[vtsnowedin]

During Covid we had people coming up escaping New York or Boston paying cash at thirty to fifty percent more then the appraised value for a house in my town. Now some of them have realized that life on a rural gravel road thirty miles from a mall is not for them. But as interest rates have risen prospective buyers that need a mortgage can now afford about thirty percent less then what was the appraised value before covid. So unless they can find a fool with cash they are looking at selling for about half what they foolishly paid for it.
I expect some angry flatlanders coming in crying about their property taxes this coming tax season. And no there taxes are not automatically set to the price they paid.

[Newfie]

Plant,

Probably not what you are looking for BUT in a small town 1-1/2 hour or so from St Johns. AND just a couple of blocks from the ferry to St Pierre. Short ride to France.

https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 57373.html

A couple more.
https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 95887.html

https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 00191.html

End of the road
https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 94908.html

Ocean front
https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 15925.html

I love spending others money!

[vtsnowedin]

The deer on the coffee table made me laugh.

[C8]

Those trees are uncomfortably close Newf

Are you joking? You get a great deal less demand for summer cooling with trees like those and in winter when they are leafless they let you get some solar gain. .

And all this doesn't matter when drought turns your lovely forest into tinder or a derecho flattens your kitchen.

[Newfie]

They have been there since 1956, at least.

I will chance it.

[Plantagenet]

Plant,

Probably not what you are looking for BUT in a small town 1-1/2 hour or so from St Johns. AND just a couple of blocks from the ferry to St Pierre. Short ride to France.

https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 57373.html

A couple more.
https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 95887.html

https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 00191.html

End of the road
https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 94908.html

Ocean front
https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Home-For ... 15925.html

I love spending others money!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I've forwarded these to my "significant other." I have to be careful what real estate I show to my "significant other" because she wants a cabin....right now.....anywhere but alaska.....and everywhere we go she falls in love with the local scene and then checks out all the real estate.....especially coastal real estate. Every morning I check the stock market and she checks all the new real estate listings coming in from various real estate dealers she's in contact with......

By an odd coincidence my Northwest passage Cruise (just a few days away) goes from west to east and at the end we were originally supposed to disembark in Nova Scotia but for reason we are now disembarking in St. Pierre, of all places.....from there the cruise company will put us on the ferry or on chartered flights to get us out to Nova Scotia and other nearby places that have real airports.



Thanks again. CHEERS!

[Newfie]

In St Pierre, along the water front, is a carousel. In the store line behind it is a small bakery, opens very early. They have this pastry that is about 8” long and 3” wide and folded over. It is stuffed with chocolate and some kind of delicate cheese cake like filling. Plie Au Choulate?

St Pierre IS France. 220v 50Hz, Euros, Peugots, wine, cheese, pate. It is woth a night or 2. I believe you will find there is a “taxi” (van) that runs each morning from Fortune, NL end of the ferry connection, to St Johns airport. It would be typical of these communities. Besides taking people they will pick up packages at St Johns stores, for a small fee. https://m.facebook.com/pg/footestaxi/about/


If you get a chance take the ferry over to the old town. It is on the island in the harbor, abandoned mid-1960’s. The old 2 room school house is a museum. The boys classroom has been preserved intact. I found it far more interesting than I can describe. The walls are lined with permanent posters containing the fundamentals of a good practical education.

Then there is a tour to Miquelon, which is weather dependent because you go across in a zodiac. Miquelon was once separate from Langlade island by an inlet. The inlet has since filled in joining the two islands with a 7 mile long natural causeway. Wild horses roam.

[Plantagenet]

NEWFIE----THANK YOU VERY MUCH for description of St. Pierre.

It sounds really great.

I've copied that description and sent it along to my significant other.

I have no idea of how long we'll be there but I hope we get into port early so we can go to town and check it out.

Cheers!

[Newfie]

Plant,
Port IS town.

[The_Toecutter]

You people certainly have a different idea what Happy Talk is than I do.

I like riding my velomobiles. It's good exercise, and they're an efficient form of transportation that in some respects is comparable to a car, but without the ecological impact of a car. The conversation sort of diverted when I posted images from my rides.

I do like to explore urban areas. It's a bit of a hobby. If I ever had the money, I'd love to make some low-budget sci fi films. These areas are perfect for it.

Well, that doesn't constitute much of the USA.

Major cities I've been through, haven't thoroughly explored, and still seen plenty of decay which registers as similar/comparable to that in my area:

Chicago, IL
Kansas City, MO
Tulsa, OK
Oklahoma City, OK
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
New Orleans, LA
Baton Rogue, LA
Dayton, OH
Cleveland, OH
Akron, OH
Lexington, KY
Raleigh, NC
Durham, NC
Atlanta, GA
Jackson, MS
Birmingham, AL

Those are not all the US cities I've seen, just the ones I've personally been in with very noticeable post-apocalyptic scenery as soon as you stray off the main interstates and avenues a few blocks.

One of the best cities I've been to thus far is Austin, TX. Their worst neighborhood appeared to be nicer than any of the neighborhoods I've lived in. It's also little wonder why their homeless population is rapidly growing considering the cost of rent there.

I've thoroughly explored St. Louis, MO, which will be further mentioned when I answer a question you had.

I've spent time in Wentzville and Belleville, overnighters as a matter of fact, and the blight you speak of certainly could have been there, and as you say, might require some work to find. No different than Appalachia. But it doesn't jump out at you during any puttering tour through and around town.

Hence my use of the term Potemkin.

In order for collapse/THE END/Doom to be even noticed, the usual run down areas that are common in probably many areas around America (the world is something else altogether), those places should be the norm, easily visible, Hoovervilles sitting out in the city park across from the courthouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upV5oAdaO88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzzvVFpO8Bo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qod4ZXtmHwo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlTRe4yWl3s

Camps have even migrated to the suburbs in my city:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbx9CbW3bBE

The camps tend not to stay in the same place for more than 2-3 weeks. They're ALWAYS relocating. The ones who stay in a location for months at a time tend to get media attention and then forced evacuation. I've talked to a number of homeless people, and most of them had jobs and were trying to maintain them(which is very difficult to do while homeless), and were priced out of rent. Of the major cities, mine has some of the cheapest rent in the whole U.S., and even that is too expensive for many working people. A one-room craphole in the hood with a shared kitchen and toilet can run $700/mo to start, and goes up from there. Rents in the neighborhood I posted earlier in this topic are beginning to approach $1,000/mo in the cheapest units. All of the "quality of life" rules that force one to have utility hookups and limit occupant numbers in a single dwelling have played a part in making the cost of a basic existence too high in relation to the prevailing wages.

Spotted from the Beltway (something possible in both Detroit and Denver I might add, Detroit being far worse). What is your opinion on Bozeman Montana? Eureka California? Del Rio Texas? And my all time favorite, Traverse City Michigan? None of them are big towns really, all different flavors and environments, and last time I was through them, nothing obvious in terms of overall degradation, although as in all towns, it just wasn't obvious.

Of those you listed, I've only been to Del Rio, TX. I didn't see much in the way of decay there. I saw a grand total of one homeless encampment, with 3 tents and a bunch of trash visible. This was 10 years ago. Del Rio didn't look bad, but I saw less than 20% of it.

Your pictures of the bad areas of Saint Louis are quite revealing. Would you venture a guess as to the overall percentage of area in and around St Louis that consists of these dilapidated areas, versus non-dilapidated? 5% 15%?

Closer to 30%, if you're going by area, including within that the entire metropolitan area(including rural sections) and not just the city proper. Homeless camps are mostly sporadically located in areas hidden from easy observation, but if you go looking for them over the course of days exploring, you will run into a lot of them. Especially if you do urban exploration of abandoned buildings(I've run into five homeless camps inside buildings). The camps in the youtube videos I posted above were in more obvious locations.

Oh, and if you can provide me a location designated by the intersection of two streets near any of these St Louis areas, I'd love to stop by and check it out myself next time through the city. I pass through regularly and I'm fascinated by the size and extent of this kind of decay near a major and vibrant city. My recent adventures in north St. Louis have me curious.

Carry a weapon. Make sure your vehicle doesn't break down. I live in such an area, spent much of my youth in such an area, and have seen/heard all kinds of things. While I'm used to it and don't feel as if I'm in any danger, I would be lying to say I was safe here.

But here's some interesting spots(assuming you are interested in places that look like they came out of some low-budget science fiction dystopia):

-N 11th St and DeSoto Ave; St. Louis, MO
-intersection of Wilmore St and Jones St; Kinloch, MO
-intersection of Carr St and N 15th St; St. Louis, MO
-67th/68th/69th St; Hillsdale, MO
-intersection of Vandeventer and St. Louis, Ave; St. Louis, MO
-intersection of St. Louis Ave and Hamilton Ave; Wells-Goodfellow, MO
-most of St. Louis Ave, for that matter
-most of Martin Luther King Blvd as well
-most of Jefferson Ave
-intersection of Hamilton and Cote Brillante; Wells-Goodfellow, MO

I could go on listing hundreds of areas. These weren't the worst areas that immediately came to mind, but they were the first I thought of. The map below should give you a really good indicator of where to find blight:

https://crimegrade.org/safest-places-in-st-louis-mo-metro/

I live in a red area. Hearing random gunshots is a "multiple times a month" event. I've personally witnessed portions of two police chases in progress just in my neighborhood. A formerly homeless friend of mine got into a cheap home in Berkeley, MO, also a "red" area that doesn't look decayed, and within the first week he moved in he got 6 new gunshots in his wall. The last time I was there to help him re-assemble his 3D printer, he showed them to me. He doesn't know who did it or why. Just the fact that he's white may have been the impetus. Living in the hood is the only way he could ever escape homelessness and afford a roof over his head. He has two college degrees, including a Masters, both in STEM fields, and has patents to his name. He diligently tried to find work in his field after getting out of college and still ended up homeless. Notice on the above linked crime map that many of the "orange" areas are still indicative of high crime, yet they are in sparsely populated rural and semi-rural mostly-white locations. There are lots of abandoned buildings in those areas to accompany the crime rate as well, again, mostly located away from main thoroughfares.

[Doly]

All of the "quality of life" rules that force one to have utility hookups and limit occupant numbers in a single dwelling have played a part in making the cost of a basic existence too high in relation to the prevailing wages.

Sounds like a classic case of disconnect on the part of those making the rules. Rather than admit the economic realities, just ignore them. I'm surprised especially that you are implying that the limits on occupant numbers are enforced. As far as I know, in Europe even though such limits may exist, they are seldom enforced, and it's one of the things that keep homelessness at manageable levels.

[Newfie]

Recently n Philadelphia there was a house fire that killed a number of folks including children. The house was provided by City, low income housing assistance. It was vastly over occupied. The housing authority more or less said “we just provide the space and who ever lives there we don’t pay attention to.”

[The_Toecutter]

Sounds like a classic case of disconnect on the part of those making the rules. Rather than admit the economic realities, just ignore them. I'm surprised especially that you are implying that the limits on occupant numbers are enforced. As far as I know, in Europe even though such limits may exist, they are seldom enforced, and it's one of the things that keep homelessness at manageable levels.

In most of the US, including rural areas, there are "minimum square footage" rules when it comes to building homes, along with restrictions on where you can place trailers or RVs(restrictions which force someone to rent a plot of land for the cost of a small apartment). That square footage in many places is now over 2,000 sq ft for new construction, which is excessive. The reason? This increases the cost to build homes and the value thereof, and as a result, the municipalities that put these laws into place(more often than not without any voter approval) get more property tax revenue per unit. Occupancy limits are designed to also increase that revenue, by increasing the number of shelter spaces that MUST be rented to fulfill peoples' needs. Meanwhile, the Walmarts and the Amazons are often given property tax exemptions.

It also doesn't help that necessities such as shelter have been turned into a pyramid scheme by the FED and major banks, which is an even larger cause of the problem regarding the unaffordable cost of homes.

At the same time, it's "your fault" if you're priced out of housing and have to go live on the street.

I'm happy that I'm on a path that will allow me to buy a plot of land in full with no debt and eventually live on it, assuming nothing disrupts my plans. Being able to set aside 5-figures a year is more than most people could ever dream of today, even if in the grand scheme of what that will be able to purchase, it is still modest. For years I'd been making plans to become homeless long-term, but I might not have to think about that anymore.

I really badly want a plot of land to live on and get a permaculture setup going. I'm used to living cheap, and want to keep any and all bills preferably non-existent, or at least to a bare minimum. I'll have solar panels and DIY windmills for electricity, home-built electric vehicles to get around in powered by said electricity, and a well dug to pump water from. It is the only way I can foresee myself ever being able to start a family or have a retirement with my current rate of pay and with my personal experience regarding employment stability. I'm not at all confident I will have stable employment for the duration of time it would take for me to pay a mortgage, and my coworkers who went that route are screwed if anything unanticipated occurs to disrupt their finances.

Being debt-free sure makes financial planning a lot easier and opens up opportunities that wouldn't exist otherwise.

[Shaved Monkey]

Just purchased a whole lot more citruses to plant as a boundary fence
I have Mexican, Tahitian, Kaffir, Sweet lime,kumquat, a kumquat/lime cross (used in SE Asian cuisine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamansi
Eureka Meyer and Lisbon Lemon a few varieties of mandarin and a few varieties of orange and a pomello.
Should have some citrus available all year.....and plenty to give away...and a nice dark green fence that smells nice

Also purchased a whole lot of miniature lilly pillys to create a bush tucker hedge that the birds also like as another boundary

[Newfie]

Shaved
Please remind me where you are at? Roughly.

[Shaved Monkey]

Shaved
Please remind me where you are at? Roughly.

Just under the tropic of Capricorn in Australia
Was watching a bit of this yesterday



They are heading to Antarctica for the summer

[Newfie]

VERY cool. We are higher latitude, Newfoundland. We generally have some humpbacks and minkes here chasing bait fish and cod, but this year we saw none.

We did see a bunch of whales heading down to the Caribbean this past spring including what appeared to be a humpback with pink flukes and what may have have been a blue whale. Huge, non descriptive, and just traveling.

Good stuff!

[The_Toecutter]

VERY cool. We are higher latitude, Newfoundland. We generally have some humpbacks and minkes here chasing bait fish and cod, but this year we saw none.

Man, I love battered cod fried in peanut oil. It's gotten so rare and expensive these days that where I'm at, only the farmed stuff is available, and it is far more expensive than what wild caught used to be.

I used to eat pounds of fried cod at a time when I was a preteen in the 1990s. I could get two lbs of wild-caught and then fried/prepared cod cutups for $10 at a restaurant in them days. Good memories.

[Newfie]

A lot of that is black cod from the North Pacific. Caught, processed and frozen right on the mother ship. McDonalds fish sandwich. Do they even still sell them? Seems they have given up on salads, been hard for us to find.

[The_Toecutter]

A lot of that is black cod from the North Pacific. Caught, processed and frozen right on the mother ship. McDonalds fish sandwich. Do they even still sell them? Seems they have given up on salads, been hard for us to find.

I don't eat that crap, so I don't know. Haven't eaten anything from McDonalds since 2002. Overpriced poison. I'd be surprised if McDonalds was actually using cod in their fish sandwich these days.

On a more upbeat note, a series of components needed to complete my hydraulic braking system for my custom built vehicle arrived. I have a motorcycle lever and built-in fluid reservoir, bicycle brake calipers with modified seals made of steel instead of plastic(so they won't melt), and ATV disc rotors. This is going to become a system that will be able to dissipate the kinetic energy from a 100 mph panic stop without anything melting/failing, yet remain light enough to where I can still keep the finished vehicle under 100 lbs. Most motorcycle braking systems would weigh a third as much as my entire vehicle, while this system is going to weigh maybe 5 lbs in total, most of that being the rotors. There will be enough fluid that it won't boil. I don't need motorcycle rotors because my vehicle is comparatively light, but bicycle rotors are simply not up to the task for anything more than about 35 mph(I once made a set of Avid BB7 rotors glow red hot from a 50 mph panic stop, and surprisingly, they didn't warp). Bicycle hydraulic braking systems are total garbage(the fluid reservoirs are also way too tiny) which is why I've been using cable pull system up to this point(which requires frequent adjustments).

I'll still have an emergency cable-pull disc brake in the rear as well as regen from the electric motor in the rear wheel.

I have a set of solar car tires which will have a low enough rolling resistance to be pedalable with my aerodynamics allowing faster-than-bicycle speeds when the motor is off, but are thick/durable enough to handle cruising at or braking from 70 mph when the motor is on. Waiting on some light-duty motorcycle rims to arrive so I can lace some new hubs up to them.

With a roll cage and safety harness added, the vehicle might still end up safer than cars from 50 years ago, even if it won't be anything near as safe as a modern car.

There won't be anything else like this on the road, anywhere. With better brakes, I'll be able to make use of the increased performance the newly installed motor and the 400A controller I have will allow. If I can get enough traction, 0-60 mph acceleration in under 7 seconds is theoretically possible, which considering this vehicle will be perfectly pedalable to 40+ mph in a sprint with the motor turned off, would be rather impressive if achieved. I don't know of ANY type of car you can pedal if the motor fails or if you run out of fuel. Range anxiety will simply not exist with this vehicle, since it is light enough to drag it to a location if one must.