When Interstate 5 was first imagined, the goal concerned connecting San Diego to the rest of the state in a significant way. Well, it worked. We are so well connected we can barely move. A narrow view permeates every development. I knew the jig was up when Car Country Carlsbad was built.
Urban sprawl needs cars to make it relevant.
In a perfect world, the native habitat would not have been replaced with flower fields and agriculture. But scraping away the flowers to make room for cars was adding insult to injury. We now had a name to live up to. Written off as inevitable, the growth machine has found a home in Carlsbad, and plenty of cars to keep pace. Now that growth has become the official vision of the status quo, nothing is safe.