The silver lining to the housing woes

For skaters anyway:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/us/29pools.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

In reply to Tim Baxter:

Now if only we could find a way to get some fresh autocross sites

The failure of commercial real estate is close at hand, so there might be something there.

wouldn't it be great if each region could get a bespoke rallycross, and autocross venue...centrally located preferably.

wow, skaters who admit to packing out their trash and not tagging the pools or breaking into the houses? what's this world coming to? back when i was skating pools, this kind of responsibility among skaters other than myself was unheard-of.

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/gatesville-tx-76528-1101436415/ after germany this is where I plan to settle, rallyx every weekend? Pave a few acres? Ahhh dreams well the pavement part anyway

Blowing up spots like that is a felony in the skate world.

That should be a well-kept secret and now it's in the NY Times. There is a special place in hell for whoever let that story go public.

FuelTV did an amazing documentary called "Skating Through the Ashes" about the pool scene that emerged from the Northern Califormia wildfires in 92 or 93. It was a moving piece, actually.

I've been wondering what good could become of big box stores after they close down. It seems like they would be great for affordable museums or libraries, if the construction is still sound.

do i see an underground winter indoor karting group starting in northern winters?

for awhile we had a vacant former walmart (thing moved to larger building at the mall) that i had nasty thoughts about the kind of indoor kart track that could be fit in there

My b-i-l has a small bowl in his living room. No, really. I'll have to post pics.

A group of us were considering opening an indoor kart track and we looked at a vacant Wal Mart. One of our group knows a local WM muckety muck so he went to him, sorta cutting through the red tape, just asking what it would cost to rent the building. Next time I saw him he still had a shell shocked look.

A movie theater recently closed near my house. If I could figure out some way to profit by having autoxes there I'd definitely buy it. Alas, no bank will loan me a half-mil based on my "I want to drive real fast in the parking lot" business plan.

We have an indoor Kart track here. It's pretty sweet. Has slot cars, too.

A big box store would work nicely. You don't want to go to the retailer, though. You want to find one that's boarded up, then go to the city. You'll get the building, plus a nice incentive package. Cities hate boarded up buildings, especially big ones.

The problem around here is that the big box stores that hre closed are due to the retailer opening a newer bigger store often within a few miles, so the city doesn't really get involved. Lots of times they get knocked down and replaced by an apartment complex, etc. The old shipyard has some pretty sizeable buildings but they are best suited for manufacturing operations.

If the economy stays down for a while, yeah we might see a few that go to the city.

Tim Baxter wrote: We have an indoor Kart track here. It's pretty sweet. Has slot cars, too.

Same here (sans the slot cars, sadly, but does have an arcade...), but the cars are electric rentals. It's part of an old industrial park (somewhat still functioning) that also includes a rock gym as well as a fitness gym.

There are empty warehouses all over the place around here... office buildings as well... and of course, they continue to build more...