GM and Chrysler will sever ties with up to 3600 dealerships nationwide. "The closings," notes the LA Times, "will dump thousands of large, oddly configured parcels into an already reeling commercial real estate market. Many are likely to remain empty for a long time, monuments to the decline of the U.S. auto industry and the intensity of this recession." Maybe we can convert them into new housing for the wave of recently unemployed autoworkers.