Comments on: Tent Cities in America

By: Savings Account Rates Eve

Savings Account Rates Eve — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:54:52 +0000

Yes, we definitely live in a messed up world. And it will always be a messed up world, but I guess we make the best of what we have.

By: db

db — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:44:39 +0000

Alternative living is a trend that will be more apparent as this recession/depression plays itself out. Anyone reading here thinking about tent cities as a last resort due to extreme economic hardship might want to do searches online for cohousing and use search words such as alternative housing, yurts and communal living.

Tent city in Sacramento was a surprise to me when I saw it on tv but the stories of its residents are not. Many were earning $50K or more before losing their jobs, being unable to find a job or being able to afford the training to retrain in an unrelated field or were unable to work any straight commission job or start a business of their own.

I will be starting a business soon after my company a mortgage banker closed forcing a layoff of about 200 people. In December 2008 I was present at an Employment Development Department Job Fair for Financial and Construction professionals, the invitation arrived in the form of 2 identical envelopes with 2 identical letters complete with Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature on them (I thought before opening them that it was going to be bad news, perhaps a cancellation of my Unemployment Benefits due to the state of California’s economy.) The expected turnout was to be no more than 300 for the event, instead over 1000 of us showed up and it was televised on the evening news on San Francisco’s KTVU and all other local stations (KTVU was there interviewing as were a few others and photographers taking still shots both outside where the line snaked around the hotel and inside as well.

In the past after two other layoffs and closures, one company was a specialty retailer that decided to close their call center and the other a loan company and even when dissatisfied with a current employer I have always been able to hookup with a new position within 1 to 3 weeks. Not this time and after wearing out my printer (by printing several thousand letters and resumes to mail out or hand deliver) and exhaustive calls and actually going door to door I decided after all this time to stop the madness and start my own wholesale/retail business so I can transfer my skills without waiting any longer and urge others to do the same.

By: QUESTRADE COUPONS - All Coupons, discounts, promo codes, offers, and reviews

QUESTRADE COUPONS - All Coupons, discounts, promo codes, offers, and reviews — Sat, 30 May 2009 09:48:25 +0000

good post…sometimes i wish i live in a tent

By: Car Insurance Phi

Car Insurance Phi — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:20:50 +0000

To be fair, most of these tent cities were already in existence before the housing bust.

By: omer

omer — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:32:29 +0000

the first one with conical tents are from Saudi Arabia organized for the annual pilgrim of Muslim Hajj.. that’s why they look organized as these are supported by Government which are fire proof and provided with Air Cons !!

By: Boris Said

Boris Said — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:13:00 +0000

Thank you for the answer Roman!!

By: Roman

Roman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:25:04 +0000

Do you mean the colored picture or the one in black and white?
The colored pics are all made in Sacramento, California and I’m not sure about the black and white ones

By: Roman

Roman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:23:48 +0000

Thanks!

By: Boris Said

Boris Said — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:51:02 +0000

The first tent photo, where is that located? It actually looks nicely organized, and are those generators or something in the middle?

By: Roman

Roman — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:12:35 +0000

Lol, I see what you did there! Nice point!

If these people are even a bit streetsmart they will get their stuff from Walmart and after 3 months they can return everything and get their money back (and buy a newer tent )