Tent Cities

A friend here in the mountains called me this morning and related a story he'd seen on television the other day. A story about tent cities in Sacramento. After explaining that he was channel surfing and just happened to catch the story (and normally does not watch Oprah), he then reiterated the story of the tent city emerging next to the river in Sacramento. A 'community' of the homeless, the jobless, and other victims of hard times, or themselves, or the predatory bankers, or the boogie man. Everybody has a story. The place is growing by 50 tents a day. With the publicity the story has gotten recently, I'm sure it's going to swell.
By coincidence I was watching Larry King last night hosted by Ali Velshi, the CNN money man who has been telling people to ride out the stock market throughout the 7,000 point downfall. He was interviewing Kevin Johnson about, you guessed it, the tent city. I think several of the residents were former clients of Ali, back when they had money... and the real loser is, yes, Sacramento.
I know it's said that any publicity is good publicity, but in this case I respectfully disagree. I could be wrong though; yesterday I watched a story on Detroit property prices, where houses, nice houses, are selling for $10,000 and less. Since then I've been thinking about Detroit real estate. Today, they interviewed a Detroit newsman about the story and, according to him, the nightmare started there about five years ago with automaker layoffs that continue to this day and the property prices that have fallen and now reflect just 10% of what they were. Can you imagine?
Listening to the newsman, I could feel his personal shock and disbelief as he described the residents waiting and waiting and waiting, and yet still no bottom is approaching to their deteriorating world.
And so back to the tent city... let's say, hypothetically, that the tent city grows by 50 tents a day for 5 years.....that's 91,250 tents. Other than the obvious, now would be a good time to invest in canvas, or maybe porta-potties.
I have read a little of the Great Depression and these tent cities were common back then. I remember reading stories about the Federal Government battling the residents over squatting in certain places. Sacramento might eventually have those type of problems; if one were going to squat in a tent, Sacramento would be a lot better climate-wise than other places. The place could be a magnet for the needy. What an opportunity, the whole hippy movement could re-emerge from the city in the valley where the two rivers meet. That probably sounds good to the people who have already met the boogie man and predatory banker, but those that are still in pocket probably aren't so enthusiastic about living in a loser magnet city.
I can't wait to return.