Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Car campers in beach parking lots

bakersfield.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 161 posts

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#91

Post by envoked »

ReinholdNiebuhr wrote: post #87

Just an idea that popped up. One could probably develop a couchsurfing/airbnd style app so to speak where people with rvs/motorhomes could find rental spots to go hook up for the night. That probably wouldn't do much for people short on money, but it could be helpful for people traveling around the country and finding that RV parks have no vacancy. Just a thought.

Not a super hip site but boondockerswelcome.com has been around for a while. It seems mostly targeted toward the boomer/florida snowbird crowd.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#92

Post by compiler-guy »

jedberg wrote: post #71
ChuckMcM wrote: post #32

I talked with a guy living in a motorhome in Mountain View California, he works for Google. He could certainly afford an apartment but said his payments on the motorhome are about $600 a month, and an apartment close to Google would be $2500 a month at least, so he feels like its a free $2000 a month to save or spend. He's fortunate that Google also has nice showers, free food, and laundry. Things he might otherwise…

I know for a while there was a guy living in his camper in the Google parking lot (and was an employee). They were even nice enough to allow him to hook up to their power, and he was in range of the wifi. He basically just went inside to shower and eat (and work of course). Not a bad deal. Not sure if they allow that anymore though.

There have been many such people. You have to do it stealthily though, because if Google finds out, it has to kick you off campus due to zoning issues.

Any support the company gave is in the long past now.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#93

Post by RHSeeger »

mruts wrote: post #48
ChuckMcM wrote: post #32

I talked with a guy living in a motorhome in Mountain View California, he works for Google. He could certainly afford an apartment but said his payments on the motorhome are about $600 a month, and an apartment close to Google would be $2500 a month at least, so he feels like its a free $2000 a month to save or spend. He's fortunate that Google also has nice showers, free food, and laundry. Things he might otherwise…

One of my friends lives in a shipping container in Oakland in a trailer park. She loves it and pays around $250/month for the space. When I was visiting, the people there are so nice. It’s a community in which people help each other, not like the upper class neighborhoods of my youth. In a span of one day, I got some weed, some beer, and an popsicle. A far cry from many upper class neighborhoods in which no one is wi…

There are plenty of middle and upper income neighborhoods where there is community. There are plenty of low income neighborhoods where everyone treats everyone like an enemy.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#94

Post by RHSeeger »

mynameishere wrote: post #89
klank wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and punitive is much cheaper for those of us with high moral character. I didn't understand this assertion. Could you expand on it a bit?

He's saying that he is unaware of the vast amount of social services available to the poor, and is arguing with a strawman.

The amount of social services available to the poor has no impact on the fact that many people look at (and treat) the poor horribly, and act as if it is their own fault they are poor.

Your statement both inaccurate and insulting.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#95

Post by throwawaysea »

save_ferris wrote: post #67
homerhomer wrote: post #51

I'm against live-in vehicles and this life-style choice. On paper it sounds fine but in reality horrible for many reasons. For the most part, people in this situation are in a challenging state and the least of their worries is the environment around them. Is a mother of 2 living in a small RV who relies on donations going to pay for disposal service? I live in Portland, a city that used to known for being a clean ci…

This comes off as super NIMBYish. The rise of this lifestyle is a direct result of rising inequality in our society. Yeah, that mother of 2 living in a vehicle probably has way bigger problems than paying for disposal service. But people utilizing services they can't pay for is what concerns you, not the fact that so many people are in such dire financial straits that living in a car makes economic sense.

Use of the word "NIMBY", which is clearly a pejorative, is not an argument. I don't see why that diminishes the parent comment at all.

The rise of this lifestyle is a direct result of people feeling entitled. Take the musician in the article ("Lily"). She's trying to make a career in indie rock, playing local gigs. That can't be your full-time job unless you are exceptionally talented, to a degree where others value your creation/contributions enough to pay you a lot for it. This takes more than just musical talent - it requires experience, marketing, networking, business, and other skills. And it is of course, a highly-competitive line of work - after all, who wouldn't want their work to also be their passion.

Lily lived in Nashville before, which is a lot more affordable than California cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. San Diego is a full 55% pricier than Nashville (https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-...). So in effect, Lily made a conscious choice to move to a pricier area without having a plan for how to live there. A responsible way of making that move would be to work for a few years in Nashville, build up savings, identify jobs in your destination that pay enough, and then make the move.

What gives Lily the right to expect she'd be accommodated in whatever city she moves to? If her work is not producing enough earning to pay for housing locally, it is because her work is not valued by society to a great enough extent to live in a very desirable (and thus expensive) area. I don't think the local community is obligated to provide lower-cost housing (either through subsidy or greater supply) to enable her choices, which squarely fall under the realm of "personal responsibility".

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#96

Post by Kadin »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #78
rhacker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These fifth wheels and class As can weigh up to 24000 pounds (even if they where never legally allowed to). A moving object at that weight would make a multi-story RV park an architecture/safety nightmare. I'm talking about east-bay area that still has space. Not sunnyvale. - Just checked out the ready player one images - holy mother of guacamole.

I agree they are heavy, and even more heavy than the bus chassis they are built on top of, but I see that as an engineering problem right? There are bus depot parking structures where unused commercial buses are parked. And my civil engineering friends are fond of saying that with enough steel and concrete you can hold up anything :-). So as a mental exercise in scaling density by going vertical, in my sketchbook usi…

It's certainly possible, but with a lot less steel and concrete you could just build walls and have, you know, apartments. My guess is it's easier to find investors for that, too.

The only reason I can imagine a multi-storey RV park making sense would be to take advantage of some weird zoning quirk or something. But that's a lot of money to throw at what's effectively a legal vulnerability that will probably quickly be fixed.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#97

Post by onetimemanytime »

CalRobert wrote: post #46
ChuckMcM wrote: post #32

I talked with a guy living in a motorhome in Mountain View California, he works for Google. He could certainly afford an apartment but said his payments on the motorhome are about $600 a month, and an apartment close to Google would be $2500 a month at least, so he feels like its a free $2000 a month to save or spend. He's fortunate that Google also has nice showers, free food, and laundry. Things he might otherwise…

The insanity, here, is that you can't take the land the motorhome is on and build a studio on it. We give cars free places to sleep while people are homeless.

>>The insanity, here, is that you can't take the land the motorhome is on and build a studio on it.

apple and oranges. The permit to built the studio makes that building legit, kinda forever. A motor home, they can chase out with a new law, or just by enforcing existing laws.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#98

Post by jameslk »

rhacker wrote: post #45
ChuckMcM wrote: post #32

I talked with a guy living in a motorhome in Mountain View California, he works for Google. He could certainly afford an apartment but said his payments on the motorhome are about $600 a month, and an apartment close to Google would be $2500 a month at least, so he feels like its a free $2000 a month to save or spend. He's fortunate that Google also has nice showers, free food, and laundry. Things he might otherwise…

Actually a better business is to start having more RV parks in the SV. The last 5 years has been record breaking sales history for RVs. Yet the rest of the industry (RV parks specifically) isn't catching up. Most of the people buying RVs are now surprised that no RV parks have availability. I've watched for the past 5 years bay area periphery cities go from having tons of space any time of the year, to being complete…

RV parks are expensive. Why not buy deeded RV lots individually and build your empire piecemeal?

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#99

Post by CalRobert »

gph wrote: post #66
CalRobert wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The insanity, here, is that you can't take the land the motorhome is on and build a studio on it. We give cars free places to sleep while people are homeless.

>We give cars free places to sleep while people are homeless. This is basically the equivalent of saying, "People give pets free food and shelter while letting the homeless starve, what's wrong with our society" Sure sounds deep and meaningful, but really it isn't

If I said "you can't build apartments because this is zoned for low density dog houses" what you said _might_ be a relevant comparison.

Re: Car campers in beach parking lots

#100

Post by karambahh »

gph wrote: post #66
CalRobert wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The insanity, here, is that you can't take the land the motorhome is on and build a studio on it. We give cars free places to sleep while people are homeless.

>We give cars free places to sleep while people are homeless. This is basically the equivalent of saying, "People give pets free food and shelter while letting the homeless starve, what's wrong with our society" Sure sounds deep and meaningful, but really it isn't

I think you're comparing apples to oranges here.

If you reclaim a parking space for another use (such as building accommodation for families or an animal shelter), you're not depriving the car of anything, it's an expensive, large piece of metal and is not sentient.

Next, you'll say that you're depriving car owners from the practicality of parking their vehicles anywhere they like. I'm perfectly fine with depriving car owners from this convenience to allow a human being to have a roof over their head. (speaking from direct experience as I've just minutes ago had to park my car 1km away from home because the city is currently building housing and has restricted parking space nearby)

Then, some might argue that one should be ashamed of helping animals while humans are suffering. That's the exact same train of thought with «we can't allow more migrants in, we have to take care of our "own" homeless people».

This is a false dichotomy. Western societies inequalities are growing larger and larger. Me trying to do my part is insignificant. Me donating to human or animal causes is a small dent into the mountains of inequalities we live on top of. Us collectively, we do make a difference, by donating, voting and generally keeping our eyes open about the world we live in...

Finally, an entirely anecdotal pov: I've witnessed several times extremely poor people going out of their ways to show solidarity to animals or humans. I've also witnessed an awful lot of extremely wealthy individuals complaining about the poor inconveniencing them by just being there, whose wealth was a direct consequences of their ancestors exploiting whose very same poor people.

Post reply on HN