Award-Winning Kansas City Home Builders

Table of Content

• Charleston City Council moves toward limiting 'fill and build' development practices
• Behind crumbling highways and ghost towns lies the mythological freedom of the American road
• Inside California’s Slab City, Where People Go To Live Way Off The Grid
• Are there community areas in Slab City?
• The Eclectic & Wildly Interesting Slab City

But DeScherer, one of SELC's attorneys, warned against downplaying the imminent action against slab-on-grade construction. There was noticeably more agreement across the political spectrum than inprevious public discussions, he said. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that Houston had grossly underestimated the size of its 100-year flood plain. Under a rapidly changing climate, the city's data was essentially outdated; Van Zandt suspects the same thing may be happening in Charleston. She also had concerns that the 100-year flood plain that Charleston's proposal targets is too small. A house in a 100-year flood plain has a 1-in-100 chance of being flooded each year, or a 1 percent chance of annual flooding.

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.

Charleston City Council moves toward limiting 'fill and build' development practices

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.

"And they're like, 'Miss Payne, you know, you live in a low-lying area, you know it's always flooded. Stonoview has not made it worse.' And that's bull," Payne said. "The woods is like a giant sponge and, after a few days, it absorbed that flood," Payne said. "But when the subdivision came in ... the city allowed them to clear-cut. Now, there's nothing to absorb ."

Behind crumbling highways and ghost towns lies the mythological freedom of the American road

Slab-on-grade is one of many problematic uses of dirt fill at construction sites in low-laying areas. “Fill and build” is the overarching term for multiple dirt-laying practices that elevate land. In Charleston, long-term flooding issues in and around new developments using "fill and build" is common. Harry Griffin, a former councilman, had previously called for an outright ban on such development.

If you want electricity, you have to set up a collection of solar panels, generators, and batteries. Or you can hire "Solar Mike," a long-time Slabber who has been selling and installing solar panels out of his trailer since the 1980s. A final version of the regulation will likely be open for public comment "in a few months," said Matt Fountain, the city's director of Stormwater Management. Today, drifters from all around the world congregate in Slab City to live off the land.

Inside California’s Slab City, Where People Go To Live Way Off The Grid

Many go home without ever leaving the designated visitor areas, and even fewer stay after dark. Slab City, also called The Slabs, was born when the U.S. Marine Corps abandoned Fort Dunlap, a military installation near the town of Niland. They dismantled the buildings in 1956 but left behind the concrete slabs that served as their foundations.

Council and stakeholders met recently to discuss proposed restrictions on the building method that can worsen damage from floods. The method is increasingly popular among Charleston developers building in low-lying areas, including islands where the city's fastest growth is happening. East Jesus is an expansive artist commune where trash is made into art. In fact, according to the local caretaker at the time many installations from the Coachella music festival are retired to Slab City and left in East Jesus. It was our goal to well document this fascinating, off-grid city and tell it’s story through the eyes of the residents. But, we knew that many people go to Slab City to AVOID cameras… so we didn’t know what to expect.

Slab City, California: The artistic outpost where outsiders find home

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.

However, upon entry to the city, we were strangely welcomed. To sum it up, climate change drastically evaporated the water levels. The water's salinity skyrocketed because it's an endorheic body of water . Years of farming, pesticide abuse, and heavy winds full of toxins created an almost unlivable and forgotten environment. Next, you'll see signs for the Salton Sea, one of California's largest lakes at 30 miles long and 15 miles wide. It's technically not a natural lake-it was formed through an engineering mistake that caused levees to overflow from the Colorado River early in the 1900s.

People and Places and Dogs of Slab City

When the council started drafting the proposal, the scope of the study was the 500-year flood plain. Three years later, Charleston hosted the Dutch Dialogues. It was a monumental in-person summitcoordinated in close partnership with the Royal Netherlands Embassy in 2019.

Ours is “spec”, but has some really nice features included. We would highly recommend SAB to anyone looking to build or purchase a new home. Kiko arrived at The Slabs with a bunch of other “train kids” and never left. I heard some pretty wild stories from residents, but those from the train kids were always something else. Kiko recalled jumping a freight train, falling asleep as it crossed the American prairie, then waking up in a container full of old rubber tires. (The train was emptying its cargo into an incinerator.) Lucky for them, they made it out just in time and didn’t end up as new tires.