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As the story goes, a few guys working at a nearby chemical plant thought it would make the perfect location to camp during the work season. The trailers they brought started what we now call Slab City. Over the years, many snowbirds and squatters have decided to call this self-constructed community home. In the winter months, the population can reach 4,000 people!
But for a society that has long existed on the outer edges of the law, the future looks far from certain. In 2015, the state of California considered dividing the land the community sits on and selling it to private companies. Though nothing came of the proposal, it signaled how fragile the community's position was. Knight came to Slab City from Vermont, where he had lived off a variety of odd jobs that involved welding and painting.
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The water found its way down into the Sonoran Desert at 200 feet below sea level. However, suppose you want to fully experience and learn about Slab City. In that case, you must drive aimlessly down the unmarked gravel roads searching for nothing and everything. You have to interact with the people who choose to spend their time in The Slabs and drink a beer in a structure you initially thought was a library when you walked in. The artistic community consists mostly of slabbers and snowbirds, though art has only recently been more heavily featured .
Built on an abandoned military base 200 miles east of Los Angeles in the middle of California’s Sonoran Desert, Slab City doesn’t have many modern amenities. No power lines nor pipes carry electricity or fresh water to the city. Residents have to sort out their own system for disposing of sewage or trash. Stonoview is a new subdivision directly adjacent to Payne's property. It contains more than 200 single-family homes — all built on concrete slab foundations.
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It is similar to the wild-west in that the residents technically own no property. Let's say you go to Slab City and decide to stay through the winter. All you need to do is find an open piece of land and stake your claim. You will see that most people have constructed fences or barriers out of scavenged desert materials.
As one Slabber, George Sisson, who runs an Airbnb in the community, explains, "Here you don't mess with people's business unless they steal your shit." Though police from Niland occasionally patrol the area and will respond to emergency calls, the community largely polices itself. But living in the community requires a certain degree of self-reliance. The entrance to East Jesus, an art installation, in Slab City. Some residents of Slab City at a recycling center where they turn laptop batteries into solar power storage.
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There's also an internet cafe that basically amounts to a tent with a wireless router inside. But residents can use the connection to download entertainment. The community used to come together to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones on the night it premiered.
In keeping with the anarchistic nature of The Slabs, The Range is an open-air artistic stage at the heart of the community, on which anyone is allowed to perform. I remember feeling particularly moved by Flow’s lovelorn dedication to an absent mother. On that note, living in Slab City requires adhering to a certain code of behavior. While drug use is common, residents say that it's usually confined to certain, well-known areas of the camp. Typically, there aren't reports of vigilante violence in response to crime, but the community will shun people who are suspected of misbehavior.
Slab City, CA
He referenced how the council approved an improved stormwater management manual in 2020. Since Stonoview was built, Payne said flood waters now rise and stagnate on her property. Flood waters have entered her garage and reached her septic tank. Stagnant water has made the number of summer mosquitos noticeably worse. Dolores Payne is a lifelong resident of Johns Island.
Slab City is a small anarchic community in the Sonoran desert that attracts people from all walks of life who seek independence. Charleston officials may soon move to ban slab-on-grade construction in the 100-year flood plain. The climate-egregious building practice puts homeowners at greater flood risk.
Woody, with his hand up to the sun, measuring the time until sunset with his fingers against the outward horizon. Woody practiced “sungazing,” a spiritual ritual that involves looking directly at the sun every day at sunset, gradually increasing the time spent staring at it from ten seconds to one hour. We talked until the sun had dropped below the horizon and created this photo together as a gift for the daughter he hadn’t seen in several years.
Rachel runs Mojo’s camp, which was set up to welcome visitors who wanted to spend a day at The Slabs. Most camps in The Slabs are extremely limited in terms of amenities—any that exist are either built or brought by individual Slabbers. Rachel was extremely proud of the camp she had nurtured alongside Mojo, its namesake.
But when employees from a chemical company working near Niland found the slabs, they decided it was the perfect spot to erect a temporary settlement close to their job site. The small trailers they brought with them became the beginnings of the new community of Slab City. But for those who don't have these kinds of pipes, don't stress, Renfro recommends using pipe insulation, blankets, or towels to cover the exposed pipe. In less than 24 hours, we'll begin to feel the effects of that hard freeze that we've been talking about for days. Spartanburg shut down Ferris wheel after riders complained.
Together, they offer tourists a chance to experience the Slab City lifestyle, while enjoying a safe space filled with comforts not otherwise available within the community. In the grand puzzle of climate resilience, restricting slab-on-grade construction is a small piece. The Southern Environmental Law Center, or SELC, and Coastal Conservation League have been pushing the city to do more on wetland protection and nature-based solutions, like urban forest restoration. On a snowy January evening in Washington, D.C., Tecklenburg walked into a reception at the Dutch ambassador’s residence.
The results included a set of climate resiliency recommendations for Charleston, as well as the hiring of Dale Morris, the city’s first chief resiliency officer. Tecklenburg launched the major climate resilience planning summit, which was dubbed the Dutch Dialogues. He says council members are willing to implement this and other policy recommendations that came from the discussions.
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