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:
[...]
* 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.
Another segment that he does (yes, Murilee is a guy) is PCH (Project Car Hell) where two (or more) ratty old cars are paired up and voted on, "where you choose the project that's the coolest... and most hellish!" Tons of fun (literally and figuratively!) Oh, and Murilee also does the coverage for the LeMons races, where $500 cars are run in 24 hour
endurance races.
Sadly, Gawker Media recently relegated Murilee to weekend-only duty as part of their cost cutting plan. Too bad because his posts are very well written and about the only thing that keeps me coming back. Guess that's one less thing distracting me from work during the week!
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... :-)
I'm almost half tempted to start a DOTS of my own in the little town I currently live in.