BEST CITIES TO VANDWELL?

[livesimply5]

In your experience what have the best and worse cities to be vandwelling? Meaning parking issues and free things to do. Which cities have worse laws?

 

[buckwilk]

You might want to narrow that down a little bit. There are 20,000 cities in the U.S. *!*

 

[Iggy]

The best for me has been Ocean Beach in San Diego. It's technically illegal to vandwell there but it isn't enforced due to their history of tolerance for hippies, travelers, and down-and-outers. As long as you can find a spot on the streets to park, be considerate to the locals, move once in awhile, and vacate on street-sweeping days; you shouldn't have a problem.
The worst was San Bernardino. It's full of Mexican gangbangers who are looking for vehicles to steal or graffiti, and they are quite willing to hurt you if you get in their way. I'll never stay there again!

 

[BigT]

SF Bay Area seems to be a pretty good place. I see them all over. Easy to spot.
I'm mostly in the South Bay for work, and I see them lined up on the streets all day and all night.

 

[highdesertranger]

imo the best city is not a city at all, but the boonies. highdesertranger

 

[TMG51]

I can actually speak to this. I've done mostly urban vandwelling all along the route you can see in my signature. From my experience, the best towns cities for vandwelling (ranked by ease of parking, not being hassled, low crime, water access, but most of all actually a NICE place to be) are:

Burlington, Vermont
Derry, New Hampshire
New Paltz, New York
Charlottesville, Virginia
Beaufort, South Carolina
Fernandina Beach, Florida

The absolute WORST city for vandwelling I've stayed is Portland, Maine.

 

[Wanderer]

In your experience what have the best and worse cities to be vandwelling? Meaning parking issues and free things to do. Which cities have worse laws?

Vancouver, WA AND Portland, OR.

Vancouver for the quiet life. I work at Walmart (new store on 4th plain) I drive to the 192nd Walmart and sleep there nightly. Been doing that for awhile now.
I get my showers and wifi at a local community center. 

You can park up at the rest area at Gee Creek, 11 miles north of Vancouver, WA. but the staters (State cops) are patrolling it alot and get picky about people 
exceeding the 8 hours limit.

Now Portland, OR has a 24 hour rule. You CAN park in neighborhoods and stay there for 24 hours. Then, you need to move. Not far, 100 yards or more.  But'
that's it. Many shopping areas REFUSE to let you sleep in the lot overnight, so this works out.

 

[Canine]

Ringling,Mt.Population; Usually drunk.

 

[SoulRaven]

Seattle isn't bad. I've never been hassled by cops and there's a pretty big push to have public facilities available to the homeless, including laundry and shower services.

There are places both for non-stealth and stealth parking. The non-stealth areas are pretty tow-happy and it's common for people to get their rigs graffitied, you see a lot of evidence of drug dealers in those areas and a lot of rigs have permanently flat tires that owners pump up just to move barely enough to avoid tows. I do not envy them. The area I tend to consider "home" has at least 3 other people that I know of who are homeless, who have figured out how to carve out a place for themselves in a rather high-end, safe area and no one bothers us.

 

[Travelman]

How about Phoenix, Arizona?. Anyone there right?

 

[ramblingvanman]

If you can handle the summer heat, Central Florida works really well.

 

[Canine]

When I stayed in central Florida near Lake Okeechobee in 1990 for a few months, I found it to be highly segregated. The rich, white people lived in the "circles" (culdesacs). The poor, white people in another. The black people had their own area. The old people had their gated communities that had rules limiting how old a person was and how long that person could stay. The Guatemalans had their own area. The Mexicans had their area, too. Etc. I drove in residential areas that weren't white and I WAS NOT welcome. Had the cops called on me for touring a neighborhood. Also had people threaten me for being in their neighbor because I was a "cracker" and other vulgar stuff. That was an eye opener for me. Not sure if other areas are like that; I sure hope not. I stayed in a small room at the horse race track I worked at. Lots of ants! Keep the jelly lid on at all times! Lol.

The town I'm in doesn't allow camping in your own back yard. It isn't enforced, though. You see lots of campers with an extension cord ran across the sidewalk to a plug-in on the house. Each city is different with tremendous variation.

I stayed in Phoenix for a few days and didn't have a problem. Slept in my Bronco. Wasn't too comfortable, though, because the out of the way places I found in the desert had lots of dumping going on and lots of vandalism. Didn't want to be around people who were like that.

 

[Ballenxj]

Slept in my Bronco.

I can relate to that. I stayed in a full size Chevy Blazer for something like 6 to 8 months while working a job that wasn't close to any cities.
Interesting experience as I was in it through the coldest part of the year. Used my Coleman cooler for food and utensils, and a Northern Lights candle lantern for heat. A good sleeping bag was nice as well. The company supplied uniforms so laundry wasn't a big issue, and they had a laundromat and showers anyway.
Thinking back on it, I had fun.

 

[chevyg20]

Fernandina Beach, Florida

Hey, just curious about Fernandina Beach. What puts it on the list for you? Where is good to park? I'm in Savannah, GA., right now, which is okay, but Fernandina looks close. Thanks.

 

[Canine]

How about Phoenix, Arizona?. Anyone there right?

Phoenix is good, just have to do the usual of paying attention to the area and the ordinances. Unless you are arriving at night (then its a Walmart), you can check out the areas during daylight.

It really depends on your vehicle. My G van mid top that's all white with very few stripes and no body damage/rust/mismatched colors doesnt get a second look in apartments lots and motels, of which there are plenty. I don't park in commercial areas due to not being a cargo van.

Haven't been hassled but then I have a 14 night rotation list where no 2 nights are closer than a mile apart, and preferably are across suburban city limits from each other, that way the local LEO's don't go into the other jurisdictions. I was asked to move from a 24 hour gym but that was location specific and a manager that was being snotty. Maybe I was bad advertising coming out of the place, if this is what you look like coming out of a gym...

 

[steamjam1]

Santa Cruz, Ca. Fours years in, and not once have I been bothered by anyone. Its a general accepted rule here. Make no problems, get no hassle.

 

[INTJohn]

A lot of cities do not have laws about sleeping in a vehicle simply because its never become a negative issue - they all have something that falls under something described as 'vagrancy'.

San Diego gets a lot of good press on this forum but the truth is they have more anti-- vandwellen laws on the books than any other place I know of. Do they play the card? No not very often but they can do it any time they want. Just this past August they rousted everyone off of Fiesta Island 1 day - just to make an example out of them and to let everyone know that The SD Gov can *** with em anytime they want to..........

jez like in combat - cover & concealment and CYA in order to lower %'z of being fukt wiith. Even then tho if ur #'s up its up........

IMHO...............INTJohn

 

[INTJohn]

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/nonprofits/fiesta-island-becomes-a-homeless-rv-haven/

we all like the weather & the beach at SD but you gota be careful cause it really IS NOT a friendly town to vandwellers. SD gov just tolerate it because they don't have the police resources to enforce it as the police state they'd like it to be.......... If any of these places were friendly why do we all have to be an 'underground'? livin in 'stealth'?

IMHO............INTJohn

 

[Ballenxj]

If any of these places were friendly why do we all have to be an 'underground'? livin in 'stealth'?

Now THERE's the question that needs answering.

 

[mothercoder]

Ringling,Mt.Population; Usually drunk.

LOL  Cheers mate