nationally sought after R-2508 restricted flight corridor, one of the only aerospace testing locations in the country with no speed limit and no vertical ceiling. Over the years, Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field has become legendary for such aerospace firsts as the non-stop, around the world flight of the Voyager experimental aircraft in 1986 and, more recently, the Ansari X Prize, awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures in 2004 as the first private company to send an astronaut to space and return him safely back to earth twice within two weeks using a reusable vehicle which has since become the model for Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Unity tourist flights to space. The town is also home to one of the largest wind energy farms in the United States.
Despite these achievements, California City has yet to fully benefit from the cannabis industry and assume its natural place as a highly sought-after California tourist destination, and Mojave is losing out to Spaceport America and other aerospace testing locations around the country due to challenges attracting investment to build out more hangar space for tenants. Both towns could also benefit from a more purposeful, coordinated approach to managing partnerships with the energy sector. If we dream bigger and solve better together, we can fly to these higher achievements and beyond!