Widow Faces Eviction In Fla. City For ‘living Off The Grid’

gravitationalethics
I think one of these days, the smart-meters they are installing on all of our homes will be shown to not only ration how much we can consume, but also to enforce consumption in the first place. I'm thinking any home where electrical consumption drops below a certain number of kWh, the meter will send out an electronic signal alerting the utility companies to scramble the strong-arm squads.

Wow, I hope not! Last year we got solar panels which provide an average of around 75% of our electricity!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


With this attitude, you need to remove that copy of the constitution from your picture. We are supposed to be free, not subject to the whims of the corporation that runs the people in your city. The vast majority of the existence of this nation required no running water and no electricity...

To suggest that she just follow the norm because they say so is ridiculous. You live your life, let her live hers.

If there is an accumulation of hazardous waste, or other items that could be harmful to others that it is close to, then, yes, I can see intervening, but just because it doesn't meet some arbitrary code??? That's ridiculous.

Jaden

InTheLight

You are forgetting sewer services. What would you have renters do, dig latrines in the property owner's backyard?

really? you want to be petty or something? if you have water in most places i'd think sewer would come with it(at least it does where i live) and besides i was making a point about electricity not being a necessity vs a home or food and water being an actual necessity.

Kurius
The widow owns the house and has been paying her taxes, yet the City of Cape Coral has sent her an eviction notice without prior warning just because she is living off the grid? I'm glad that the story is out. It is utter absurdity if not injustice. She has to battle the oppressor city. Instead of them having to prove the house is unfit and uninhabitable, she has to prove to them that it is safe and habitable? Absolute madness! What gives them the right to dictate what is safe/unsafe without inspection? Is being homeless on the street deemed safer?

And what "international maintenance code" states off-the-grid living is unsafe? Never mind the Amish community, there are still plenty of them in third world nations without city water and electricity. The only probable clear and present danger living in her house I can think of seems to be the chemtrail at !:40 in the video.

STORY

edit on 12/16/2013 by semperfortis because: (no reason given)

What's more "living green" than not utilizing electricity at all? She's reduced her carbon footprint to near zero. She should contact the greenies and sick them on the city. Heck she should get Al "Bore" as a spokesman

With all the doomsday threads here on ATS, I believe some here could probably learn from this lady who seems to be way ahead of the game.

reply to post by Jodash


Could this be the SE Europe "version"?

www.rcc.int...

Also, where I live there are plenty of "regional development offices".

Thugs rule by decree. And the thugs at the local level are often worse than those at the top.

jrod
Let's say an entire community or city were to switch to LEDs,....

That's probably the most ideal scenario for control. The woman in question using non-electrical means to light her house is not. Could her inspiring others to do the same be a threat to a massive spying opportunity through LED lights which are aggressively being promoted? It is a shame one has to thread extra carefully these days.

Watch this: "The LED lights in your home could be spying on you!"

ChaoticOrder
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Well, No.. She obviously doesn't or she wouldn't be sitting on a legal eviction notice for an uninhabitable residence.

Ok, after a bit of research I found the original report by FOX 4 NEWS:

Living off the grid

The report contains a video in which she explains how she is able to live off the grid:

* kerosene lamps for lighting
* portable propane cooker
* solar powered camping shower which uses rain water
* battery powered electronics (recharged with solar)
* non-perishable food for long term storage without fridge
* rain water powered toilet which can indeed flush

edit on 16/12/2013 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)

The city probably bills sewer services based on water bill. They're afraid if others do this, they'll lose too much revenue. And they're pissed she's getting a "free" service.

My mother lives off the grid. Wood stove. No electricity.

But - she does have a generator. So when she needs water she can turn on the gas generator and wash, clean, and flush her sewer lines. When she doesn't have the money to afford the gas for the generator - she'll haul up water from the river for her lines and such, and she always has drinking water set aside. She cooks on a kerosene stove. She uses keros e lamps for lighting when not running the generator.

If a shtf scenario ensued - I've no doubt the healthy and able will get along just fine. I have watched my mother go completely nature witch green - and she is happy, healthy and well. Her property is well kept and habitable. But she does live out in the country - and not within the city. She could not live her life, in her way - with her choices in the city. Her way of life would not comply with the city ordinances set into place.

But she has the right to live the way she chooses. She just can't live in the city with her way - she must remove herself to the country with her radical thinking and backwards ways!

CdT

reply to post by Kurius


Its just stupid #...That's all I can say, been saying that more and more lately.

She seems to have got on by herself for sometime, she seems healthy, in fact healthier then most on the grid people, she has all the basic amenities for living and is not hurting anyone. For all we know she will outlive the "on the grid people" by years yet. And so...whats the frigging problem?


I suppose we cant have her around, she is a bad influence on others, soon and if she is living haply and healthy and is successful at it...well who knows, others may start getting "ideas"...And then were would the government and power companies be...They'd be out of a job and losing profits that were. Cant have that now can we.

reply to post by Kurius


this story outright disgusts me. hope is dead in this sold-out-from-above, police state, soulless wasteland that once was a beautiful dream of freedom.

Kurius
Never mind the Amish community, there are still plenty of them in third world nations without city water and electricity.

Since when does the Amish community live in third world nations?

They do live in first world nations, but due to their beliefs, they choose to live simply and does not mean they are like Third world people

Cape Coral is a terrible Nazi-run city. A friend of mine has his own storage shed building company that works from Sarasota down to Ft. Myers. Cape Coral is one of the cities he does a lot of business in and he says they are the worst for codes and they heavily police their codes. Several times he said he nearly quite doing any business in that city but what he decided to do instead was charge more for the hassle and he tells the homeowners up front about it. A normal 10x10 shed that used to cost $3,000 now costs residents in Cape Coral $7,000. Inspectors have to come at every phase of construction and check it over before you can continue to the next. For example, on a garage job he recently did, the inspector came out to inspect every nail on the roof which took over two hours and my friend had to sit there and watch him. If a nail head was sticking out even the slightest, he had to fix it right there. That's why he had to sit there, because if he didn't, he would have failed the inspection.

Cape Coral is the only city I've ever seen that has a fully-staffed Garage Sales Permit office even though the permits are free. LOL. It doesn't cost anything to get a permit, but yet, they need to have full time staff members hand out these permits. What a fleecing of the taxpayer.

Cape Coral...total control freaks!

It's as I've told countless people who don't listen: We signed a contract when we decided to live in a society.

Many cities have ordinances that require a residence to have electricity ,running water and and a working sewer system. She has none of these then she is violating these ordinances. According to the story she only needs to prove that she is living in healthy conditions. She could live outside the city and still need a working septic system so I think the city is being very gracious to even try to accommodate her. These rules are in place because of a few morons that do stupid things and force the laws upon us. We all know a idiot story or two.

Wrabbit2000
When you said off-the-grid I was thinking like that term usually comes to mean these days, she had her own way of supplying the necessary elements of modern life in a city. I was a bit surprised to see she figured she could live without the basics of modern code and regulation by just saying she didn't need running water, electricity, sewage or those other little things that make city life with neighbors.....tolerable.

Heck, there are rural areas all over the nation one can go live like it's 1899, but Coral Gables or MOST cities? Aren't it...

For what it's worth...my little city in Missouri said the same thing to everyone following the 07 Ice Storm. It really wasn't necessary, since no one here was trying to just 'do without' the bare basics of service and running water ...but it was made clear toward the end? No Power-No Water = No Residency. It's a public health and safety thing and it was here.

It's amazing some folks figure they can do it their way, and laws...regulations..codes..and decency toward those around them ( codes exist for a good reason ) just don't apply because they don't think it should. Well... She'll be fighting this one from a homeless shelter by the look of it, as I'm betting if we looked into city code enforcement for Coral Gables.....as she obviously didn't bother with?...we'll find extended camping inside a residence isn't acceptable.

Did you not read this part:
Speronis, however, disputes such claims and wonders how a code enforcement officer would know without even entering the house. Now, she is speaking out demanding justice.

How can city officials make assumptions without first seeing how she is living and whether her residency poses
health hazards to others in the neighborhood?
I believe this is more about maintaining control but this is my opinion and not fact!
We should all be allowed to live how we choose until our choices have negative impacts on the environment!
The truth is a lot more complicated though cause if someone has enough money they can do what ever they
choose to! I feel that we will always lose out as long as we choose to have faith in the unfathomable people who
have no problem taking advantage of us all!

ChaoticOrder
At the end of the news video the reporter says:

The city of Cape Coral tells me: if she can prove that she can sustain her life, herself, and this home without electricity or running water then both parties might be able to come to a solution.

What kind of utter BS is that? She needs to prove that she can live without electricity and running water in order to keep a home she OWNS. This has to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. I can imagine the court hearing now... "your honor, I present exhibit A: the archaic human. He lived without electricity and running water for thousands of years".

So are they going to go after Turtle Man also since He doesn't have running water either?

I think he did get electricity last year, someone can confirm this, or not!

Utterly stupidity!

While they are at it, might as well plow up her non GMO garden in her back yard since I'm sure that's a violation.(kill 2 birds with one stone)

I'm not too far away, I can drop off some led bulbs I'm not using to help her cause!

My main goal in life is to have my home, cottage off of the grid.

Consumers Energy and all the power companies have been laughing at us for over 50 years.

Rezlooper
Cape Coral is a terrible Nazi-run city. A friend of mine has his own storage shed building company that works from Sarasota down to Ft. Myers. Cape Coral is one of the cities he does a lot of business in and he says they are the worst for codes and they heavily police their codes. Several times he said he nearly quite doing any business in that city but what he decided to do instead was charge more for the hassle and he tells the homeowners up front about it. A normal 10x10 shed that used to cost $3,000 now costs residents in Cape Coral $7,000. Inspectors have to come at every phase of construction and check it over before you can continue to the next. For example, on a garage job he recently did, the inspector came out to inspect every nail on the roof which took over two hours and my friend had to sit there and watch him. If a nail head was sticking out even the slightest, he had to fix it right there. That's why he had to sit there, because if he didn't, he would have failed the inspection.

Cape Coral is the only city I've ever seen that has a fully-staffed Garage Sales Permit office even though the permits are free. LOL. It doesn't cost anything to get a permit, but yet, they need to have full time staff members hand out these permits. What a fleecing of the taxpayer.


Cape Coral...total control freaks!

Damn!, I want that Job!!!!

Thanks for the info. I guess I won't be building my 32 X 40 Garage there.

I'm further south, yeah, we have hurricane codes here but come on.

People have to stop reading these stories and actually do something(take action)(just say NO!) or there will be nothing left in the very near future.

Wrabbit2000

The line gets drawn, in my opinion, when the rights of the creative one violate the rights of others. She no longer HAS the right to play Outback-Jane with primitive camping conditions ...when she's in a larger neighborhood of people that didn't sign up for living in a big KOA with better conditions.

Please specify: exactly which "rights of others" is she violating by living in her own home?

She has the right to live on her own property as she sees fit. "Others" have the right not to live there with her or visit if they don't like it. They have their own homes they can live in.

I can tell you how I live in my own home if you ask, but I cannot tell you how to live in YOURS.