Twenty Ten

South of Elk Grove Blvd., lying in wait, is the grand Laguna Ridge development. The planned design is for 7,767 homes on 1,900 acres, but these 'tough economic times' has halted progress on what would have been the Shining Star, the Crowning Jewel in our suburban slum.

I dunno, perhaps each unit was designed to hold 3.1 human units, or about 24,000 in total. That's 12.5 human units per acre...or a density of 8,000/square mile, which actually seems pretty good, pretty dense relative to Houston or Atlanta. I wonder if I'm doing this calculation correctly.

But it's waiting until 2010, so says all the interested stakeholders, for 8% growth to reappear, when housing comes back with a roar, like wildfire.

By 2010, the scent of arctic drilling will cause oil suppliers today to increase production (with the obvious expectation that future oil will flood the market and cause future prices to drop), and this will lead back to $1.79 gas. You were short-sighted on buying that Chrysler Pacifica and the $2.99 gas guarantee. Laguna Ridge was underwritten (or I should say Master Planned) by cheap gasoline, with not a single bus stop or median income job 'planned' within an 8 mile radius. But then, Elk Grovian single use zoning forbids anything, including strip retail, from lying in proximity to housing units. Strip retail is still present, but at the fringes, at the intersections of the collector roads. They're mixed use on the map, but that means "large format retail with apartments." I have little faith in our city's ability to create a correctly scaled, mixed use development...that isn't isolated from everything else people need access to. I will reserve judgement, but my gut feeling tells me that almost all trips, no matter how short, will require the use of a collector road at Laguna Ridge. "Drive your fucking car(s) if you want to live here," says the coloured brochure.

And and! by 2010 our much ballyhooed Outdoor Strip Mall will finally open, the open air promenade...which today announced it would not open in the fall of '09 as expected. "We're just not seeing the retail sales we'd like to see in Elk Grove." Uh-huh. Postponement until the economy recovers. Seeing how we've never even been in a recession these last two years (we've always maintained positive GDP), how can these be tough economic times? What, 2% growth isn't enough to open more strip retail?

2010. Only 17 months away!