[MackSteelPrivateEye]

Sad to see ATCO go. Let us now all bow our heads a pray..shall we?

[FrostySS]

Originally Posted by cellsafemode

(also from the area but bailed)

Lol.. you live in California...your opinion on other states is completely irrelevant.

[cellsafemode]

Originally Posted by FrostySS

Lol.. you live in California...your opinion on other states is completely irrelevant.

I lived in pa and nj for the first nearly 30 years of my life. I'm well qualified to label nj as a crap hole. Even their state motto is a joke...the garden state? Gardens where? in the swamp scattered central nj or the industrial wastelands to the north and south? Or maybe the gardens are in the paid public beaches?

What state is doing things right? You have the bible belt states that keep trying to legislate religious based laws, you have an incumbent system in all states that makes unseating corrupt politicians extremely difficult. You have a bunch of states gerymandering their districts. You have pretty much every state giving away tax breaks to huge businesses that make tons of profit that they shuffle around so they pay lower % taxes than most citizens and that profit ends up in the pockets of the rich who hoard their money - effectively removing it from circulation.

Which states are incentivizing low income housing that isn't intended to create ghettos? What states are doing something about runaway health care costs? What states have a good legal system in place that's not incentivizing filling jails or creating environments that make it easier to turn to illegal activities than legal ones? Which states do all that and generate more money to the fed than they take back?

They all suck, but there are plenty that suck less than new jersey in ways that make your daily life much improved. The salting of the roads alone is enough to make it worth moving out if you like driving your car.

[RageWorx]

I shouldn't have brought politics into this thread and for that I apologize I was still angry about the news ... NJ would be terrible no matter who was in control this is so true LOL.

We should probably just focus on another Big Name Fast track closing for a salvage yard/housing developments, Supporting Island Dragway if you live in NJ or ways that it might be possible to convince someone else that there is enough of a market to build a new strip somewhere in the state ........ anything to keep this from continuing to happen again really.

-Jon

[cellsafemode]

they use noise ordinances around here to keep tracks limited in when they can operate, in addition to what can be operated on them.

Thing with tracks is that they have to pull in more than just pro's to stay funded. That means lots of people bringing their mostly stock cars to race. That means they have to be near people (people tend to travel less distance when living in higher density areas because it takes longer to go anywhere). The NIMBY crowd is always going to oppose tracks. NIMBY ruins all things fun no matter what it is.


On top of that, i dont think the younger crowd really gets excited for the prospect of going wot for a quarter mile. You can pretty much scratch that itch getting onto any freeway in most places. People want the curvy tracks to play on and they're not nearly as cheap and just as opposed as drag strips. I think the golden age of drag strips was back when the speed limits were capped at 55. now you can regularly drive 80-90mph and get passed by people and that's the flow of traffic...not isolated speeders. Accelerating to that speed is plenty fast for most people.

[kevint]

Would be ironic if Atco was sold to AA Auto Salvage

[Joey Soul]

Island and atco are both almost 2 hours away from me. Etown was the local track, as soon as i got my car it shut down. I cant imagine going all the way to island to sit behind every drag racer in the tri state area at this point.

[Deputy Dog]

Originally Posted by MackSteelPrivateEye

Sad to see ATCO go. Let us now all bow our heads a pray..shall we?

[Fraxum]

Originally Posted by cellsafemode

track death has nothing to do with political leaning. It has everything to do with how expensive it is to live in a given are.

If your area has a high cost of living, you can bet any existing tracks are in the process of being shut down ... if not outright, then by ever more strict rules until they do.

Also, yes, the car enthusiast / gearhead hobby is dying. Cars are shifting ever more into a "user" role than an ownership role with the cost of really owning your car increasing exponentially if it's even possible at all due to software you can't modify without venturing into the grey area of reverse engineering / circumventing protection mechanisms. That along with anecdotal stories of insurance companies cancelling your insurance when they find out you tracked your car is plenty to scare people away from the track. So who would invest in new ones with the existing ones not doing great even when they're not being shut down?

btw, jersey would be a crap hole whether it was neutral, left or right. It's always been a crap hole. It's filled with people who can't afford to live in new york city or philadelphia. The political offices are the reference material for any tv show/ movie with corrupt ex-mob-like politicians.

(also from the area but bailed)

Agreed, but the Jersey shore and the Jersey girls are both really nice.

[FrostySS]

Originally Posted by cellsafemode

I lived in pa and nj for the first nearly 30 years of my life. I'm well qualified to label nj as a crap hole. Even their state motto is a joke...the garden state? Gardens where? in the swamp scattered central nj or the industrial wastelands to the north and south? Or maybe the gardens are in the paid public beaches?

What state is doing things right? You have the bible belt states that keep trying to legislate religious based laws, you have an incumbent system in all states that makes unseating corrupt politicians extremely difficult. You have a bunch of states gerymandering their districts. You have pretty much every state giving away tax breaks to huge businesses that make tons of profit that they shuffle around so they pay lower % taxes than most citizens and that profit ends up in the pockets of the rich who hoard their money - effectively removing it from circulation.

Which states are incentivizing low income housing that isn't intended to create ghettos? What states are doing something about runaway health care costs? What states have a good legal system in place that's not incentivizing filling jails or creating environments that make it easier to turn to illegal activities than legal ones? Which states do all that and generate more money to the fed than they take back?

They all suck, but there are plenty that suck less than new jersey in ways that make your daily life much improved. The salting of the roads alone is enough to make it worth moving out if you like driving your car.

My post was a joke, nice ramble though, no one cares chief lol

[cellsafemode]

but they do care. The issue here isn't state specific though ...nor is it left/right/political.
People want to live rich, rich people want to stay rich and money has the ability to impose the will of a few on others.

Once you get that ball rolling in an area, it keeps rolling. Whether it's new rich neighborhoods that suddenly find the airport they built around out of convenience too noisy now and want it changed or moved or new neighborhoods built around existing race tracks because the land was cheap since it was in the middle of nowhere and they want them shut down.. It's wealth that does this.

You combine that to the general young population being trained over their life to not modify things because that's illegal or wrong or costly or dangerous along with not having the income to handle a hobby involving their only mode of transportation in most cases...and it's basically doom across the board for gear head hobbies.

How often even in here do we say to not do xyz because of the warranty? Why is that so much more important now than it was decades ago? Warranties existed then too but people modded their new cars with abandon. Have we gotten poorer (yes) or has the balance of power shifted from the consumer to the manufacturer so much that we are like this now?

I have an extremely pessimistic view when it comes to the near future of car enthusiasts. And I could see how anyone in the motorsport business would want to get the hell out now rather than wait.

[MackSteelPrivateEye]

Originally Posted by cellsafemode

but they do care. The issue here isn't state specific though ...nor is it left/right/political.
People want to live rich, rich people want to stay rich and money has the ability to impose the will of a few on others.

Once you get that ball rolling in an area, it keeps rolling. Whether it's new rich neighborhoods that suddenly find the airport they built around out of convenience too noisy now and want it changed or moved or new neighborhoods built around existing race tracks because the land was cheap since it was in the middle of nowhere and they want them shut down.. It's wealth that does this.

You combine that to the general young population being trained over their life to not modify things because that's illegal or wrong or costly or dangerous along with not having the income to handle a hobby involving their only mode of transportation in most cases...and it's basically doom across the board for gear head hobbies.

How often even in here do we say to not do xyz because of the warranty? Why is that so much more important now than it was decades ago? Warranties existed then too but people modded their new cars with abandon. Have we gotten poorer (yes) or has the balance of power shifted from the consumer to the manufacturer so much that we are like this now?

I have an extremely pessimistic view when it comes to the near future of car enthusiasts. And I could see how anyone in the motorsport business would want to get the hell out now rather than wait.

Drag strips are a good way to pass time on a weekend night. Keeps people off the streets from robbing, looting and shooting.

[arpad_m]

@cellsafemode, congrats on your 3000th post You hit the nail on the head, but still we must never give up, if we do, this sick mindset has already prevailed. By the way, I've met plenty of great people here in NJ, and while it may seem corrupt a-holes are the majority because of how loud they are, that isn't really the case in my (limited) experience.

[cellsafemode]

Originally Posted by MackSteelPrivateEye

Drag strips are a good way to pass time on a weekend night. Keeps people off the streets from robbing, looting and shooting.

I think the majority of america would rather have their quiet investment of property and lock the restless up in prisons than have constructive outlets for youthful energy.

It costs more overall, but as long as they can shift that cost to someone else in their mind, it's a better option.

NIMBY will always beat out the good of society.

and their power grows as the cost of having a backyard grows.