Oh my gawd, they have trailers up North. How can this be. The rednecks must have escaped from the South. Better go round em up.

////sorry, it's not often you get a trailer park story that's not in some backwoods Southern town.

That's right!!! We ain't going no dang where!!!

AN armor plated bulldozer will "evict" those "terrorists" off the land that doesn't belong to them.



Maybe Israel will lend the landfill owners a bulldozer as a show of solidarity?

Trailers aint that bad.

Scum live everywhere. They live next to you. The trappings are illusory.

This is one thing that I don't understand, why in the world would the owner of any property be responsible to relocate any person living on his property? First they were renters, second if they had a lease then they should not have been made to leave until that lease expired. Then without a lease they should have been made to move at thier own exspense and not at the owner of the properties expense reguardless of being able to afford it.

Hey! I thought of a good use for that Trailer Park? Build a concrete fence around it, put the terrorists in it and give them matches. Release a few pigs into the compound (wouldn't a Muslim rather be dead than hang out with swine?) and let them deal with it.


Kaboooooooom!

Heuer,

Being from Boston I can say that Pennsylvania is still considered the south to us. The North is really from NY up as far as we are concerned.

Ironbar, any thouhgts?

I'm trying like hell to figure out why people are comparing the cost of rent in New York to this... Although the article appeared in Newsday, the landfill and neighboring trailer park are in Birdsboro, PA. Birdsboro is not New York by any stretch. Berks County, PA is one of those counties which constitute "Pennsyltucky" (the part of PA between Philly and Pittsburgh where they've got maybe 15 last names in the phone book).

Anyhow... $10k in that part of PA goes a hell of a lot farther than it would in Manhattan. Of course, for most folks in that part of Berks County, the only connection they have with New York is "It's also part of the USA."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." -- George W. Bush

Squidloe, being from Canada I would have to tell you that anything south of the 49th parallel is considered "Down South"

FarkinFreks,

Fair enough. And a footnote to my post about the south. We do have Maine in our neck of the woods and although it is beautiful country up there, it is damn scary if you stary off the main roads. I think they still eat their young in some parts.

I was under the impression the a "trailer" could be pulled.

What's with the sloooooow postings today! I almost miss `Nutty Nutsack' the squirrel from yesterday.

For the ones that can read but not comprehend what they read.

Mascaro also pledged $8,000 in relocation assistance to each of 14 families whose trailers were threatened by methane.

Yeager had planned to stay at Eddie Smith forever -- even with the landfill looming over her trailer and methane threatening other homes nearby.

So Yeager isn't entitled to the $8000 because her trailer isn't threatened by methane gas. So at $280 a month for six months, she has a whopping $1680 to relocate. What do you think it would cost to move the trailer? Plus deposit at new park, and transfer fees for utilities. Some of these people came from a time when finishing high school was a luxury. College was out of the question. Try not to judge them by your cushy existence.

But this is Fark, and being an ass seems the 'in' thing to do, so I'm wasting my time. Just don't expect much sympathy when your time comes.

/end rant

Even though it appears that $8000 bux is a lot of help, what happens when that runs out? On a fixed income they probably couldn't keep up rent/mortage payments and they would be out on thier asses again. The gap between the haves and have nots just keeps getting wider and more and more people slip through the crack by no fault of thier own.

BillPap:

"Berks County, PA is one of those counties which constitute "Pennsyltucky""

too funny!! people not *from* PA don't quite understand just how hick this state can be outside phila, bucks, and montco counties. but it sure is beautiful country.
it's true, folks.

No pity. Was Eminem able to make it out in time?

Squidloe, on contemplation of my earlier statement, I would have to say that anyone living above the arctic circle would consider anything below the 60th parallel to be the far south as well. A matter of perspective I think. But, I do see your point about Maine.

"If you put your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else. "
Washington, D.C., Oct. 15, 2002

Mickey wants a new trailer for Mum...Damn Pikers...

Since our saintly 'homeless' magically disappeared the week after Clinton took office, I guess we'll have to focus our class-warfare laser beam on the 'poorly homed'.

You guys are mean.

On the other hand, re: the 6 mons. free and 8 grand, They just took the money they made over that time and blew it, and are now left with nothing. Stupidity will get you nowhere.

Anyone wanna figure out how many cases of Busch $8,000 will buy?

chicks at trailer parks are easy.

Cheese.

According to Homestore.com, average rent for a 2-bedroom apt in Reading, PA (the closest city to Birdsboro I could find) is $704 a month. Let's assume rent is cheaper out in the country: $550. First+last month rent + sec deposit = $1300. 1 year of apt living = $6800. Since the small town they live in probably doesn't have many apts available, they'd be looking at an apt in another city. Some might have to find new jobs. Any unemployed farker can tell you how fun that is these days (grumble grumble). Bring kids and school districts into the picture, and it gets even more complicated.

Whether or not $9-10k is enough to live on down there, I don't blame them for having hesitations about leaving. When money is tight, stability at home is key.

I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to be but, draw your own conclusions.

There are trailer parks in the North. I live in a pretty affluent town in Rhode Island, and there is this odd little spot in a very ritzy area of town where there is a small and aging trailer park.

I think it goes abck to the 50s. In my town, the trailer park was established in an area that, at the time, was uninhabited, hidden and considered too remote for developement.

Over the last 30-40 yrs, these areas became desirable and built out, and the stubborn trailer park owners wont sell their land. So you have huge areas of wealth surrounding a ratty, rusty trailer park that looks like something out of a music video.

As you travel down the main road, you see huge, 4,000 or 5,000 sq foot homes with large driveways and manicured lawns and fancy schmantzy Christmas decorations etc, and then pass this trailer park with propane tanks and rusted Chevy pickup trucks.

Eminem made trailer park chic.

This is sad. People shouldn't have to live this way.

Exactly Vici. And I have yet to find in the article where it says everyone living there received $8000 to relocate. 14 families did, and I'd bet they are not the remaining tenents.

and I thought the trailer park I managed was a dump
why don't they get moved to another trailer park it's around 1500 - 2000 to move a trailer and the rent couldn'd change that much so they would still have the 1st and deposit with money to spare

i don't know about east coast trailer trash, but midwest trailer trash are the worst breed of human. they work just enough to pay for their trailer, and then with their Title XIX money they buy cars, TVs, and computers.

i'm glad i pay taxes so you can drive a better car than me.

I'm real curious to know who the hell was charging (if I'm remembering right) $350 a month for these people to pay rent on the piece of shiat land?!

They live on trash, buttloads of trash AND there's methane gas coming up all around everyone. Who would be so friggin bold to demand rent every month? The hazzards that these poor people had to live with is really sad, and how IRONIC that someone is being "so kind" to offer nearly $8K to move. hmmm..

Some landlords think that "rent" is the golden ticket to Willy Wonka Land.

What a nice perfumed and padded existance some of you have had. You slap the sterotype together so neatly. Suffering is easier to deal with when you distance yourself from it with rash generalizations and assumptions.

[/buys Alton a beer]

Do not give these people sympathy.These people are lowlife losers, they will do nothing remotely on their own. Almost 10,000 bucks given to them, and still they're wringing their hands, "Awondrin' a what we're agonna do, Ma.I's ascared". Bums, just absolute loserly bums. Scoop them up and put them in the dumptrucks with the rest of the garbage.Feeling sorry for this crew is the absolute definition of a bleeding heart fool.

Allright Bump, biatch about stereotyping while you imply that anyone who doesn't feel sorry for these people must have had soft cushy lives. Yeah, no hypocrisy there at all.

I know a guy from my old shop class that had a duely set up specifically for towing 5th wheels and other large hauls that would tow cross state for his job, he didn't charge that much either. If they can get hooked up with another park just inflate the damn tires and go, that's what their for!

Quick, someone get the bandages! Call a cardiologist!

I come from nasty, alcoholic, rotten-teeth, cousin-farking trailer trash. I'm the first generation of my family that's never lived in a 'house' with a dirt floor.
See, it turns out at about age 15 my father said to himself "gee, this farking sucks, I don't want to live like this anymore" (this was shortly after his mother's boyfriend/commonlaw husband started charging him rent to stay there because my father had gotten a weekend job as a mechanic).
Even though he was underage, he left home and lived with friends (after assuring his stepdad that if he heard any of his younger brothers had a hand layed on them, he'd come back and kill said stepdad in his sleep).
Joined the Army, used the GI bill to put himself through college, get a degree, and become an officer. Retired early, and now works for a tech company with Army contracts.

If I ever want to see "how hard it is to get along", I need only visit my relatives, and whenever I do I realized how much it's they're fault where they are. Their biggest concerns in life are always:
1. Who's going to go to the store to get cigarrettes
2. Who's going to go to the store to get a 12-pack of beer
3. Can you pick me up some lotto tickets when you go
4. Gee, you went to college, can I borrow some money?

In summation, keep your liberal guilt to yourself.

Too bad Steinbeck is dead. This could be the setting for his long awaited sequel to 'The Grapes of Wrath'.

I love it when people who have no idea what the are talking about spout social commentary. As soon as someone says too farking bad about those BUMS and thier own self-inflicted problems, someone inevitably replies with some smarmy "you obviously don't know what being poor/down on you luck is like" SHUTUP! I grew up Poor White Trash, I have been homeless on more than one occasion. But as an adult I take responsabilty for my own life. Since then I have NEVER been on the state that these social parasites are in. Think about it, these people have noone in thier lives to turn to. Why?? If you were down on your luck would you have someone to call? What kind of deadbeat jaggoffs were these people that noone they have met in thier entire lives will help them out? Answer: because everyone they have ever known has realized that they will NEVER help themselves.

It's surprising to see people defending their right to stay. Obviously we don't have their lease agreement, but I highly doubt it grants them land ownership rights (the only way they should be allowed to stay). The owner sold it, the new owner wants to use the land for something else...move. Yes, yes, we all know it sucks, but you knew going in that it was possible (however remotely so) that you'd have to move one day (same goes for anyone 'renting'). Personal opinion...if this guy can offer them 6 months free (try getting that from *your* landlord when the sell out to another owner) and some of them hefty relocation costs AND this guy still expects to turn a profit on the land, then maybe he can afford more? I have no pity for these folks that could make rent before, then when they had 6 free months didn't bother saving it to afford to move to a new place.

SilverDraghyeon There's a difference between pity and empathy/understanding. All I'm saying is, some here are drawing the rash assumption that these people came to their lives as a result of 'doing something wrong' (no education, no ambition, laziness, drunkeness, etc.)

Can somebody please show me where, in the article, the people still there got the $8000??? Anybody? Please, feel free to cut and paste if need be.

A flood wiped out the only trailer park in town a few years back. Caused over $3,000,000 in improvements.

It's a rash assumption to come to the obvious conclusion? If you live in a trailer at a garbage dump, I'll draw some conclusions and they will not be sympathetic.I'll stay as far away from you as possible and think negatively of you.

Some folks'll never eat a skunk,
but then again some folks'll,
like Cletus the slack-jawed yokel!

Cletus' children are: Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermott, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendal, Katlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kira, Ian, Lauren, Q-bert and Phil.

He also has a "smellhound" named Geech.

But it's not the area of their lives they're in that people are badmouthing them over.

BELEIVE me, I know what it's like for the tables to turn against you, but these people basically stuck their fingers in their ears and screamed "I'm not listening".

They ignored money, time, and logic. They didn't execute any kind of plan, and now they're being called on it.

In the midwest, there are storage sheds (decent sized ones) for $100 a month, and the owners will let you stay in them. No air conditioning, heat, and only one wall outlet, but it's still a PLACE. I can't imagine the midwest is the only place with last ditch living facilities.

6 months is ample time to do SOMETHING. ANYTHING other than spending like you have free money and then freaking out when the deadline arrives.

Shoot, I'm not giving sympathy to anyone here. My only assumption about this is that the prior landlord was a deadbeat/slumlord. :)