Photo: Here in Van Nuys
Very soon, sooner than we might imagine, there will most likely be hundreds of dealerships, all over California, whose vast acreage will be emptied.
People are simply not buying or leasing as many cars. Auto companies are not producing. There is a depression in the car industry.
What can we do with the leftover land underneath these closed dealerships?
I wish that these enormous plots of oil soaked asphalt, which once existed and thrived as a testament to our voracious hunger for cars, would somehow be converted back to orange groves or some agricultural use.
Culver City has a wonderful farmers market, that comes here Tuesday afternoon. What if this “progressive” city were to tear up this defunct auto dealership and plow its asphalt into dirt and grow organic fruits and vegetables here?
Humans will always need to eat. Our appetite for the gasoline powered automobile is not eternal.

This lot is already slated to be developed into mixed use apartments with retail stores beneath to take advantage of the expo light rail line that will have a station nearby. It was featured on Curbed LA a few months ago…
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This location, alas, will most likely end up as a parking lot for the Expo Line that will end (for now) at the nearby corner of National & Robertson.
Tim
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That doesn’t sound all bad. As long as it is not ALL parking lot, ALL the time.
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