Progress Or Self Destructive Prolificacy?
June 16, 2008 by Big Fella
The scene is the Harbor Freeway (SR 110) in Los Angeles, looking south, on the stretch between the Hollywood Freeway (SR 101) and the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10), in downtown Los Angeles (as viewed from the 7th Street bridge). What is remarkable is that the picture was made on or about June 1, 2008, which is well in to Daylight Savings Time, so judging by the vehicle lights it was either very close to sunrise (between 5:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M.) or close to sunset (between 7:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M.) It is apparent that both the morning and evening commutes in the Los Angeles basin have expanded, starting earlier and ending later.
For most of the period between 1968 and 1987 I worked either immediately adjacent to this stretch of highway in an office tower at Fifth & Figueroa Streets hard on the east side of the highway, or in offices within three blocks of this corridor. Which meant that for most of that time, every morning and every evening I would be in my car, some times alone, sometimes with one or more car poolers, negotiating this traffic and the gridlock on the surrounding surface streets. In 1987 my employer relocated the facility where I worked moving from this area to a new facility in Monterey Park, approximately twelve miles east. None too soon, as in 2000, according to the Federal Highway Administration, the average annual daily traffic along this stretch of road was 292,294 vehicles.
Contemplate the immensity of that number, two hundred ninety two thousand, two hundred twenty four. If every man, woman and child in the city of Newark, New Jersey were recruited to drive those 292,294 cars in Los Angeles, Newark would come up about 10,000 drivers short. One might consider that an exaggeration, as probably many of those vehicles are counted twice, once on the inbound trip and once on the outbound trip. So thinking about this conservatively. there might only be roughly 146,000 unique vehicles, each making two trips across this span of highway, meaning we would only need to enlist the services of every man, woman and child living in Eugene, Oregon as volunteer drivers.
It would seem that I got out of the way of that influx just in time, it would seem…
I first noticed somewhere between 2000 and 2004, that when gazing out the window of my office in Monterey Park, where I had a good view of the Pomona Freeway (SR 60), in the afternoons, beginning at about 2:00 P.M., the east bound lanes of the Pomona Freeway, carrying commuters from the Los Angeles basin to the outlying suburbs, and further in to the “Inland Empire”, traffic would be backed-up, almost as much as is depicted in the image above. (The Inland Empire is an amorphous geographic locale east and south east of Los Angeles County, spanning parts of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. As the urban sprawl has virtually overtaken the entire Los Angeles basin, the Inland Empire has received the bulk of the overflow.) This traffic congestion was occurring almost twelve miles from the business core of Los Angeles and at least two hours prior to the beginning of what had once been the traditional “rush hour”.
Since 1992 I have lived in Chino, California, in the Inland Empire, about 29 miles east of my office in Monterey Park, so that late afternoon back-up of the Pomona Freeway has impacted me, traffic generally being congested along the entire route, beyond my exit in Chino. The company’s move of my office out from Los Angeles having little lasting impact on the gauntlet I have had to traverse on a daily basis. Never really getting away from “L.A. traffic.” I have been very fortunate, though, since about 2005 my employer has allowed me to work from home, and I have not made the commute to the company office at all in roughly two years. My daily commute is now somewhat less than 60 seconds, in total, to and from “work”. No more freeway nightmares for me.
It would seem that I got out of the way of the human and mechanical traffic explosion just in time, it would seem…
This image of Chino was captured circa 1970, exactly when I don’t remember, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since that time. I would have been cruising around in my 1968 yellow, Mustang coupé when not using the car to commute in to Los Angeles. I would cruise far and wide in my free time, gasoline ran about $0.34 a gallon at the time. and there were plenty of wide open spaces to explore.
The exact location of the scene above was at the intersection of Riverside Drive and State Route 71, at the western boundary of the city of Chino. The terrain on the far side of the road was part of the unincorporated San Bernardino County territory of Chino HIlls, the ground where I stood to make the photograph was within the city limits of Chino. Chino, which originated as much of California had, as Spanish land grant ranches, was founded in 1887 and for almost a century life and economic activity in Chino and Chino Hills focused on cattle and agriculture. Chino was dominated by farmland, growing cattle feed and consumer crops, and hosting numerous horse, and cattle ranches, and dairy farms. During the heyday of the Chino Dairy Preserve there were 300,000 cows producing milk in Chino. I could drive from one end of Chino to the opposite end and never see any living beings except cows and horses, the occasional human that I might run across who would be operating some farm equipment or driving a milk truck. At that time probably the greatest density of human population per square mile were the state prison populations at the Men’s, Women’s and California Youth Authority facilities on the south edge of Chino. The prevailing, overpowering scent in the air was of bovine life, the aroma of living breathing cows and the fumes flowing off of massive 50 foot and higher mountains of “fertilizer” dispersed throughout the area. But there was no smog, no noxious chemicals or gases in the air, no human or mechanical congestion, no imbalance of carbon dioxide in the air.
Native grasses covered the Chino Hills and provided plenty of forage for grazing cattle. There was a railroad spur through Chino and the center of town, a few square blocks, was laid out just north of the spur, at the intersection of Central Avenue and Chino Avenue, opposite the center of town, on the south side of the railroad spur was a packing house. Then, as now, route 71 was a relative short highway, its northern terminus at roughly the north edge of the Cal Poly, Pomona campus where it intersects with I-10 and I-57 today, on the eastern slope of Kellogg Hill. In those days there was still quite a bit of equestrian activity taking place at Cal Poly, today the campus may be better known for their hospitality industry school. Route 71 was two lanes from its beginning in the north, to it’s southern terminus on the bank of the Santa Ana River, in the marshlands at the base of Prado Dam, on the outskirts of Corona.
Today my home is about a mile and a half, as the crow flies, from where I made the photograph in 1970. When the family and i moved in to our home in 1992, Green Thumb Farm was directly across the street. Green Thumb Farm was where Earl Scheib raised his thoroughbred horses. (For those of you too young to remember Earl Scheib, in the 1990’s and 1970’s he made his fortune painting cars, he had commercials all over local radio and TV where you would here his catch phrase, “I’m Earl Scheib, and I’ll paint any car for $19.95.”) You would find sheep grazing in a field abutted to the busiest street in town, and you could still buy produce at local farm stands. When ever I walked out my door in 1992, there would be little ambient noise, little human or mechanical traffic, just the always prevalent whiff of cows, and the knowledge that you were removed from the teaming megalopolis.
Today every thing has changed, today the northern terminus of route 71 at the I-10 & I-57 interchanges, carry 312,802 and 262,717 vehicles respectively every day. The southern terminus of route 71 is SR 91and its high traffic corridor including toll lanes squeezing the banks of the Santa Ana River, linking Orange County to Riverside County, is carrying 275,177 vehicles in average annual daily traffic. Shopping centers, strip malls, light manufacturing, distribution warehouses and massive “planned developments” and family homes have spread throughout the city of Chino. The populations of Chino and Chino Hills grew from 19,680 and 20,414 respectively in 1970 to 75,314 and 66,787 respectively in 2000. Green Thumb Farm was replaced in the last decade by about 300 homes. There are no sheep grazing in the geographic center of town, most of the cows have moved north to Modesto, and produce is ordered on the Internet and delivered packaged in plastic.
This last image is of the same area that I photographed in 1970. The red arrow indicates approximately where I was standing and the direction I was facing when I made that image in 1970. The tops of the hills have been lopped off and paved over, with big box national retailers and franchise operations plopped down on the flattened hilltops. The two lane highway replaced with a freeway, the former grazing land replaced by housing developments and automobiles, with probably more square footage in the commercial areas devoted to cars than to either people or the actual store footprints. The industrial area just north of the arrow is a now defunct factory bakery where Wonder Bread was formerly produced, the large white roofed structure to the east, across the street is the local electric utility, and the row of buildings and parking lot just to the north of the old bakery are more big box stores, on former farmland. Ironically, if one were standing on the back side of the big box stores, that is the side opposite their entrances and parking lots, where the public will never venture, you would still have enough elevation to get a spectacular view of the “Chino/Pomona Valleys”, backed up by the San Gabriel Mountains. But residents or visitors of the neighborhood would never know it.
The megalopolis has sent out its tentacles and they have a stranglehold on my home town, nothing is stopping the inexorable march of “progress”, but is it really progress, or just a slow, inevitable death if not for all of humankind, death of a former quality of life? My wife and I might have one more big move in us, one more chance to try and escape the urban disaster zone and move “away” from it all, but those of you who will succeed us, have you thought about how you will cope in a world that is shaped and squeezed more and more by rampant unrestrained prolificacy of population, industry and commerce masquerading as progress?
Cross posted from BFD Blog!
Sphere: Related Content
I live in San Pedro, the town where the 110 begins. Or ends. Congestion is incredible. I’ve been in Chicago the last two weeks, where there is a viable public transportation system including busses and an elevated train - which is how I got around town for these two weeks. I’m about to ask my office for permission to work from home permanently because I cannot stand the traffic. Southern California is a mess, a mess of concrete and over building, and too many cars - this is a telling post, BF.
Diva Joods last blog post..Cost of War in Iraq
I had a job that I loved in Hell-A in the late 90’s. I had to quit it and move back to San Diego..the traffic being my sole reason for packing it in.
Two hours to go what should only take 20 minutes. Rapid transit is the only way with a population and density of Hell-A and surrounding areas.
I have watched the area grow for as long as I can remember, my paternal relatives all living among the Orange groves that used to populate the area around Whittier.
LA is NYC West. They have a good transit system in NYC and surrounding areas. What they offer in LA ain’t shit compared to large East Coast cities.
I am very familiar with the Chino/Riverside Dr area BF.
I grew up in San Dimas. I remember all the citrus groves and the signs that said “Population 7,500″. After the first 20 years, I moved to Newport Beach. Used to commute to Anaheim and Long Beach. You get numb to the traffic. After being away from it, unnumbed, wifey is reduced to tears when subjected to it.
Up here in McKinleyville, you can sometimes see a dozen cars on the 101 all at the same time. That’s rush hour, of course.
Ironically, the greater L.A. area had a world class public transit infrastructure 75 years ago, it was called the Pacific Electric Railway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric_Railway .
It was all discarded in deference to the automobile. But the problem is more than just cars on the road, it is the rampant, uncontested growth of housing and commerce, fed by a national economy and national mind-set of ever more and more consumption, more and more acquisition of “stuff”, without regard for the displacement of the natural world.
Big Fellas last blog post..Progress Or Self Destructive Prolificacy?
I have read about how they systematically destroyed that rail line at the behest of the automobile manufacturers BF.
Such crap..to have to build it all again.
Whew! This seems like a twilight zone story. Damned shame everything got so developed up & congested. You can add public transportation to Divs post- with the list of what we could have funded if we were not paying for illegal occupations.
Hrumph!
We have a tale of 2 Cities here in Oregon. One city, Eugene is fighting blight & sprawl…. while the neighboring city, Springfield is sprawl friendly & a new mayor is running who is contractor/development friendly. Problem is once you take away & develop those open lands, they are gone forever.
frans last blog post..Spot of Tea
Well, you can blame the passage of the 1965 immigration refrom act which has allowed millions of high fertility non-white LEGAL immigrants into OUR America. Post 1965-non-white LEGAL immigration has resulted in a population explosion in the US. If you are a supporter of massive non-white LEGAL immigration into Ametica, you have no basis to complain. Reap what you plant..and some of you have planted millions of non-white LEGAL immigrants in America.
Bring back the Chinese Exclusion Act!!!!
Actually race has nothing to do with it Horace. But of course some folks will always blame the brown and black folks for all their problems.
Bring back Common Sense!!!!!
Horace Grady:
“OUR America”? If you are going to take that tack, then we might as well deport everyone except pure blooded, native Americans… No, they should go too, didn’t they originally arrive via the land bridge from Asia.
“…high fertility non-white”, that’s a racist statement if I ever heard one, and has absolutely no bearing on anything discussed in the posting.
A better target of blame would be the industrial/financial elite, who worship the Chicago School of Economics and believe we should be one great big market place, who lull the American public in to becoming consumer drones, buying more and more stuff and incurring ever more debt in the process, not considering the damage to the environment as more and more stuff is manufactured, and discarded, and more and more resources are squandered, as the industrial/financial elite continue to take advantage of their tax loopholes, and as the basic infrastructure of our country is falling apart.
None of that is the fault of immigrants who are also hard working tax payers.
Big Fellas last blog post..Progress Or Self Destructive Prolificacy?
I don’t care what the color of anyone’s skin is, so I do have a problem with the white part of the “1965-non-white LEGAL immigration” bs. However, I do have a problem with overpopulation, nationaly and planetary. As one of the rats in the cage, I don’t discriminate when more rats are being added to my cage. Just knock it off and control yourselves, fellow rats, before it’s too late.
Big Fella
You are partially right. However, non-white post-1965 LEGAL immigrants are actively participting in the perpertuation of post 1965 immigration. They are not innocent bystanders.The hindu “Americans” have used their massive wealth to uy over 140 members-of the India policy group -of the US Congress.
robwillis
I care very much about the racail compositon of America. So do non-whites. They want to expand their numbers upward to the point of reducing Native Born White Americans a racial minority.If you want to live in a non-white country, there a lenty to chose from.. Native Born White Americans have voted with their feet against the blessings of diversity.
The post-1965 non-whites in California are here to expand,expand and epand even more. They live quadrupled up in the San Gabriel valley. Eventually there will be a break out. California’s endangered species will be wiped out as will California’s ecosystems. But who really cares at this point time. What would be the point of saving these endangered species and ecosystems? I could care less about saving Californias endangered species and ecosystems so the future gene-lines of post-1965 chinese,irannians,pakis,sikhs mexicans and mexicans can enjoy them. After Native Born White Ameicans completely leave California, the post-1965 non-whites will pave California over.
But the White regions of the country will take notice of Calfornia’s destruction. Whites will eventually politically organize around their legitimate racial interests-just like the hispanics,asians and blacks are doing now with the encouragement of leftists and liberals.. The blessings of diversity nonsense will be quickly flushed down the toilet into the cesspool. America will either have a national origins immigration policy that completely exlcudes non-whites or it will die. Environmentally California is a lost cause. The state should be cordoned off and allowed to rot.
Fact:If you include the number of offspring they are having, post 1965 non-white immigrants-both LEGAL and illegal-account for 100 percent of current US population growth.
I suppose the Leftists and Liberal environmentalists will start demanding that Native Born White Americans-fertility at the ZPG level since 1973- stop breeding to compensate.
After the Chinese colonization of the San Gabriel Valley is complete, does China ger to keep the Jet Propulsion Laboratory?
Too bad the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed. In California , it has been replaced with a defacto Native Born White Exclusion act.
I do live in a non-white country, thanks. If you want to live in a country more racist than the United States, there are plenty for you to chose from.
We live in a nation that was set up by immigrants. Any jackass that believes one race has rights that supersede other races is not only delusional, they are pathetically fucked up.
Dusty
America is a nation founded by European Immigrants. Euro-Americans have been a majority since the begining. These are the obvious facts.
The vast majority of oppostion to post-1965 non-white immigration comes from the Native Born White American majority population.
Why should they be in favor of an immigration policy that will reduce them to a racial minority? Can you give them a reason? In addition to being reduced to a racial mniority, why should Native Born White Americans tolerate an immigration policy that allows millions of non-white immigrants to steal their jobs and wages?
Leftist and liberals econcourage the race based politics of hispanics,asians,africans and muslims…within the borders of America..nothing fucked up aboout this right…if you are a leftist or liberal, Don’t be shocked when Native Born White Amerians do the same thing.
And if Native Born Whites finally shut down non-white LEGAL and illegal immigration completetly..to 0..what will you liberals and leftists do then? You can always move to China or Mexico. Leftist and Liberals can’t give any reasons as to why the majority Native Born White population should be in favor of an immgration policy that will over time bring about the complete racial and economic dispossession of the majority Native Born White Amerian population. Leftist and liberals are insisting that the Native Born White American majority commit suicide in the very nation they founded. Yet they are shocked that with each passing year that Native Born White Amerians resistance to this grows.
And if you fed up with sprawl and the destruction of California’s natural beauty,well too bad. If you are an enthusiast of non-white post 1965 immigration, this is the price you have to pay.
Horace,
I am a little tired of the Native Born White folks bullshit. Everyone that lives here has a heritage outside the US. Thats a fact jack.
Get over it.
It’s not about what color you are, its about the content of your character.
Its about the Corporations controlling our government. Its a divide and conquer strategy and they are pretty damn good at it.
The subjects you bring up are a non-issue because you make them about race and color and class.
Dustys last blog post..Jon Turley on the new FISA capitulation bill
huh. i guess i was under the impression that skin color was a facade and that all human beings look alike under it. all of our organs are in the same place and we have brains in our skulls- although some obviously choose not to use them. being non caucasian or poor or non english speaking does not make you any less human. having a need to differentiate based on skin color, religion, or socio economic background- does.
Dusty and Betmo
Race/tribal membership is very important to the hispanics,asians,africnas and muslims who have arrived here since 1965. I find it very hard to beleive that you two are unaware of this.
As I mentioned previously opposition to post 1965 LEGAL and illegal immigration is strongest among Native Born White Americans. Moreover ,the opposition among Whites grows with each passing year.
You and Betmo are living in a fantasy world. Most normal human beings have a strong connection to their race,culture and language.
If leftist can’t explain to Native Born White Americans why they should tolerate post-1965 non-white LEGAL immgration, eventually Native Born White Americans will do what ever it takes to shut down both LEGAL and illegal immigration down to 0.
When Native Born White Americans leave the California-completetly-the hispanics,asians and muslims will breed,breed,breed and breed some more until California’s endangered species and ecosystems are completetly destroyed. California will be transformed into a cesspool. The asians,hispanics an muslims are here to expand. California’s environmetalists will never be able to stop hispanics,asians and muslims living in California from appropriating the habitat of endangered species. Hispanics and asians are quadrupled up in homes in the San Gabriel Valley. Left/liberal environmentalist have no solution to this problem.
Every nation is built up by immigration if you go back far enough in time.
Millions of Native Born White Americans living in China are not interchangeable with millions of Chinese living in China. They didn’t consent to being replaced street by street,town by town, city by city state by state by state by hispanics,asians muslims and africans.
What is that white racist crap? Before my grandmother was raped by a righteous European we were pure Indian. You must be Republican and like usual trying to rewrite History. Silly me I thought we were native Americans! I think you better look at American history! This Nation was founded under liberal principles that you were free to practice your religion and beliefs free of persecution from mindless Republicans as today. Stew in that because you will not hear from me again!
Jims last blog post..Much has been made of Obama opting out of public Financing and McCain is making the most of dirtying Obama but I don’t know if it is good or Bad?
Horace. You will never convince intelligent people, they don’t buy into that shit.Now,you might want to consider this: take your tinfoil hat and go stand on a street corner with a sign that says that the world is coming to an end as you, the white guy, knows it.
Because it is…
Jim and Dusty
Why should the majority Native Born White American population tolerate for much longer post-1965 non-white immigrants entering America? Any reason why they should? How would it be in their interest?
If you can’t give them a reason, post 1965 -LEGAL and illegal imimgration will eventually be shut down. IT it s hard to imagine post-1965 not being shut down. What do you two intend to do when non-white immigration is finally shut down. It’s going to happen.
How will left/liberal environmentalist stop post-1965 non-whites from paving over the habitats of California’s endangered species and California’s ecosystems?
Dusty and Jim are you both in favor of Native Born White Americans increasing their fetility level to a much higher level?
If you are not in favor of completetly shutting down non-white LEGAL and illegal immigration, you are not serious about stopping sprawl in California,and protecting California’s endangered species. You have no basis for complaining. You are just not being serious.
I’m neither Republican nor Democratic. I am White and I am a patriot.
Horace,
Your white and your prejudiced. Not something to be proud of dude.
Patriots come in all colors.
I am seriously contemplating cutting you off boy. Your way out there..and we don’t cotton to racists around here, no matter how how of touch with reality they are.
Dustys last blog post..Article1 of Kucinichs 35 Articles of Impeachment
Dusty,
Aw, let him be.
Sure he’s a racist.
You bet he’s a jackass.
He’s pretty slimy, but let him talk. You don’t have to answer him (unless you get pleasure out of taunting the crapulent asshat, which is a great sport I heartily endorse, BTW).
It’s better the lunatics are out in the open where people can see what crapweasels they are than to force them underground where they can actually do some damage.
I’ve always said that the measure of a democracy is how well it treats its least desireable citizens. I’d say Horace is about as undersirable as they come and is a perfect candidate to hand the First Amendment rope to so he can hang himself with it.
Horace, you need a little help tossing the rope over the limb of the Liberty Tree? I’ve have a couple of migrant farm workers over here who’d be glad to give you a hand. They have their own ladder and everything! They’re clever that way ya know.
you’re white and you’re an idiot. a walking talking advertisement for the horror of your “race.” fuck off, bigoted troll.
bigassbelles last blog post..thanks nancy, steny, barack
Horace won’t be back folks..the spam filter caught him when he tossed out the “N” word which of course makes him persona non grata around these parts.