All Cars, All the Time

Millbrae Gets All NIMBY on FSBO Cars

El Camino Real is the main artery that threads down the peninsula and given its status it attracts a lot of cars parked with For Sale signs on them. Well the town of Millbrae has had enough and wants some relief. It seems they've tried the old "paint the curb red" trick and still have a lot of "for sale by owner" cars clogging things up. Potential buyers crawling over the cars, opening doors into traffic, etc.

Now a bill to give local law enforcement agencies the same authority currently granted to the California Highway Patrol and California Department of Transportation to tow away used cars for sale on state roads such as El Camino Real was sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk Monday (7/9/07).

Personally, I've never resulted to parking cars on El Camino to sell them. I've found that Craigslist and Ebay sufficient to dispose of the fleet. Near where I live San Carlos and Palo Alto, near Stanford, have "El Camino dealerships." What's twisted about this is that most new car dealerships along El Camino are dying off. In the last few years Menlo Park has lost every new car dealer it had: Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, GMC, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Chevrolet have all left in search of locations near the 101 freeway. The main gripe of the dealers is that there isn't enough room or passing traffic to support their operations.

General Motors will return to Menlo Park in the next few years as they have purchased a 22 acre chunk of land. MP has agreed to split its sales tax with GM for the first 15 years, or until the company earns back $10 million. Nice incentive!