Who is seriously trying to get out of Dodge?

pstarr

I have spent half my life trying to get the heck out of the suburbs. Grew up on Long Island, moved to NYC, then rural Pennsylvania, and finally behind the Redwood Curtain in Humboldt Co., Ca. I'm still not in the country but am in a very small and remote city. Next move is my own 2 acres.

I could not imagine living in the Sprawl Zone. I just watched 'Little Children' and it was lonelinest creepiest experience I've had in a long time. All I could think was 'There but for the grace of god goes I.' And those people in the movie lived a charmed but damned life.

Who is leaving suburbia (or the big city), or has already left for the hills?
_________________
director

ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap wav

Colorado-Valley · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 731

I'm on the mesas of Western Colorado -- having left Washington, D.C., about 17 years ago.

We have a nice organic farm/ranch with food and energy all around us. Almost all of my friends are aware of and prepared for the energy crisis.

Well, as prepared as you can probably be. I've personally been expecting it since the middle 1970s, pstarr.

I have a brother who has also been preparing for years. Guess what? He lives in Humboldt County.

Very Happy

topcat

Maybe you need an 'already left' option as you ended asking who has already left for the hiils.

I left DC (District of Crime/Corruption) over ten years ago, but not for PO reasons. Tired of the traffic, the street beggars, being robbed, and not seeing stars at night among a host of other reasons. Marion Barry being relected after going to jail was an awakening moment!

I highly recommend the same for others, just don't move here.

jdumars

We're prepping our suburban house with a huge highly-intensive garden, as well as preparing to buy land and build off-grid about 20 miles from here. Remember that the suburbs are between the boonies and the city and work as a staging area for self-sufficiency. Think of it as a waystation on the way to hydrocarbon-free existence.

pstarr

Don35 · Heavy Crude Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 127

I am about gone. I'm in the middle of a divorce, selling the house in the burbs (yeah!) and buying about 100 acres of land out in the middle of nowhere! Does all that count! (The PO obsession was only part of the problem for me and the future ex.) I've always wanted an organic farm. I grew up on 50 acres and have always missed it.
_________________
Everybody thinks they're righteous! Adam Baldwin "Jayne" Firefly/Serenity

Heading_for_the_hills

Hmmm-screen name sorta says it all don't u think? I would love to get the hell of this area-but difficult to do once you join mainstream society and then take the red pill and the "institutionalized" fog is lifted....I have wanted to post more but have often felt that by doing so I would only be reiterating what has been said ad nauseum...... Reading Endgame Vol I, Derrick Jensen, and love it....hard to find people here that are in agreement with peak oil and its implications. gave my dad Kunstler's Long Emergency and I think he is coming around but at 65, he feels it is too late in the game and has surrendered to the way things are going to play out and yes he thinks TSHTF soon....sorry for rambling-one too many vodka tonics tonight! I would love to see more acitivism on the site to alleviate some of what is coming. I guess you can say I am a doomer but as I have stated before that the crux of the situation and not just pertaining to the US is overpopulation, overshoot, as Montequest has stated time and again

threadbear · Expert Joined: Jan 22, 2005 Posts: 7502

threadbear · Expert Joined: Jan 22, 2005 Posts: 7502

Heading_for_the_hills

I am currently in the city of Norfolk, I work downtown and could bike if need be, it is only 3 miles to work-relatively flat but no bike lanes...I would be taking my life in my own hands. And even though I work in a high rise that just completed, no gym or showers were provided even though over 1, 400 people work in the building and there are 8 floors dedicated to parking garage!! I live in a post war cape cod house-built in 1948, a proverbial bombshelter!! I can't even get a cell phone signal inside. Even though Norfolk, VA is considered a city I find it hard to classify it as such but then again, I am looking to eventually to be in the middle of nowhere in the mountains so I guess that would be a moot point. I am basically at sea level and can see the water from my street. Hurricanes are not fun nor will rising sea levels. I am in Flood zone 3-meaning that if a Hurricane level 3 or higher, I would be under water....I have had to move my car several times when I lived in downtown due to high tides!! I would love to be self sufficient but I fear that we as a society are so far removed from that idea, that it would be hard to achieve.

mmasters

I'm in NYC.

I notice the city getting ever slighly more desperate as time goes by and I've recently started questioning how much longer I should live here.

Unfortunately relocation packages aren't out there anymore so there's no easy way out of the area. Just have to resign the job, cut the lease, pack a van and go.

Not really sure where the right place is, I just have a sense NYC is not it and procrastinating on getting out of here for too long could be a bad move.

threadbear · Expert Joined: Jan 22, 2005 Posts: 7502

pstarr

mmasters, what does that desperation look like?

I don't know anyone in NYC anymore (other than my niece who is doing, at least in her eyes, fantastically.) She is the envy of many and I do not have the heart yet to bring her down with my prognostications and bad vides.

So my interest about NYC is heartfelt though, to be quite franke, a bit ghoulish having left so many years ago and with no interest to return.

Are the poor poorer? Are the rich more striving and unsatisfied? Is it more corrupt. Or is the rat race just depressing?
_________________
director

ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap wav

Chaparral

Little old me for one. Got the last of the buildings for sale, one in escrow and one still on the market. Expect to have my house saleable in 18 to 24 mos and in the meantime, have been putting down roots in the Sacto valley near a medium-sized college town with good cultural life and train station and where car ownership is not a neccessity so long as the bike has a rack trunk or panniers. I'm looking at making all cash offers on 20 to 80 ac of ag land with a serviceable house and a high, mercury and boron free water table on the premises. Some of the family is on board and the future spouse is on board. Cascadia is also an option but for a slow crash with not a whole lot of marauding zombie hordes, I figure a decent farming business close to transportation nodes and population centers is best.

crapattack

We'll we've made it as far as the 'rural-burbs'. About 40mins from downtown Vancouver, and it was like ripping off the umbilical cord with our teeth even to get this far. We've got 13 acres but the house is too big so it'll be a transitional place. We weren't sure if our clients in the city would like it if we moved out of the urban zone, and so far our business hasn't been effected - touch wood. We are doing more webinar type meetings so the commute is down to 1 - 2 days per week we have to go into the city. We try to keep it to a minimum. Luckily we're not far from the transit that can get us into the city once gas get's too pricey.

Meanwhile we're learning as much as we can about gardening and raising livestock, composing, horses (we have 5 being boarded on our 'ranch') - the whole country life thing which is strange strange strange to us city folk. The flies! Poop! Mud! Fencing. Septic. Wells. Eeckkk! We have our new working dog puppy who is learning how to herd the goats we want to get for making cheese. We'll put in chickens as soon as the coop is finished. Our business/income will collapse pretty soon after any major market crash or TSHTF so we're stockpiling and trying to develop PO useful skills.

It's a bit frigging overwhelming at times, let me tell you. All the new information, trying to learn everything at once because of this sense of dread and urgency. The house is so big I could take in all my friends but I don't know if that will really happen. They're so immersed in their lives in the city it's hard to get them to focus on anything else. I'm sure some of our urban friends think we've gone a just a little crazy but who cares, I love the view of the pastures and mountains in the morning. We have frogs in the pond and an eagle in the tall fir. My air is not rockies fresh but it's a damn lot better than in the city and our allergies are much better this year. I'm not looking forward to another move, but I don't think anywhere within 2 - 3 days bike/walking distance from the major cities will be that safe from raiders or even the military seeking to press local farms into service to feed the city.

I'd like something more remote but have to be able to keep running our business or wait until I've saved enough to live off and shut it down. Meanwhile saving as much as possible to buy land somewhere on Van Isle or interior. Have some roots into a few small communities with self-sufficient skills/values and hope to build or integrate with a community. If some of my friends do manage to come that's great but at this moment I can't count on it. Anyhow, bit of a ramble, late night.
_________________
"Ninety percent of everything is crap."
-Theodore Sturgeon

Stay low and run in a random pattern.

List of Civilian Nuclear Accidents