TOPIC:

Couldn't make this up if we tried.

This kind of cr@p is what turns normal people against the guys that populate the common brain dead virtue-signaling dregs of society who get their little panties in a wad over a race track being a race track.   Can't really use certain other desired descriptors of the 'neighbors' here, or we'd without a doubt catch a ban.  Feel free to fill in the _____ in your minds.

www.thedrive.com/news/a-public-nuisance-...ck-want-it-shut-down

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

This sort of stuff has been going on for years as new developments have been popping up. Here in the KC metro area we had an old dragstrip called KCIR, been there since 1967. Died in 2011 because of a very lucrative power play by some high profile property owners in the surrounding area. Claire McCaskill, Christine Kemper (of the sports family) and others which owned sizable tracts of property close to it. Because they had political ties they used the Codes Enforcement division to pester them continuously. Not near as popular as Your mentioned Laguna Seca but same concept. I'm highly surprised that the NASCAR track is allowed to operate in KCKS, suppose ALL that revenue makes it "acceptable".     

If you don't like the smell or noise of animals don't buy a house next to a farm. 
If the track was there before the dwellings were built OR before the residents moved in then who's the idiots. 

Personally I'd pay more, and have done, to be close to a track (brands Hatch) just for the smell of castrol R on two-stroke Tuesdays. I can hear and smell Brands Hatch from my back garden. Shame I can't see the track from any of my windows though. 

A name that comes to mind is Karen's. We use to have Lyon's drag strip. Ontario motor speedway and a few others here in CA but it's the same old story. They move out here to get away from the city by doing so they create more urban sprawl turning the new area into what they'd just left. Yeah back in the 60/70's the smog was so thick you could "cut it with a knife" so to speak but with the newer cars that was cut down drastically. Still the smog would stop at the hills in Colton  and even though it's a lot better when you reach the top you can see the smog layer as you drive into it. The race tracks are long gone, the smog is coming back and heading East as the sprawl heads that way. 
In the 60's they took out all the cable cars, trains servicing the West coast, outlying areas then used them for break waters so they can have their bays, piers and such bringing in more boats, traffic, buses with people to cause more smog. I remember Venice with their canals, Santa Monica pier, clean beaches, clams, Grunion  hunting, Starfish, Seals, Lobsters and all the rest that made this state and wonderful place to live in.  It's all gone now and what's left is like living in a third world country.  Where I live I can see from the pass over the Little Chocolate Mountains all the way past Indio to watch as the smog and blow sand passes us by but up here our air stays pretty clear even on really bad days.  
They say that's progress, I say that's Progressiveness and they can keep it. 
A great man once said "Power is fleeting" and I see they're losing theirs little by little. In time things will come back full circle where common sense, honesty and integrity will prevail and we can fix this mess. 
BTW, there's a new race track down valley. It's called Chuckwalla Valley raceway. Haven't been there yet but it's on my to do list. 
Steve
chuckwalla.com/motorcycle-events

Same thing happened in Colorado with Bandimere Speedway. Entitled karens built houses near the track and then got it shutdown. The lack of integrity these days is absolutely disgusting.

many drag strips / oval tracks in the midwest have been closed down by the same "Karens".  They move near the track that has been there for decades and complain about the noise.  Santa Fe Speedway and Oswego drag strip are two of the ones I used to frequent as a young punk that are now just a memory on someone's vintage T-shirt.  If you see an old lady (A.K.A. Karen) driving by herself in a Subaru wearing a face diaper feel free to run her off the road for the public good. (just kidding of course)
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Wheelhop wrote:

many drag strips / oval tracks in the midwest have been closed down by the same "Karens".  They move near the track that has been there for decades and complain about the noise.  Santa Fe Speedway and Oswego drag strip are two of the ones I used to frequent as a young punk that are now just a memory on someone's vintage T-shirt.  If you see an old lady (A.K.A. Karen) driving by herself in a Subaru wearing a face diaper feel free to run her off the road for the public good. (just kidding of course)

Just a smile and a nod of the head would do it. 

Steve
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Here it's what used to be called Seattle International Raceway (SIR) now know as Pacific Raceways. It was back in the woods away from everything, a good facility with a drag strip and a road course. It's still around but has been smothered by Karen's. We used to have an event called 64 Funny Cars. It started on Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday evening. We went on Friday's and camped all weekend. The racing ran late into the night to get through the 64 car field by early Sunday evening, it was great fun.

Then a giant housing development was built next to the track. Soon after the noise complaints commenced. Then the lawyers showed up and next thing you know all racing has to be done by 10pm along with a bunch of other stifling rules. That killed off the event because there was no longer enough time to run it. The Karen's won and stomped all over drag racing in the NW. It was years before the national events came back and even now they are strangled by all kinds of regulations.

Luckily where I live now the Karen's haven't been successful in overrunning us. Back around 05' a developer tried to put in a "mini city" of 10k people. Even though there's no city water or sewage in the area. You can't put in 5k wells and  septic tanks in a 320 acre property.
To run city water and sewage into here they would have to cross flood plain or attempt to make a deal with the tribe to cross the reservation. We have flood plain on 2 sides, salt water to the west and the Tulalip reservation to the south.
It all ended with the bust of 08'. The developer was mortgaged to the hilt on those properties and lost it all. The 320 acres is still vacant and growing trees. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Back in 01 Bill Gates, Olyphant and their cronies wanted to put in a major development 700' from me, behind and below our community going E to Indio Hills going down all the way to the FWY. When asked how the new people would get in and out of here Gates said "We'll just extend Cook Street from the FWY out here". That meant we would be surrounded by high density housing, stores and all that would come with it destroying our area and way of life. We all got together and went to the Planning Commission meetings demanding this wouldn't happen. Our supervisor was for us, the other four went along with him so they asked us what we wanted for our area. We told them we wanted a 5 ac minimum not the 1 1/4 ac that was approved 10 years before to prevent developments like this in the future. The board approved it and Olyphant complained about property he had bought he couldn't now use. Gates told him he would buy it from him then donate all the land to the Mountain Conservancy and other agencies. That sounded great until they started blocking off all the land out here. Now no one can use it and we find it's just another step in their  Agenda 21. 
If we can't use it nobody can. 
Steve
 

The Laguna Seca land was transferred to the Monterrey County parks department back in the 70s:  doing this probably signaled their death knell. The land was originally part of Fort Ord and was leased to the organization that built the race track, so the racetrack may not have ever owned the land. The Fort Ord land was purchased by the federal government in bits and pieces over a number of decades as the military base was expanded, so I assume it was the federal gov't that deeded the land back to California; most of Ford Ord was transferred to the state after the base closed. Laguna Seca pumps about $60M into the local economy and generates $5M in tax revenue for the county.  

See..You hit the nail square on the Head Martin. If the powers to be can generate funds for the..well..General Fund, then it's acceptable. Same concept in all "fields" of "bad for ya stuff". Gambling/Pot a couple examples. Do it on Your own it's criminal but if it can be contained under all sorts of legislation then it's touted as "acceptable".

In Washington State the weed tax money is supposed to go to education or so they said in the campaign to get it passed. Yet somehow the school districts have huge budget shortfalls and still have to use voter approved tax levies which are failing more often now.
At least the governor always has the funds for his pet climate change projects.