What is it about Alameda, California, that attracts vintage (read: sometimes just old) cars? Is it the mild weather ... or something else entirely?
Jalopnik has a neat feature called Down on the Street, which features snapshots of cars parked on the street. The Alameda series has more than 400 vintage cars and trucks:
Why does such a small city have so many old cars parked on the street?
Good question, and one to which I have no authoritative answer. I have some theories, which are:
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* The Island That Time Forgot: Alameda is a weird place, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's essentially a David Lynch movie set in a sunny California climate, among Victorian and Craftsman architecture and a small-town mentality that belies its urban grid street pattern and very high population density. The island is full of old people who never cross a bridge, whose original-owner classics never drive faster than 25 and are used only for short trips to Ole's Waffles or Lee Auto Supply. It's also full of young people who start to feel that an old car just, you know, make the most sense. You never know what this town will do to you; Jim Morrison arrived on the island as a wholesome Navy kid, and by the time he departed for LA he'd become a dopefiend weirdo poet.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Buhandi.
I'm almost half tempted to start a DOTS of my own in the little town I currently live in.
Maybe that's part of the reason it's so easy to find all these old cars on the streets on Alameda. There's not alot of weather related wear-n-tear that's going to happen. It's also a pretty small island (what, maybe 8 miles long, 3 miles wide???) with quite a few neighborhood shopping areas, so it's very easy to get by without alot of driving... Dang, I miss it... :-)