Culprit is Ever-present Automobile
We’ve isolated the real culprit in the statewide emotional and far-ranging battle over the growth movement. It’s the omnipresent car.
Whether the argument is over anti-, no-, slow-, limited-, controlled- or managed growth, our beloved cars are at the center of the argument.
We, the drivers of these vehicles, have put them in the controversial spotlight of the continuing fight to define both residential and commercial construction and growth.
The various initiatives seeking to fight off new growth are all car-related--traffic congestion, never enough parking spaces, deteriorating infrastructure, air pollution and lack of rapid transit. The mortality rate involving automobiles speaks for itself.
People, Parking, Politics
In real estate, the bromide of location, location, location will always apply but now we can use it in tandem with people, parking and politics.
Conclusively illustrative of the problem, we have an amazing ratio of people to motor vehicles. The nation’s most populous state has 28 million residents who drive and own 22.6 million cars, motorcycles, trucks and trailers.
The car problem feeds on itself. Our new immigrants, from Asian countries, from the Middle East, Latin America and Europe are constantly adding a new measure to our driver/owner count.
Every 16-year-old who is already here, wants the keys to a car. In our motor-mad city, the typical family has at least two cars or as many cars as there are family members over the magic age of 16.
Valuable Space Consumed
Parking cars in a garage, driveway or street takes up space. Parking cars in business and industrial areas takes up more expensive space. We won’t mention the cost of insurance involved here. Your November ballot will be reminder enough of that sore point.
The car’s primary purpose is transportation, of course, but others need their car or cars for status purposes while less fortunates have used them as their home and shelter. Also, its long-ago advent added a new dimension to romance.
Is there any easy answer to this omnipotent problem? Most of the initiative measures concerned with traffic-related matters suggest piecemeal solutions, at best.
In Japan, they have curbed this problem somewhat, although any visitor would say “street traffic looks just like Los Angeles,” except for a great preponderence of taxicabs.
Japan Has An Answer
With land so expensive and scarce in its major cities, the Japanese have limited the use of cars by requiring the potential buyer of a standard-sized vehicle to show evidence that somewhere there is a specific, legal parking space available for the car. There are exceptions for mini-cars (with engines under 550 cc).
One veteran and pioneer participant of the local construction and growth scene, Abe Bolsky, president of Tishman Construction Corp. of California, is a transplanted Brooklynite and Mets fan.
He suggested at a media luncheon last week that the easterners who become westerners quickly get that “cowboy” feeling and naturally add to our traffic woes.
Once they put on those boots, they want something to ride. The freeways today are full of one-car occupants, he says, all driving in the same direction. And after all, how many cowboys do you ever see on one horse?
