Tent city in the ‘burbs
Hat tip to LT for this one. LT sez, “Tent cities in suburbia and squatting in vacant houses. It’s sort of like loving someone with a terminal illness: the rapid decline and end still comes as a shock.”
Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits “tent city,” a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.
ADVERTISEMENTThe noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.
The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck’s novel about…
Legume Sam:
Your story is here — at any rate, Ontario is out in my neighborhood, so I ought to be able to figure out where this is…
22 December 2007, 11:14 amMarianne Josephine:
Ironic…I just finished reading Mike Davis’ *City of Quartz* a couple of days ago, and here appears the update to his tale of greed and ignorance gone out of control.
I followed *City* with *Full Spectrum Disorder* which I thought I’d have to tear from my son’s bloody grasp. He’s been carrying it around and quoting from it for the past four weeks, but wouldn’t let it go until he had finished every word – and taken notes. *Full Spectrum Disorder* is fantastic. I’ve been reading it with my laptop at my elbow so that I can look up references to pieces of history (or should we say propaganda) that I thought I knew. But I’m realizing how duped I’ve been. A 68-year-old daughter of immigrants who truly believed that America, although certainly paternalistic, was at least kind. All blust and blunder!
I would dearly like to read *Sex and War* but have been unable to find a copy. The link at AA-buy Sex and War, under *Categories* on the right doesn’t seem to work. I can get to Lulu, but Sex and War isn’t to be found when I do a search for it. Is it possible to still buy a copy?
STAN: My appreciation to you and your son. S&W can be downloaded as a pdf right here.
23 December 2007, 10:51 pmMs Kitty:
Have you heard the term ‘usury’ or ‘loan sharks’ lately? We now take for granted as normal business procedures what used to be illegal.
What I don’t understand is, what do risky loan lenders stand to gain by pushing the interest rates beyond what is affordable to what is not? It makes no business sense to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Once people are unable to pay, several months of payments are lost and in a declining market the foreclosed houses are not sold. When whole neighborhoods of houses are abandoned, the houses become worthless. How does this make sense on any level?
29 December 2007, 7:55 am