Here's another way of living, in contrast to my earlier post. This morning some grungy looking folks in an RV pulled up to a corner near my office in West Berkeley and unloaded a bunch of stuff on the sidewalk, leaving it out all day. I believe they were either: a) putting on a sidewalk sale, or b) airing out all of their belongings after all the rain we've had.RV dwellers frequent my work neighborhood, along with many other somewhat vacant streets in the bay area. I have one question: why is this lifestyle considered uncool, while living on a boat, which is colder, wetter, and more cramped, considered cool?
Note: the building in the photo is the legendary Fantasy Studios, where many of the great songs of the rock era were recorded. I don't know if the RV people knew that...
It's much more difficult and expensive to get a boat than a car/RV (of course i'm referring to a shitty RV). Living in one's car is also the last stop on the classic downward spiral before sleeping directly on the sidewalk. Further, boats make us think of leisure and world travel, whereas things with wheels are used for boring activities like commuting, getting parking tickets, are subject to rules of the road (unlike romantic "open seas") etc. So naturally boats are much higher status.
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