It is shocking how quickly California developed from agriculture to this, and how it basically stopped developing further after hitting this point. These photos could just as believably be van nuys in 2026. No wonder why we have a housing crisis. Progress and building to meet demand has been refused for almost 60 years.
San Diego photologs from the 1970s
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Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#22Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#23IMHO comparably, cars today look depressing. So soulless, so similar, so boring. White/grey/silver/black, maybe a few boring blue or burgundy.
Nowadays car brands charge you upwards of $1k to get a special color. And even then, you can only pick from at best 5 colors. It's sad
Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#24Cool project
Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#25It is shocking how quickly California developed from agriculture to this, and how it basically stopped developing further after hitting this point. These photos could just as believably be van nuys in 2026. No wonder why we have a housing crisis. Progress and building to meet demand has been refused for almost 60 years.
I think it's the only possible outcome if sprawl is allowed.
New families with some money spend too much income buying house.
Kids move out, parents get old and don't get out as much. Don't keep up the house, because they need to retire.
Sell house that's only attractive to lower income. Low income statistics take over the area.
Nearby businesses close from everything related to low income statistics.
Repeat with new families and newly built houses at edge of city, letting the interior rot.
Like a slime mold.
Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#26> before pulling into a Texaco to pay $0.34 per gallon for low-lead Fire Chief gas and fill up your "Mellow Yellow" AMC Gremlin.
The nostalgia aside, that's $3.23/gallon today. Cheaper than today with our ongoing war, but same price as Nov 2020. At 20mpg that AMC gremlin was about as fuel efficient as our modern huge SUVs though.
Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#27It is shocking how quickly California developed from agriculture to this, and how it basically stopped developing further after hitting this point. These photos could just as believably be van nuys in 2026. No wonder why we have a housing crisis. Progress and building to meet demand has been refused for almost 60 years.
I think it's the only possible outcome if sprawl is allowed. New families with some money spend too much income buying house. Kids move out, parents get old and don't get out as much. Don't keep up the house, because they need to retire. Sell house that's only attractive to lower income. Low income statistics take over the area. Nearby businesses close from everything related to low income statistics. Repeat with new…
Infill development used to be allowed in California but it stopped in the early 70s when communities turned to zoning to exclude blacks and browns after redlining was made illegal. The many sundown towns did not go without a fight. There are still some pieces of what that infil looked like. The bog standard brick 5 story building you see all over east coast cities can be found in california in parts, often sticking out like a sore thumb because nothing has been allowed to be built to that height since the late 1960s/early 1970s. The dingbat is another example of infill housing that was since made illegal although it was quite popular. Most blocks you see with some sort of apartments were at one point single family home lots, but this sort of development carefully limited to the blocks you now see them instead of widespread throughout the area.
There was even a time when very large highrises were being constructed e.g. Wilshire Blvd's condo canyon. But that was also seen as a blight and quickly stopped in its tracks from expanding beyond the immediate arterial frontage. All hell would surely break loose if you allowed for student housing to be built on the eastern edge of UCLA instead of contained in the sliver of land between the school and veterans cemetery I guess. Unfortunately for the student body, the school is shoehorned in between two prestigious country clubs, and it is clear where priorities lay among local leadership.
Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#28Folks might find the archives of California Revealed interesting - photos, videos that you can filter on place, time, subject, etc.
Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#29Color is magnificent and I can't believe we've lost so much joy on our relentless march to hyper-optimized profit. I recently read another article about how everything has gotten more monochrome, will try to find it again. In scanning some slides from the 1970s, I was struck by the colors of the pants! Bright! Stripes! Fun! I sew shirts and gravitate towards bright prints, and everything tends to stand out because cl…
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Re: San Diego photologs from the 1970s
#30IMHO comparably, cars today look depressing. So soulless, so similar, so boring. White/grey/silver/black, maybe a few boring blue or burgundy.
I don't drive but aesthetically the cars of the '60s - '80s (e.g. a vintage Oldsmobile or Cadillac coupe) are so much better than boxy, oversized modern cars.