ERE City (US)

[Slevin]

@grundomatic tempting tbh; I'm most tempted with the Dunbar/Springs neighborhood. One of the most solarpunk places in the US.

[grundomatic]

Come help me turn the Corbett neighborhood into something similar! I can't afford to live in the Dunbar Spring area, but it was kind of run down and yucky 30 years ago before Brad Lancaster transformed his lot, then the neighborhood, and eventually the city. I'm not quite that into permaculture, and it sure would help me to not feel like an island when every other neighbor wants to just spray their entire lot until it's devoid of any life save maybe a single sad tree or a cactus. That or just let the patchy bermuda grass run wild. When the sun goes down you can bring your rude commander deck and play with my friends and I. One of my friends is super into tea...aren't you as well? There are farmer's markets here too, if you don't want to spilt the cheap veggies with me. We can also split the truckloads of free mulch.

[sodatrain]

Just to add some perspective, this is mandatory on new builds or full rebuilds here. Rainwater catchment and low energy consumption or no construction permit. Neigh impossible to meet the government's low energy requirements without solar.

... Mandatory here ... Where is here?

[loutfard]

Flanders (northern half of Belgium). Similar in many neighbouring areas and countries.

[berrytwo]

My neighbor across the street is moving, house going on the market March 1. All their plumbing has been updated (as well as floors & kitchen, I think), the house just had energy efficiency work done, and has a new roof. Price will probably be between $200k and $250k. The high was 70F today when I was weed-whacking their yard for them. Who wants to come be my neighbor? I can make zucchini bread and we can get into all kinds of shenanigans.

I'd love to kick around the idea of creating a small community on my land in Guatemala. The idea is to have something like an Intentional Community of ERE minded people. I'd love to share my space, meals, gardens, find overlap in our WoGs.

Cool! Thank you both for sharing your visions I feel like putting stuff out there is the way to go! It is fun to imagine different pockets of ERE2 happening throughout the world.

[jacob]

My neighbor across the street is moving, house going on the market March 1. All their plumbing has been updated (as well as floors & kitchen, I think), the house just had energy efficiency work done, and has a new roof. Price will probably be between $200k and $250k. The high was 70F today when I was weed-whacking their yard for them. Who wants to come be my neighbor? I can make zucchini bread and we can get into all kinds of shenanigans.

I'm curios whether we have any forumites who live on the same block anywhere.

FWIW, there's a 3bd/2ba "Georgian" for sale for ~$250k on our street as well. 1hr commute from downtown Chicago (35min walk + 35min subway or 15min bus + 35min sub or 45min car). Biking is borderline suicidal. Midway and O'Hara are 15 and 45 mins away by car and both reachable by subway. All the small businesses you'd ever need one block (a 3 minute walk) away: bank, funeral parlor, cell phone store, barbershop, dentist, doctor, restaurants, supermarkets,... and the nearest fire station is >1 mile down a straight line road. Except for about 2 pleasant months per year (May and September), weather is either cold as shit (down to -20F) or hot as fuck (up to +100F). Despite the temperature range, it's one of the most stable places in the US WRT climate, resources, politics, connectivity, and the economy. Also, seniors enjoy 75% off on RE taxes and tons of free services (lawn, electric, plumbing, ...). For the working stiffs, it's coastal incomes but Midwest expenses.

[Chris]

I'm curios whether we have any forumites who live on the same block anywhere.

Remember this? viewtopic.php?t=5254

[jacob]

Remember this? viewtopic.php?t=5254

Wow! No, not at all. Lot of OGs on that map.

[theanimal]

There are multiple 2 acre parcels of land available for sale by us in Fairbanks, including one next door. Going rate is usually $35-40k. There is no building code, so you could build whatever you want. There are some new houses nearby with plumbing that go for $200k. Electricity available from the local utility company. There’s a small general store and restaurant within walking distance and it’s about a 15 minute drive to town. Winter trails less than 1/4 mi away connect to hundreds of miles of trails locally and thousands of miles of trails throughout the state. The northern lights (aurora borealis) occurs directly above us on nearly every clear night. We are above the lowlands, and it’s generally 10 degrees warmer (Fahrenheit) at our house than in town, or even compared to our neighbors across the street.

[J_]

Ahh, what a tempting train develops here! Suddenly I can become a neighbor of @grundomatic, of @sodatrain, of @Jacob, and @theanimal. Or even (see other threads) near @jennypenny or near @zigby.

Ohh, if I had more than one life... I would live in all those places for some shorter or longer time. To experience those locations, to meet all those interesting persons direct. To learn from them en from those locations...

Now I will do it in my imagination, do some google work and re-reading in this worldwide and world-wise forum.

[7Wannabe5]

There are currently over 175 homes listed for sale on Zillow from $5000 to $70,000 within bus ride from my current location in northern rust-belt city made (in)famous in documentary. In the northern woods and water zone of my second permaculture project, 90 minutes further into rural, you can still easily find a 10 acre lot with decrepit hunting cabin for less than $50,000 and a 3 bedroom home with lake access or 5 acres including pond and orchard for less than $150,000, although prices have been going up in recent years. Both of these locations are in least likely to be effected by climate change zone. Unfortunately, there definitely are many building code limitations to be dealt with in city location, and also some to be overcome even in rural location. I am dithering a bit myself on my next move(s.)

[theanimal]

I wonder when we'll get the first incentivized offer, like Vermont or Tulsa, OK.

"Move near me and I'll give you 1 Jacob, a refrigiwear suit and a 50 lb sack of lentils."

[Slevin]

@theanimal my only Alaska "slice of life" experience that I've watched is Life Below Zero, where its usually about the seemingly hardcore people living next to any big river, hunting and fishing for food, worried about bears, and chopping down trees, then pulling them into the river to pull up near their property, and then milling the logs then building their own houses. Is this similar to what a lot of people in the region do, or are most people much more "normal", just living and working and buying food from the grocery store, buying a house, etc?

[loutfard]

I wonder when we'll get the first incentivized offer, like Vermont or Tulsa, OK.

"Move near me and I'll give you 1 Jacob, a refrigiwear suit and a 50 lb sack of lentils."

You stating things like this actually makes me think. The area around our summer house is superbly beautiful, but slowly depopulating. We could keep our eyes open for ways to reverse that trend in the neighbourhood. No need to wait for government initiatives to do that. Government usually acts slowly and unimaginatively, both because of its own inertia as heavy machinery and because it needs to be accountable to scared and unimaginative voters.

Done well, something like this might create a lot of value. I'm certainly not speaking just of financial value or just for ourselves either. Cheap and decent quality places to live. Mutual support because of not living in the middle of nowhere.

An ad for ERE living near our place would not look so terribly bad either:
- We're LOW tax. Neglegible real estate tax. Simple and low income tax. Low and often avoidable capital gains and dividend tax.
- Easy to do business. Low administrative overhead.
- Forests, lakes and rivers make for stunning natural beauty and quiet.
- Snnow up to three months a year really does brighten up winter!
- Get a winter's worth of free firewood on arrival!
- Decent universal healthcare. Optionally, very affordable private healthcare.
- Safe.
- Good public transport to and from Rīga, and to the rest of the world through Rīga airport.
- Freedom! As laid-back as the EU will allow when it comes to regulation.

Inventive governments are rare like live dinos in the anthropocene, but they could do fun things:
- 1€ houses.
- Convince a friend to come live here for at least a year and get a winter's worth of free firewood.
- Convince a friend to buy a house here and get a free plot of land.
- Convince a friend to buy a house by the Russian border and join the local territorial defense forces. Get a free house and tuition for your children.

[theanimal]

@theanimal my only Alaska "slice of life" experience that I've watched is Life Below Zero, where its usually about the seemingly hardcore people living next to any big river, hunting and fishing for food, worried about bears, and chopping down trees, then pulling them into the river to pull up near their property, and then milling the logs then building their own houses. Is this similar to what a lot of people in the region do, or are most people much more "normal", just living and working and buying food from the grocery store, buying a house, etc?

It's a sliding scale somewhat dependent on where you are, but yes most people are likely more normal than what is portrayed.. The big cities (Anchorage, Juneau and Anchorage) definitely have a much larger segment of the population that lives more normal lifestyles, especially so in Anchorage. But even within Anchorage, people have to worry about grizzlies and moose not getting into their trash, house, messing with their pets etc. In more remote areas and off the road system, there tends to be more of a blend between the two lifestyles. Alaskan culture is definitely distinct than the Lower 48 and has strong themes of DIY, sourcing your own food and resource, and careers aren't placed on as high of a pedestal.

I guess Wheaton Levels could apply. We live more towards the extreme end of that perspective, but are still understood by our friends and those in our community, whereas if we did the same elsewhere in the country, we'd likely be considered crazy.

[7Wannabe5]

@theanimal:

I would suggest that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and even some sections of the Lower Peninsula are much like Alaska in many regards. Oddly for the areas in the Lower Peninsula this is more true than when I was a child due to rust-belt industry and small family farm collapse. Some of these kids I teach are clearly living in "Deliverance" type social environments.

[theanimal]

I believe it, I've heard similar. In fact, I've considered living there before because of that, but have always ruled against it because of the relative lack of public land, more restrictions, and mountains.

[grundomatic]

Cool! Thank you both for sharing your visions I feel like putting stuff out there is the way to go! It is fun to imagine different pockets of ERE2 happening throughout the world.

Well, thanks, but it was somewhat of a half-hearted attempt. I just threw something out there, just in case, but I probably need to flesh out exactly what I envision and what I am trying to accomplish. I'll workshop it. Also, if it's so damned interesting to me I should probably be the one to move.

I wonder when we'll get the first incentivized offer, like Vermont or Tulsa, OK.

"Move near me and I'll give you 1 Jacob, a refrigiwear suit and a 50 lb sack of lentils."

Well, only took a few hours!

[jacob]

Also, if it's so damned interesting to me I should probably be the one to move.

Yeah, I think therein lies the problem. Lots of "Everybody move closer to me"-suggestions, whereas the "I'm ready to move anywhere as long as it's close to one of you people" are few and far in between. The problem with the latter is that cost of moving is large for most people and that the network-effect has the smallest pay-off for the first mover.

I wonder whether people moved to Longmont because of MMM, MMM selling the area on the blog(did he?), or the fact that it's a software engineering hub anyway?

[Jin+Guice]

ERE in New Orleans:

Relatively cheap land/ houses compared to the rest of the country!
One of the oldest cities in the U.S.!
Unique history (founded by the French)!
Lots of free festivals!
Lots of free activities!
A culture of anti-work!
Effectively lawless!
Booze!
Live like an anarcho-eco-pirate!
Dance on the bones of your enemies!
Live on the absolute cutting edge of environmental collapse!