Alternative living movement

[user 2252]

http://www.themanitoban.com/2015/11/the-alternative-living-movement/26092/

Trading in typical living space for economic, geographical, or financial freedom

"...Emerging from this economic climate are various alternative lifestyle movements which free young professionals from the financial drain of large mortgages with high interest rates, and enable them to channel their money towards student debt, travel, and their savings account, sacrificing only the traditional concept of what a home is..."




ETA: content to the link for those with limited band width or have no interest on clicking on a link without some prior knowledge

 

[mockturtle]

It just makes sense.

 

[user 2252]

That's what I said!

 

[gcal]

Now we know what to do with all those closed drive in theatres we see around cities. Provide electric thru the old speaker posts, have a couple potable water faucets, beef up the toilet facilities, and charge $10 or less a night for transients who live in vehicles of a certain size.

 

[user 2252]

....and show movies!

 

[SoulRaven]

When looking up conversions of vans and cargo trailers, I was overwhelmed with articles about people doing it for full-time living. I think this shows the "pioneering" spirit that we have and we are animals after all so should have some deep down sense of survival that surfaces when we need it.

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

Nicely thought out article. Also, I never thought of the drive ins. Good idea but no city is going to do that, embrace those who don't pay taxes and live differently. Better to sweep them under the carpet. If one had money or grants or something and wanted a mission, wouldn't that be fun? Get it into place before city council figured out it was happening for the benefit of those with a need and little to offer.

 

[compassrose]

... Provide electric... have a couple potable water faucets... toilet facilities, and charge $10 or less a night for transients who live in vehicles of a certain size.

That would be neat.... Oh wait, don't they have those already? I think they are called RV Parks and campgrounds. At $10 per night, those are $300/mo campgrounds. Harder to find but they are out there.

My last park (Roswell, NM) was charging me $425/mo for 30 amp electric, water, sewer, cable & wifi. There was a bathhouse and laundry on site.
$425/30 = $14.666/night

For overnights (and up to 7 days), I will resort to Passport America which is a half price club. It gets the nightly site rent down to or below the area public campgrounds and gives me the luxury of full hookups (so I can do my laundry).

NM State Parks charge as low as $8 for just a place to park or as high as $18 for full hookup (w/e/s)

For Public: Locally "Full hook-up site (sewer, water, electricity) $18, non hook-up site $10"

I have found many small city/county parks that allow overnighting for free (some with w/e/dump station). You may want to invest in Don Wright's directory. I have found a lot of places to stay. But I do recommend that if you have a low slung or large vehicle that you unhook from your RV and drive in. I have found a few places that you would not get an RV into. I had one place (Ga) that I could not get my 4WD Jeep up the gravel road it was so steep (kept sliding backwards). I try to buy a new one every thing one gets published. Please note, the base price is the lowest fee you will pay to get into the campground. Some are that low only if you are a senior. If you want electric, water and sewer, the fees are higher. This is where I have found the free overnights with hookups. Most of the free sites are no hookups. I have both the Eastern edition and the Western Edition. I need a new Eastern Edition. What I do is use the Wright directory to find a park/campground and then search the name on the internet to get current info on the place and find any reviews.

The key to keeping costs low and still have full hookups is to take advantage of the monthly rates. The reason they are so much lower than night;y and weekly rates is the shorter stays fall into the same category as motel rooms (high room taxes) and the longer monthly stays fall under the same category (lower and no taxes in some cases) as rental apartments and homes.

 

[mockturtle]

I don't know why a town couldn't charge a fee for 'camping' in their old drive-in theaters. After all, is there any reason that water, electricity and facilities should be laid on for free?

 

[buckwilk]

I don't know why a town couldn't charge a fee for 'camping' in their old drive-in theaters.  After all, is there any reason that water, electricity and facilities should be laid on for free?

Probably private property.

There are nice RV parks all over southern Az. that rent for $150 per mo. that's $5.00 per night with full hookups. + elec.

 

[mockturtle]

Probably private property.

There are nice RV parks all over southern Az. that rent for $150 per mo. that's $5.00 per night with full hookups. + elec.

Where would those be?  The cheapest I've seen are $300/month plus electric.  Although, that's only $10/night.  If I wanted to stay in an RV park I'd consider that affordable.

 

[SoulRaven]

When we were in AZ, although it was in the 90's, so many parks were "55+" which now we are but the other sticking point was either "no pets" or the pets had to be under 20 lbs. Is that still very prevalent or has that changed? At that time, they required a certain number of months to get the better rates. A

We stayed long term in 3 different states in RV parks, AZ, NC & AL and we became familiar with the issues that I think would be why cities don't convert the old drive-ins to RV "friendly" and that would be cost of liability insurance, cost of plumbing and electrical repairs. I do not know how they did it but at one park, they put disposable diapers down the toilet. There are just so many requirements/regulations put on businesses anymore that it is more likely you'll see them closing than opening.

I love the tiny houses but most areas have a minimum of square footage and other "regulations" that have to be followed. Other types of alternative housing are also hard to find a place where they can be built/erected. Sad situation all around.

 

[mockturtle]

The only trouble with tiny houses is that they just sit there.   I want a home with wheels.  But I certainly like the concept.  I think the age of big houses is gone for the most part.  Most families don't have 10 or 12 kids [and servants] as they did back in the day.

 

[buckwilk]

The parks I mentioned are all over Az. I know of a park in southern Idaho that charges $150 a mo. and only $800 for the whole year. You won't find these on line and they don't have swimming pools, laundry's, dog parks, wifi, clubhouses, vehicle age restrictions. You have to be careful and check them out different hours of the day, talk to residents, particularly those your age. Talk in depth to the manager about the current residents. Are the sites clean and uncluttered? The ones I've seen that I would stay at are more rural. The ones in cities are often run down and poorly managed. Talk to the sheriff about the places you're interested in, if there is an issue, he'll clue you in. On Hwy 8 east of Yuma about 60 or 70 miles on the south side of the hwy is the Dateland RV park. $150 per mo.

 

[Almost There]

The only trouble with tiny houses is that they just sit there.   I want a home with wheels.  But I certainly like the concept.  I think the age of big houses is gone for the most part.  Most families don't have 10 or 12 kids [and servants] as they did back in the day.

The problem is that the big houses of yesteryear when families had 10 or 12 kids have been replaced by big houses on small lots so that municipalities can collect lots and lots of property taxes.

The size of the average new home construction since the 1950/60s has grown to something around 2 1/2 times what it was back then.

It is no longer feasible tax wise for a township/town/whatever to issue a building permit for something that is only taking up 25% of a building lot. They want you to build to the maximum lot set backs to maximize their tax revenue. 

Most municipalities have now passed by-laws making it impossible to site a building meant for full-time living of less than 600 Sq. Ft. which rules out all the tiny homes which is why they are being built on wheels. It avoids the regulations that require large houses to be built.

 

[highdesertranger]

a couple of things everyone is over looking about drive-in theaters. first off their parking lots are not flat, it's a bunch of humps so when you park it points your windshield right at the screen. also you just can't disconnect the speaker system and plug the speaker wires into 120v to run to the pedestals. you would need to install a whole new electric system, not cheap. highdesertranger

 

[eDJ_]

I like this idea about a combination Drive-In Movie Theater for RV's. 

I could see these on flat ground with shore power at what would have been the speaker post.
The sound system would be FM wireless inside the theater so the movie sound would come
in through the vehicle's AM/FM radio. 

You would pay $15 a night for the shore power and space while the projection building/snack restaurant
would have water and sewage facilities for a fee.   The movies could be old black and whites for that matter
as most people would be there to sleep the 4 feature all night movies.

The Drive-In Theater would just be a "cover" for it being an RV park. 

If it were purpose built,  today there are huge digital movie projectors that could fill a Drive-In Screen.
The Theater would still have to have the wall around it and a screen with the admissions windows.  WIFI could
be an added feature to attract business.  No one says the people in the RV's have to stay awake for the movies much less even watch them if they don't want to. 

Then at Daylight the snack bar could sell Coffee and Donuts until 8 AM when everyone would be required to hit the road. 

There have been huge Digital Projectors capable for Drive-In Theaters in past years.  I'm sure a screen that
could be elevated upward and tilted downward from the top could replace the mounded parking cars used to use. 

But if you had 200 vehicles parking at $15 a night ?  The economies of scale for most nights of the year
could make it feasible. Even if the RV's parked up front at the lot and cars parked toward the back where they could see the movie better, the cars would be there for the movie  and some private time and the RV's for the overnight parking.

 

[mockturtle]

This is an RV park built on a drive-in theater site and they still show movies. 
http://www.hiwayhaven.com/

 

[eDJ_]

I love the idea of it.  All the Drive-In's are gone in my area now.   What took them ?  Urban sprawl.  One of them is now a big Flea Market where buildings have been built on the grounds,  the screen sold and moved away,
the projector equipment sold and moved out.  

The ground was just too valuable for building a sub division on with the others. 

Of course most of these were built in the Post WW2 & Korean War era before the Boomers grew up and started families for which they needed housing.  

With cable TV is was said that people could stay home and watch movies at home instead of going out to Drive-In's.  Then there was the argument of Drugs and Drug selling at Drive-In's.  

In my area today even the Roller Skating Rinks are now called "Clubs" where you have to be a member.  In this way they can know who is coming there and threaten them with loss of their membership if they don't conform to the rules there. 

Myself, I miss the Drive-In's in the summer. (especially) Ours used to close in mid October and reopen by
April.

 

[wayne49]

The parks I mentioned are all over Az. I know of a park in southern Idaho that charges $150 a mo. and only $800 for the whole year. You won't find these on line and they don't have swimming pools, laundry's, dog parks, wifi, clubhouses, vehicle age restrictions. You have to be careful and check them out different hours of the day, talk to residents, particularly those your age. Talk in depth to the manager about the current residents. Are the sites clean and uncluttered? The ones I've seen that I would stay at are more rural. The ones in cities are often run down and poorly managed. Talk to the sheriff about the places you're interested in, if there is an issue, he'll clue you in. On Hwy 8 east of Yuma about 60 or 70 miles on the south side of the hwy is the Dateland RV park. $150 per mo.

http://www.dateland.com/rv-park/

Thanks for the tip.