The Deal with Natomas
Natomas is a catastrophe waiting to happen, the tortured fever dream of land-happy developers and tax-hungry city officials who find it very hard to say “no” to more people and more tax base. There are just so many reasons to be uber-skeptical of North North Sacramento:
1. People who bought houses next to an airport and then complain that the airplanes are too loud.
2. The Army Corps designating the area as having 100-year flood protection so developers could have their saucy way with the land, and then after Katrina telling developers, “oh, just kidding–it’s more like 50.”
3. Thundermall and its sole means of ingress and egress: Two Cars Go In…One Car Comes Out.
4. The rash of foreclosures looming on the horizon as more and more of the adjustable rate mortgages on beige homes start to ratchet up. Cue brown lawns and discoveries of Elk-Grove-like pot houses.
5. How horrible it will be to live and drive out there when I-5 is undergoing construction downtown to fix the leaks in the boat section.
6. The terrible land use that is ARCO Arena and its acres of runoff-producing asphalt.
The list goes on, and I will admit that there are a few good things about Natomas: first and foremost, the Ueda Parkway. And the shuttle driver from the economy lot to Terminal A was pretty cool on Monday evening.
I guess I just see it as yet another opportunity to not be Los Angeles squandered. There are few, if any, identifiable neighborhoods, there is minimal retail within walking distance, and mass transit is less than a joke–perhaps one of the stronger panels of “Family Circus.”
We could have done so much better.
I’m glad you posted this. I’ve been thinking about Natomas in a similar vein for some time. I did note on a foreclosure map I was looking at recently that Natomas is currently one of the leading neighborhoods in this region…in regards to foreclosures. Every other house is about to be bank-owned–it seems.
Two things:
1.) It baffles me why more people looking at Natomas property don’t stop to think “hey, why IS the land so flat here? It’s like it’s been constantly washed down and smoothed out. Hmm, that’s cool.”
2.) Watch the LA bashing! LA rocks. Don’t try to conform it to what hip urban planners want you to believe is A City (TM). It’s its own thang, and it ain’t no bother to anyone else except those who sit and are bothered by it.
Didn’t mean to bash. I’m actually down in LA right now–just got back from a run from Olympic & Alvarado down to the USC campus. It’s just amazing how many people are here and on the go. Kids playing soccer in a dirt field, businessmen in top-down Porsches, parents and kids zipping around…Los Angeles certainly has more character and is more “alive” than Sacramento!