Norco

The news tonight reported that the city of Norco, CA, has spent millions to keep their two Chrysler dealerships in service.

Norco -- a southern California city south of San Bernadino -- a hub of suburban sprawl, car dealerships, and big box stores carved out of the desert. As complete a wasteland and noplace as any other noplace in America.

I admit I like Norco; vicodin really works good for me following a couple of hard days on the commuter bike. But I digress. The city of Norco receives 40% of their tax revenue from car sales from their car dealerships, and are so beholden to autocentricity that they were forced to bail out their dealerships lest the city fiscally implode into a black hole.

You know, while my Elk Grove isn't quite so dependent on any one sector for their revenues, the Auto Mall provides such a substantial portion that we are likely just as dependent...car sales down, city bad. Car sales up, city good. Car sales really down, city really bad.

There were so many shitheads out driving Franklin Blvd. this afternoon and evening I question why we should even try saving ourselves. Once our economy is "saved" we'll only return to seventeen million new cars sold here each year with seventeen million new "commuter-consumer" assholes, each thinking Franklin Blvd. is Taladega, Alabama while motoring from the Target in the south to the Big Lots to the north.

This is our culture, and it's repulsive. Norco, CA will soon be the recipient of new car sales revenue from our any-day-now-recovery, along with a few more hours of the I-15 at failure levels of service. Elk Grovians, now accustomed to eased congestion, will soon discover failure levels of service on their six freeway interchanges and collector roads. This is our culture.