“RV” is an acronym that’s short for Recreational Vehicle – generally encompassing travel trailers/campers and motorhomes. The take-them-with-you portable homes, in other words, that people buy because they don’t like sleeping on the ground or in a tent or a hotel when they go on vacation.
Increasing, they’re being used as homes – by people whose next option is sleeping on the street.
In California, the government that caused this problem in the first place – by making homes unaffordable to buy and to keep (via obnoxious “property taxes,” as this form of rent is styled) – is benevolently coming to the rescue by making it legal to live – as Chris Farley used to say – in a van down by the river.
Or curbside.
But only if you’re a college kid or faculty member who can’t afford another place to stay. Politico reports that “With one in four California community college students experiencing homelessness in the past year, Democrats – who have a supermajority in the statehouse – face increasing pressure to deliver on affordability issues.”
Solution? Stop “busting” people for living in their RVs.
State Assemblyman Corey Jackson, who has “a doctorate in social work,” says “lawmakers can build long-term solutions while offering an immediate stopgap for a ‘worst case scenario’ ” according to Politico.
The worst case scenario has, of course, already happened. There was time when in America only vagrants slept on the streets because anyone who didn’t want to – who was willing to work a 40 hour week – didn’t have to. Because they could afford to sleep inside an apartment or a single family home.
It is now the case that tens of thousands – maybe more – are living in the streets of California’s major cities because many of them can’t afford the rents or the taxes that function as rents. Nationally, the average cost of a new home is about $400,000 now; in many parts of California – especially the parts anywhere near major cities such as LA and San Francisco – it is much higher. How many people under 30 can come up with the 10 percent in cash generally needed to qualify for a 30 year mortgage on a $400,000 home? Ten percent of that is $40,000. In cash. Good luck with that. How many people can come up with the rent, when it’s 30 percent higher (about $2,400 per month) than the national average?
On the other hand, $10k or less can buy you a used RV and many people can still afford that.
Jackson’s solution is to make this form of housing legal – but only for college kids and faculty:
“His proposal, which cleared its first committee last month, would require community colleges and the California State University system to plan for an overnight parking program for students. Without a sanctioned, on-campus parking program, students are left with no other option but to sleep in their cars somewhere off-campus where they might not be welcome.”
Meaning, they might get rousted. People who already have RVs know what that means. It means you can’t just park anywhere and expect to be left alone. Wal-Mart used to have a policy of letting RVs park overnight but that policy has been rescinded. This brings us to the main problem with what is commonly styled van life – again, per Chris Farley. It’s great to be able to afford a place to live but not so great if you haven’t got a place to stay. People who have RVs as portable homes away-from-home usually park at home – and when traveling away from home, they park in RV areas where they pay a daily fee for the privilege and access to amenities such as electrical hook-ups and water.
The fees are not cheap. Or – more finely – they are not much cheaper than what it would cost to stay overnight in a cheap hotel and that’s too much for people who can’t afford rent or mortgage (plus property taxes). If they could afford to pay say $40 per night to crash in a cheap hotel they would not have to contemplate van life except if they preferred it.
The bulk of the people van living in California probably do not prefer it. They do it because it’s better than living in a tent – or on the street. One feels sympathy for people – especially people who are not college-aged people. When you are 21 or 22 – or even 28 – it’s not especially depressing to live in van because you’re young and you believe it’s a temporary thing. At least that’s how it used to be. It has become a permanent thing – and for lots of people who are no longer college-aged people. Which is very depressing, if you’re one of them. Imagine being 45 – or 55 – and living in a broken-down E350 curbside in Santa Monica.
Which brings up the other thing about the benevolence of California. It will still sic the cops on people who aren’t college students who are living in vans and campers rather than living on the streets. They get cut no slack.
And the college-aged who do ought to reflect upon the fact that they will not always be college-aged, either.
But they still may be living in a van, down by the river.
. . .
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You’ll own nothing and won’t be happy, but you’ll hate the jewbanker motherfuckers who own everything, cause they print the $.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Stop the calls!!!
We have a Winner!!!
Celticbiker, what do you plan on doing with your winnings???
You know you still have the 1st and 2nd Amendment on your side, right now, to resolve your problems???
LOL..,.
The whole issue of homelessness was an artificially created phenomenon exacerbated by the Covid hoax. There are long term issues with degrading the currency as all of the western governments have done….all the regimes in my lifetime have kicked the can down the road and brainwashed the hoi polloi into believing in the whole house of cards. The empire(s) is/are dying and along with them “Western values” which rewarded hard work and competence with fairly secure lifestyles….if Trump lets Netanyahu convince him to attack Iran, this whole charade will come to a screeching halt, even if nukes are not used……interesting times…..BTW, resistance is not futile….keep your powder dry folks
I live in Mountain View, CA, which banned RV’s on most city streets a couple of years ago, based on how wide the streets are. I happen to live on one of the very few streets wide enough to allow them.
I’m quite frustrated with the RV dwellers, because they dump their sewage into the street, run extension cords to people’s outdoor outlets without permission. I disagree with the city’s ban on RV’s, however, I also don’t appreciate what the people near my house are doing. Maybe part of their behavior is due to extortionate prices for RV sewage dumping. I used to let one guy fill his water tanks from my hose, but I stopped doing that after he poured sewage into the street.
Eric is right, though, a lot of these people were priced out of more comfortable homes. We’ve had monetary and fiscal policies in place for two generations which transfer wealth from working class to investor class, from young to old, and housing costs are just an illustration of that. When some old person sells the home the bought for $20k in the 1970’s for $1M today, that price increase is extracted from the young person. It’s complicated, but our economy is broken. CA’s crazy anti-housing policies are a secondary factor compared to this.
In my experience traveling in RV’s in the West, almost every state has free RV dump sites. But I guess they would have to drive to them, and their holding tanks don’t hold a lot, so lots of trips.
“I’m quite frustrated with the RV dwellers, because they dump their sewage into the street, run extension cords to people’s outdoor outlets without permission.”
You have some Cousin Eddies out there, OppositeLock?
That’s particularly derelict. Jesus, at least lift a manhole and pour it in there, haha.
It’s what got them banned from most of the streets. I’m not one for government bans, but I at least understand this one. I don’t like the bad apples ruining it for everyone, though.
Emptying out a gray water tank is one thing, depending.. and only if its done respectful of others. I see it as a ‘gray area’.. pun intended. 🙂
But ALWAYS dump Blackwater directly into the sewer.. pun also intended.
We don’t have capitalism, we have reverse socialism. The worst of both worlds. Which is dubbed “great.”
There used to be many ways to live affordably (especially if you were single). Rooming houses were very common, but disappeared by the 1980’s. Not the SRO hotels in big cities that most people think of, but large older homes housing 4-6 people (often plus the homeowner too). Meals were often included but there were often very strict rules that wouldn’t fly today.
Granted now a days most people would not want to share a bathroom with unrelated (and often inconsiderate) folks.
So true Rich. As a young man who had way more important things to spend my money on (roadracing), I rented rooms from people in usually large houses. Was about $500/m in some pretty nice places. When in the region and time (90’s), good apartments were $2-3K/m.
When I finally was able to buy my first house (not so nice town), for $106K, I then rented my extra rooms. Did that for a long time, until I met my wife and we moved on.
No young people, that I know, do this anymore. Why?
I found a winning recipe when I was a young man that didn’t involve college debt: find a trade that you are interested in, go to trade school, get a job doing something that is valuable to other people, do it better than most other people.
That was 25 years ago, still doing it now. I wish I could say it was enough to keep my wife at home, but it wasn’t. She did wind up with a remote job so that’s pretty good. It’s a relief to know someone is always at the house.
I have encouraged my 3 kids to take a similar path, but they have to make their own way in this world.
“find a trade that you are interested in, go to trade school, get a job doing something that is valuable to other people, do it better than most other people.”
Amen, brother.
And easily make six figures doing it.
This constant push toward everyone needing a degree borders on abuse. Just another debt trap so “you can own nothing and be happy.” God forbid, if someone starts working at 16, 17, 18 years of age and becomes a mechanic, a carpenter, or a welder.
>find a trade that you are interested in, go to trade school, get a job doing something that is valuable to other people,
And if you wish, use the money *you* earn at a skilled trade to pay for “book learning,” theoretical knowledge and critical thinking skills to complement and enhance your practical knowledge and “manual” skills.
That is *exactly* what my youngest brother did. He put himself through university with money earned as a skilled auto paint and body technician, which he learned at community college. AFAIK, little or no student debt. At graduation, he went to work as an insurance claims adjuster and traveled the country as a member of state Farm’s National Disaster Team, which is a distinction.
I am a big believer in a) the bootstrap method of human improvement, b) the union of the practical with the theoretical, and c) the prudence of having more than one option.
I did things “ass backwards,” by my own set of values. Went directly to university after HS graduation @ age 16, at my parents’ insistence, thanks to scholarship and loan assistance. Only later did I earn my journeyman carpenter qualification, at which trade I earned a comfortable living for many years. I met a surprising number of skilled tradesmen (carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc.) who were also university graduates, almost all in one technical field or another (so-called “STEM” degrees).
A tile saw with a diamond cutting blade rotates at 10,000 rpm.
A water bath, cuts through ceramic and stone tile like butter.
A carpet stretcher, a seaming iron, a seam roller, a carpet kicker, buy those tools and you are in business.
Tough work, keeps you in shape until you are too old and somebody else is just as competent who is 30 years younger.
I was hoping to become an Indian Chief, but I’m not Native American.
good advice Philo. I mentor a bunch of young men getting their start, 18-25yr olds.
One recently came to me about going to Cop school (forget what it’s called) or take over his Dad’s one-man-show electrical contracting biz (a friend).
My advice was simple: The cop job is OK if your OK with basically being an employee with set times, lots of bureaucracy, etc… But ya get a good pension. The local cop jobs here are pretty easy relative to a city, etc.. On the other hand your dad owns his own time, makes his own day and life. Pretty easy choice to me.
IDK what he’d done or not. I will find out soon enough.
And as an added bonus as a cop:
Freedom to flaunt the law at every opportunity.
Speed limits don’t apply.
Supreme Court has ruled no obligation to protect those in danger. So basically no right ligation to “protect” or “serve”.
Freedom to abuse those that pay your exorbitant pension
Freedom to murder if you’re careful about how you do it
Morning, BID –
Yup. Think of it. You get a car you can drive fast with de facto impunity. You get Authority to bully – and gun that you are empowered to use with essentially no real worries about being prosecuted for using. And people wonder why narcissists and sadists are attracted to this line of work.
When I was young and naive, and believed that cops were the good guys, I was this close to signing up. I had the paperwork filled out and everything. So glad that didn’t happen.
Hey Philo,
Here’s where parental guidance comes to be of value.
As a youth or young adult, I wouldn’t have known what the hell you were talking about. I wouldn’t have known what a “trade school” was or understood any such path to becoming a “tradesman”, or especially a competitive such person.
I was told I should go to college and earn a degree so I could eventually “be the boss”. People with jobs such as “plumber”, “electrician” or “carpenter” were portrayed as those who couldn’t succeed at college.
Eventually, after overcoming my own aimlessness, probably brought about by lack of a truly successful role-model, I began to take school seriously, and busted my ass to eventually get my Bachelor’s and Master’s in the physical sciences.
Then I emerge during the middle of “The Great Recession”, and suddenly college degrees aren’t cool anymore. Now, “trade schools” are the way to success and financial well-being. Great. Wonderful. Thanks.
Now, plumbers and electricians and mechanics and so forth are the things to be, though eventually, I’ve become a half-assed practitioner of all those trades because the professional versions are too goddamned expensive to hire.
But so be it. I’ve become a Jack-of-All-Trades and Master of Nanoscience. I’ve been hardened to withstand external attack and ever more knowledgeable. But I do encourage parents to guide their children well and try having a grounded understanding of the world before having them. Make no mistake.
Your proper guidance is important.
Well said, BaDnOn.
>People with jobs such as “plumber”, “electrician” or “carpenter” were portrayed as those who couldn’t succeed at college.
By high school “guidance counselors,” who were evidently not able to succeed as teachers. They sit there in their offices, dressed in coat and tie, and look down on people with marketable, and sometimes highly lucrative, skills, whose jobs require them to get a bit of dirt under their fingernails.
Consider this:
Who designed and built the medieval cathedrals? There were no “engineering degrees” in those days, AFAIK. The structures were designed and built my master craftsmen, whose level of specialized knowledge allowed them to TRADE their work for the work of other specialists.
“Guidance counselors”… Yes Adi, I was probably led astray decently by them. College guidance counselors included. They weren’t worth a shit with “guidance” as far as I’m concerned. The whole Skool Sistum could’ve done much with me than they did, and I know it’s just deteriorated from there.
Now, I’m glad I’m a scientist, so don’t misunderstand me, but I would’ve rather gone on your suggested path. Especially right after high school. I could’ve made some money while I screwed my head on properly and considered my options. I did work my way through college, but still ended with a decent amount of debt.
Part of that is the fault of the Education Industrial Complex and the the Student Loan Behemoth… But that is another story.
Hi, BaDnOn,
I am sure you and I could have many interesting conversations… 🙂
My first choice after HS was to go out in the world and see WTF I really wanted to do with my life, but my folks would not hear of it. Since they were paying the bills, I did as I was told.
I was the proverbial “good little boy,” who got all the way to grad school before I rebelled. as in, WTF am I doing here? And for whom am I doing it? Myself, or someone else?
The (conventional) world probably sees me as some kind of “loser,” but as the great Richard Feynman once said “What do you care what anyone else thinks?
There is the “public face” we all present to the world, and there is our own true self, what we know in our deepest depths of self, and which we share only with those of our own choosing. One of the few people I have ever met that I could say, without reservation, is smarter than I am, chose to become a librarian. She is, among other things, a very private person, and I am honored to have shared some of her thoughts….but that is another story.
>Student Loan Behemoth… But that is another story.
NSS.
> Jack-of-All-Trades and Master of Nanoscience
I love it. 🙂
ASU, right?
Presumably, your MS work was published. Not interested in doxxing you (a.k.a invasion of privacy), but am curious as to the title, if you care to share.
tit for tat:
My BS work was published in Chem. Phys. Letters (me as junior author) and had to do with laser excited fluorescence. One pub only. So far…:)
In my youth I shared your aspiration to become an independent scientist, beholden to no one, but was not able to make it happen. I salute you for your perseverance, and wish you success.
For myself, I am currently remodeling my kitchen, which is another sort of challenge, but sooner or later it will be done, and I will be in need of an intellectual challenge.
Most likely, that would be in the realm of atmospheric sciences, since gas phase chemistry is my scientific background. We’ll see what turns up. 🙂
BOL 2U.
I expect we will be in touch. 🙂
Hey Adi,
My Master’s research was unfortunately not publish worthy. I basically proved the electrochemical sensor I was working with was of not much value. :/
Now, I also had a job at the Biodesign Institute at the same time, working, again, with electrochemical sensors, this time for explosives detection. That worked somewhat, and I think there may have been a paper published from that work, but after I had left.
I could’ve had a first-authored paper in my undergrad, but I didn’t have enough time to work on the project because they weren’t paying me, and I had to work at the Student Union to keep alive.
I do also have one paper with my name on it, but that was for doing cancer research after finishing school. Hopefully, I’ll get to do and publish some independent research before too long. I can’t wait to get back in the lab.
I can’t be too unhappy about not being published more, BTW. I know this chick who went for her doctorate in chemistry, but after about 5 years, she still had nothing to publish and they pushed her out the door with a Master’s. She was damn smart, too. She’s a coder now, haha.
I liked working with fluorescence spectroscopy. I did a project wherein I learned to control the size of synthetic “quantum dots”, which in turn controlled their emission wavelength. Were you perhaps working with excimers? I dig gas-phase chemistry, too. I have my own basic gas chromatograph, and probably will be building an upgraded version before too long. Eventually I want a GC-MS. An NMR, too, but we’re taking some big money at that point, unless I get lucky on eBay, haha. You’d probably say that my specialty was analytical chemistry, which is good because I’m making an attempt at a production analytical lab.
And yep! We’ll keep in touch.
Cool beans, mister!
>I could’ve had a first-authored paper in my undergrad
Now *that* would have been phenomenal!
My hat is off to you. 🙂
>I can’t be too unhappy about not being published more,
Well, as we both know, a pubs list is important for would be academics, not so much in industry, etc.
>“quantum dots”,
I don’t even know what those are, so color me ignorant on that subject.
>I’m making an attempt at a production analytical lab.
If you can make it pay, that would be great!
May the road rise to meet you! 🙂
TTYL,
Quantum dots: The ones I synthesized were CdSe semiconductor nanoparticles. They’re used as tiny fluorescent tags amongst other things. Perhaps a little after your time. 😉
Wow!
Really long article in Wikipedia on the subject. Looks like it will take some effort to understand. Time to tool it…
Thanks for the heads up. 🙂
P.S.
I was a “good little boy” up until high school, then I was quite the rebel. Long hair, drugs, Thrash and Death Metal, the whole business. Eventually I calmed down a bit, but I’m still a little incorrigible and recalcitrant. 😉
?I’m still a little incorrigible
LOL.
At 75, I get to play the “grouchy old curmudgeon” card, but I try to be nice. 🙂
My sister recently accused me of being an “intellectual snob,” but backpedaled to “does not suffer fools gladly,” which I am honored to accept. 🙂
L8R.
Well, as Klaatu once said: “I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.” Later on, Adi.
I consider myself lucky that my parents gave me total freedom to do what I wanted. My wife and I have taken the same approach with our kids. I prefer to lead by example than to preach to them. Shower them with love, but let them find their own way, make their own mistakes and hopefully learn from them.
It’s the libertarian philosophy of parenting I guess.
Right on, Philo. Leading by example is the best way. I’m sure you’ll teach them well. 🙂
>His proposal, which cleared its first committee last month, would require community colleges and the California State University system to plan for an overnight parking program for students.
Notice that the proposal applies only to community colleges and the Cal State system, not to the prestigious University of California system. You don’t seriously believe the “Good People” of the State of California would allow the spacious grounds of, let’s say, UC Irvine
https://www.uci.edu
(just up the road from New Porsche Beach, one of the richest communities in California) to be disfigured by an RV encampment, do you?
Berzerkeley deals with it by letting “Tha Peepul” pitch tents in People’s Park. Yes folks, People’s Park is still a thing, 56 years after its “founding” in the spring of 1969.
Where I live, Corona 92882, city ordinance prohibits sleeping in your car, but I do not know if the cops are inclined to roust someone who pulled off the highway to take a short nap to avoid falling asleep at the wheel. Definitely no camping, though.
So far,,, at 11 comments,,, I don’t see the real culprit even mentioned. The old “Deficits don’t matter” crowd. The government has caused,,, is causing,,, every bit of inflation. With their helpful play money government is causing the 15 to 20% real inflation calling it a laughable 2 to 4%. Their answer? More help coming!
Up coming… a trillion dollar offense budget which half of that will be joining the other lost twenty trillion.
People also live aboard their sailboats like people do in RVs. It’s increasingly harder to do so. Many marinas are forbidding live aboards or restricting them by requiring an address on land. Many coastal towns are also forbidding people from dropping anchor, meaning that they can’t stay for free. Gov’t makes it harder to live affordably, and it blocks any efforts, particularly unconventional ones, to live affordably. Why am I not surprised?
Hey Marky,
I once thought of getting a boat for this purpose, and rigging it to autonomously report to some point in sea during the day, drop anchor, and then hoist anchor and return to a dock to pick me up after work. That way, I could work in San Francisco or some such place and make shit-tons of money while paying no rent.
While still a cool idea, it would take a significant starting investment in time and money, an abundance of either I’ve never had.
I had the same thoughts and experience as you.
I rented a room in a house in college. A lot of kids did. After college I simply moved to a less expensive area right away. I didn”t expect anyone to help financially or be concerned about my economic situation. It was a time when it felt necessary to figure out how to make ends meet and a huge learning curve. As far as my parents and grandparent’s situation, their lives had been even more poor and difficult, yes my grandmother didn’t work but they lived in a small town outside Pittsburgh, and they rented a VERY small apartment while my grandfather worked in a steel mill. For many years they did not have a car and shared this place with my grandmothers sister. And the home they ultimately bought was not what most of us would consider spacious or super nice today. It is still listed at $200,000 today on Zillow.
California, like Oregon and probably many other states, are building apartments that will likely have $1,000+ monthly rents and/ or fancy schmancy condos that most people likely won’t even be able to afford to buy, and monthly rent in those condos will likely also be over $1,000, while at the same time claiming that they’re working on making “affordable housing”. But NO single family homes, because according to the Obama regime, single family homes was RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST. And states that appear to have signed on to the “Build Back Better” agenda from the WEF effectively want to turn their own citizens into renters instead of owners.
Aspen’s hospital has a parking lot off at the edge of the property that’s full of RVs. They are occupied by the doctors and nurses who work there. The rest of the staff gets to drive in from up valley, a 45+ minute drive (or more if they can’t afford Glenwood Springs).
If this is how the rich folks treat someone who might save their life, what chance do the rest of us have?
Houses are for earners!
“Healthcare” is an indentured servitude for most who provide the product in the US unless they went to school and/or subsidize their lifestyle with family money.
Making matters worse is that the tech overlords, obsessed with giving Wall Street their 10% portfolio growh annually, often provide the worst benefits.
I live both of those, being married to a “healthcare” provider and working for one of the big names providing all of the AI servers the overlords plan to use to fire the remaining portion of the population who do something productive for a living.
The problem sadly is not so much that the house has gone up in price but that the dollar has gone down in value after decades of money printing. About 15 years ago I worked with a guy who claimed to have bought a lot of silver because it was cheap and was sure to go up. I sadly bought stocks; some went up, some went down. But all said and done, his silver isn’t dependent on the economy or a company’s sales to hold it’s value.
In a sound money climate combined with lower taxes; house’s I feel should become more affordable though I see little chance of that occurring.
Whilst workers will usually resist a reduction of money-wages, it is not their practice to withdraw their labor whenever there is a rise in the price of wage-goods. – Keynes, John Maynard. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
Americans made too much money, and were too product, especially after World War II. So much so that deflation was running rampant, and that was considered bad after the experience of the deflationary 1920s. So the answer was to deflate wages in the form of inflation. Make everything more expensive so that workers wouldn’t notice.
Up until the 1960s the cost of living was always going down. The unfounded fear of another Great Depression said that wasn’t sustainable. The central banks found willing partners with the governments of the world who were only too happy to piss away trillions of dollars to keep wages dropping. Only two generations ago it was common for a one-income family to own homes (on large lots), two cars, modern appliances (ever cheaper thanks to improved designs and construction), and basically have a pretty good life. That changed in the 1970s when Keynes’ ideas were fully tested. Suddenly women had to enter the workforce, throwing kids under the bus (and charitable organizations that traditionally relied on women’s voluntary labor), and, well we all know the rest.
Now wages have hit bottom, at least for native born citizens. So service industries have turned to the third world, disrupting their countries and encouraging displaced peoples to immigrate, get paid under the table or just without the same tax requirements as native borns. Further driving wages down. And also forcing people to stay put if they got theirs, because starting over is going to mean downsizing significantly.
Good summary, RK –
I can remember what you’ve described as a kid growing up in the ’70s. Most of my friends’ moms did not work or worked part-time. Every family had several cars and it was common for a middle class family to have a full-sized sedan/wagon with a V8 engine. Even as recently as the ’80s – when I was in high school – teenagers commonly drove older model cars with V8s; older muscle cars were common in my high school parking lot. Today, it’s difficult for a grown man working full time to afford those kinds of cars. And homes on their own plot of land? I’ve written about my first house, which I bought in the ’90s in a Northern VA suburb for $155k – doable for a singe young guy. That same house today would sell for $600k. It is not much different than it was when I owned it – except for what it costs.
“Do more of that” isn’t working anymore. Eventually investors will run out of fresh meat and just sell to each other, with leverage up the wazoo. We might just be seeing the beginnings of the end now, Trump’s tariffs being the pin in the bubble.
It will be kind of fun to watch the PE guys crash and burn after they’ve spent the last couple decades strip mining productive companies. Too bad it means we’re all likely going to take a pretty good hit, too.
Worth it.
Those guys are vampires.
Hi RK:
In the 60’s my Dad made $5 an hour and where he lived it was considered good money. The house they purchased then was around $16,500 and sold a couple years ago for around $750,000 and they could still afford to have the wife stay home and raise the kids. Even had a car and TV set.
I bought my so far one and only house in the early 90’s for around $80,000 and compared to what my parents bought I got a sh*thole. The bastards have destroyed the dollar and the country along with it and most people (present company excepted) don’t even realize it.
My dad told me that at Bethlehem Steel, at least amongst the management, men whose wives worked outside of the house were generally looked down on. Almost as bad as driving a Japanese or German automobile.
Thanks for that insight, RK. I never really thought about inflation as a way to cause wages to insidiously decrease.
Those bastards!
The actions that have led to this “housing crisis” started in the 60’s with “Urban Renewal”. Skid Row and the “flop houses” that were its core were to be eliminated because they weren’t dignified. Urban Renewal would build nicer cities that didn’t have people resorting to living in such squalor. (Roger Miller’s King of the Road told of “rooms to let, 50¢, it you recall] Where to go? Hey, Jack, that’s YOUR problem.
Fast forward to the 90’s when there was a push to standardize building codes across the country and that included zoning as well. This time they came after single-wide trailers and the parks that were where many resided. No new trailer parks would be permitted. Existing units would be “grandfathered” in but, should one be vacant, for whatever reason, for six months or more it would no longer be permitted to be used.
As one who was on a planning and zoning board during the 90’s I asked, just where were these people of limited means supposed to live? I got mostly blank stares and shrugged shoulders. Now we have a “homeless crisis”.
Heck, Stevie Wonder could see it coming. But, not these “visionaries”.
Now there’s much renting of clothes and gnashing of teeth over the Tent Cities and Greeleaf Motels popping up across the Fruited Plain.
Let’s all pledge our allegiance and sing the national fight song.
As Albert J. Nock stated, Our Enemy, The State.
Many of the urban renewal projects were the monstrous “all purpose” sports stadiums of the 1970s. These massive modern takes on the Colosseum were huge boondoggles that cities are still paying for even after tearing them down for more appropriate structures. But they looked great on TV as seen from the Goodyear blimp!
I got to see a Steelers game in Three Rivers Stadium. Well, I got to watch them play on TV while I was in the stadium. The seats were so far away from the field there wasn’t any point in trying to watch the actual game. Luckily there were TVs throughout the stands so we could see what was happening way down there on the field.
You should have watched the Browns/Steelers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. I don’t know how they did it but, every seat had a view blocked by a post.
PS: I was at the game where Joe “Turkey” Jones drove Terry Bradshaw’s head into second base. Ahhh…good times…
Or you could have gone to the Metrodome in Minneapolis to watch a Twins game – all the seats were pointed at centerfield! Haha
That first picture is my 1978 Chevy Sports Coach! We pulled a hauler with our 1983 Datsun 280ZX behind it.
Was a wonderful motorhome.
And a high end unit back in the day. 😃
https://ibb.co/bjSW6J2c
https://ibb.co/cS4Rj37t
😀
Maybe this is why Neil Young shot his baby down by the river.
Yeah. Then Jimi Hendrix had to write the rest of the story:
I’m goin’ down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messin’ ’round with another man
Huh, and that ain’t too cool
— Jimi Hendrix, Hey
JoeNeilOnly to have Bobbie Gentry add in a verse:
“That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today
Said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billie Joe was throwin’ somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge”
And Vicki Lawrence added:
That cheap whore never left town
And that’s one body that’ll never be found
Cuz little sister don’t miss when she aims her gun.
Ry Cooder:
She was guilty, I was dead,
What do you think that old judge said?
“That’s just the way the girls are down in Texas
Case dismissed”
That’s a good one, Bob. 👍 I forgot about that song.
Thanks RG, saw you guys on a roll and had to join in. Hope Eric doesn’t mind.
Hi Bob – not at all! That’s what EPautos is here for!