For the last week or so, Jalopnik's San Pedro office has taken up temporary residence in Sacramento and our bureau chief must admit that he giggled a little bit when proponents of carpool lanes on I-80 in the Natomas area got shut out of a large allocation in funds that will go to improve the 405, the 5 in LA and other freeways throughout the state. But it's really just because we've come to loathe Natomas. What was a floodplain when Los Jalops were wee has become a sea of crackerbox condos and small-lot large new houses, along with a smattering of McMansions, all garnished with strip after strip of craptastic chain stores.
It's the California that was never supposed to come here, but unchecked growth and the real-estate panic of the last half decade has tossed a stifling blanket over the only Central Valley city with a modicum of charm. We say keep 'em gridlocked out there. Then all we have to do is wait for a real rain to come and wash the yuppie scum off the streets. Apparently, the California Transportation Commission thinks like tha Jalop.
Last push on Natomas carpool lanes [Sacramento Bee]
Related:
Carb Party! Throw the SUVs to the Wolves! [Internal]