In the midst of California's biggest downturn, Ventura mayor Bill Fulton is thinking
in unpredictably optimistic terms. (Photo Credit: Kim Daniels and Shannon Pence)

Ventura's Bill Fulton is hardly your run-of the-mill mid-sized city
mayor. So, no surprise that in the middle of California's biggest
downturn, he's thinking in unconventional and unpredictably optimistic
terms.

A nationally recognized scholar, Fulton is the author of several
books on urban planning. A city council member since 2003, the newly
appointed mayor's relatively rosy outlook is buoyed by Ventura's low
foreclosure rates and a high percentage of government jobs.

Fulton lauds the city's deliberate policy of moderating real estate
growth during the boom years, a measure that kept scads of houses from
being built and peddled irresponsibly with sub-prime mortgages. In
addition, the city has banked upon its large and fairly secure job base
of government employment. As the county seat, neighbor to an enormous
naval base, and hub to many Ventura County and Santa Barbara residents,
Ventura only felt a slight tremor from what could have been a
catastrophic economic shaker, says Fulton. Ventura is hardly an
economic oasis. But neither is it the smoking crater that so many other
California cities have become.

Even with a considerably stable economy, Ventura adopted $11 million
in budget cuts for 2009/2010 and has no planned growth in terms of
industry or business. "We're in the process of reinventing ourselves
economically," says Fulton, who has lived in Ventura for nearly 25
years. He's also counting on his decades of research in urban planning
to help transform Ventura into a prosperous and stable city.

Mayor Fulton points to the Ventura Ventures Technology Center as a
driving force in the city's economic make-over. This high-tech
incubator opened a year ago as a result of local government's interest
and investment. The purpose of VVTC is to foster what it calls "a
creative environment where high-tech companies and entrepreneurs can
network with each other, brainstorm their ideas and grow their
business."

Located just behind city hall in downtown Ventura, the facility
boasts ample office space, standard office amenities, and affordable
rental rates ($200-$300 a month per workstation).

VVTC is just one effort by the city and its new mayor to attract
high-tech entrepreneurs to Ventura. Fulton is confident the
incubator--along with the city's first venture capital firm,
BuenaVentura Fund--will continue to attract high-tech and bio-tech
start-up companies resulting in significant economic growth.

In this video from our interview, Fulton envisions a city of the future while weathering the storm of the present.

Students from Annenberg's News 21 team, in partnership with KCET's "SoCal Connected," are reporting around Southern California to find out what happened to the California Dream and where we're headed. For more stories on the California crisis, visit our Dream Interrupted Web page.