Several recent events have helped brand Escondido as the haven for anything with wheels. While its new-car dealerships are second only to San Diego, its city-of-wheels image extends beyond how many vehicles are for sale.

Growing numbers of voters will have fewer local elected officials to complain to and about, thanks to a broad-swathed California law that is chopping cities and school districts into political fiefdoms.

For longer than anyone can remember, there have been chambers of commerce in place to protect and promote business enterprise within their areas of influence.

The man’s tired and in a hurry. Pushing one or two grocery carts, laden with food and other stuff out of the local Vons, his singular task is to get to the car, load up and leave. Nothing’s going to get in the way; he’ll be homeward bound in a couple of minutes.

For some, the election season didn’t come to an end Nov. 6 when most people thought — or wished — it had. In North County’s two largest cities, political activism, in one form or another, seems to reign eternal.

"Any discussion of a region’s economy would be incomplete without taking a look at its housing market. Housing not only is a major generator of jobs and demand for goods and services, but it also helps define an area’s quality of life and economic viability. The condition of the housing market itself is the most important indicator of consumer confidence, given the fact that a home is typically the largest single purchase a consumer will make."

Given the snaillike speed in counting nearly 500,000 absentee and provisional ballots, it’s taken the better part of two weeks to learn the final outcome of several tight countywide races. But it was clear from the very first tally election night that North County voters were keen on doing some fine-tuning of several boards and councils.

With three weeks to go until the 2012 election becomes history, the outcomes evident thus far are not likely to change the political directions of most North County cities, despite who is elected. Or, who is not.

It’s a safe guess that the late state Sen. William Craven’s vision for a state university to serve North San Diego County has come to pass today in ways he and other early supporters never could have imagined. What began as a perceived need for a university to educate area residents has emerged into an institution that has earned regional and national distinctions, on its way to becoming North County’s most prized resource.

No sooner had the ink dried on a region-wide North County economic development document than one area city released its own detailed plan, aimed squarely at bringing market rate jobs into its own jurisdiction.

At long last, a broad swath of North County has a regional blueprint to enhance economic development and other quality of life assets in much of the county’s northern region.

While voters everywhere will face a crowded assortment of local, state and national candidates and complex issues come November, Escondido’s electorate will be asked to spend even more time poring over two ballot issues that would impact the city’s future.

The notion of government-imposed rent control sends shivers up the backs of most property owners and conservative politicians. The extent to which government tries to protect tenants by limiting what property owners can charge for rent fulfills the law of unintended consequences myriad times over. Owners of residential properties under rent control have little to no incentive to invest in maintaining, much less refurbishing, their properties to attract below-market-rent revenues. The result is predictable: Tenants may be paying less rent, but they’re living in substandard, if not outright dilapidated housing. Fort Apache, other areas of the Bronx and elsewhere are the poster children for rent control’s inevitable consequences.

Comes now the season when all sorts of economic and political issues, important and otherwise, suddenly come to the surface in jurisdictions, large and small. It’s an election year and a big one at that. Nationwide, Americans will be electing a president. In California, voters will decide, among other things, whether to vote themselves a sizable tax hike. There also are issues at county and city levels that will monopolize newsprint, websites, blogs and the airwaves for months on end, bludgeoning voters to vote for or against whatever and whomever. Brace yourselves.

The late Steve Jobs may have bought the letter “i” as a prefix for Apple’s assorted devices and digital technologies, but the alphabet’s ninth letter also opens a word that has dominated much of the public policy arena the past few years. Immigration, legal and otherwise, has trumped all but the economy and health care as the nation’s most troubling domestic issue, especially in San Diego County and to the east along the nation’s southern border.

Despite the coastal-inland divide that slices the North County region into two disparate territories, its cities, especially those that traverse the Highway 78 corridor, have long talked about working jointly to promote the region as a whole. To some extent, there’s been some action behind their words. The San Diego North Economic Development Council exists as a collaborative effort among regional stakeholders that to date has focused mainly on legislative advocacy and public policy initiatives. It has also worked to increase awareness of the region’s major business clusters to attract investment opportunities and resultant jobs.

It may well be the “Year of the Dragon” for those who observe the Chinese zodiac calendar, but for the rest of us, 2012 is becoming the “Year of the Question Mark.”

Any discussion of a region’s economy would be incomplete without taking a look at its housing market. Housing is not only a major generator of jobs and demand for goods and services, but it also helps define an area’s quality of life and economic viability. And the condition of the housing market itself is the most important indicator of consumer confidence, given that a home is typically the largest single purchase a consumer will make.

Given the mixed signals of an indecisive economy these past few years and no signs of an imminent recovery any time soon, it shouldn’t be that much a surprise to see what has made headlines in a region’s economy in recent weeks.

In a disturbing number of ways, the state Legislature has become the de facto city council for most of our state’s incorporated cities and towns. Once-cherished local control has been usurped over the years by a growing list of state-mandated “dos and don’ts” that permeate nearly every level of a city’s operations. The impact of California’s “nanny state” governance is particularly felt by its 362 general law cities whose city council agendas are often laden with checklists and specific directions to comply with policies that once were the purview of locally elected leaders.