earthquake bridge - 200 Surviving Old Vehicles Down On The Alameda Street! [Down On The Street]

February 27th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m no longer going to express any shock that my island city continues to provide a seemingly inexhaustible supply of street-parked vintage cars and trucks; we got to 150 Down On The Street posts late last year, we’re up to 200 as of today, and I’ve got enough photos in the can to get us to 250, no sweat.

For those of you who are new to the DOTS phenomenon, I’m going to repeat the answers I put together the last time around for the Most Commonly Asked DOTS Questions:

Q: Did you really find all these cars parked on the streets of Alameda?
A: Yes, every one of them. Sometimes we’ll post photos of street-parked old/cool cars from other places, but they get the Down On The Street Bonus Edition title.

Q: Why don’t you obscure the license plates in the photos?
A: These cars are parked on public property, with plates in plain view, which implies that their owners accept that the plate numbers may be seen by the general public. I’ve considered blurring the plates anyway, but the photos look unpleasant that way; in any case, since the state of California has anti-stalker laws that make it difficult to trace a car’s owner from its plate number, it’s extremely unlikely that any badness will befall the cars’ owners. I don’t give out exact locations, and I don’t photograph cars in driveways.

Q: Are all these cars daily drivers? Many of them are. Some of them are cars that were just visiting the island (or getting some fresh air after being in a garage), and some of them rarely move from their spots. I’d say two-thirds of these cars are driven at least a few times per week.

Q: Do car owners ever get upset when they see you photographing their cars?
A: Never. I’m careful not to touch the cars or even get too close when photographing them, which is why interior shots are uncommon in this series. I’ve had quite a few owners come out to see what’s going on; when I explain, they’re usually very happy to have someone who’s willing to show their car to the world. I’ve heard plenty of good stories from car owners while shooting DOTS photos. In at least two cases, the cars have been owned by Jalopnik readers.

Q: Why does such a small city have so many old cars parked on the street?
Good question, and one to which I have no authoritative answer. I have some theories, which
Source: earthquake bridge - 200 Surviving Old Vehicles Down On The Alameda Street! [Down On The Street]