"This city, which has been at the vanguard of medical marijuana legalization on everything from taxation to trade schools to the unionization of marijuana workers, voted Tuesday to permit industrial-size marijuana farms." Oakland is taking the pot plunge .

Now urban economists would say that land is allocated to its highest value so what should we infer here? Oakland is a stone's throw to downtown San Fran --- this might have appeared to be expensive farmland. But, if final consumers want really fresh product and are willing to pay a price premium for the fresh stuff then maybe basic economics can explain this.

Now, don't forget agglomeration theory. If marijuana farms are opened, what will open up next to it? So -- at a suburban mall you don't locate a fancy fur coat store next to a stinky fish restaurant (Al Taubman taught me that) --- but what "domino effect" will Oakland trigger once the pot farms are open? I could imagine fast food restaurants there for people with the munchies. I could imagine that there could be successful lounge areas for just hanging out and listening to the Grateful Dead --- so I hope that the area near the pot farms are zoned for bars and hip music.