SEMINOLE ESTATES: EVACUATION BEGINS

Reporting from Seminole Estates Mobile Home* Park,
7 weeks post-eviction notice.

It's been said that "pictures speak louder than words" and I think
that applies to pictures of words as well.
 I found this sentiment sprayed inside of a nice-looking home.

You can even read it clearly in a drive-by.

That's what my friend Kathy and I were doing,
driving around surveying the manual ruin.
As we drove down one street, Kathy blurted, "This just makes me so angry."

 There's lots of furniture out on semi-deconstructed porches,

 and remnants of peoples lives left out for the taking,

and there are mixed piles of trashed stuff everywhere.

We stopped at Joyce and Pop's house.
They are moving on the 7th.

Joyce hadn't slept all night and didn't really want to take a picture. But I begged a little bit, told her it would be from a distance, and she obliged. (thank you Joyce) She began telling me about moving to the park, and how her mother passed away, and then... she started to cry.  I have seen many tears flow at Seminole Estates out of fear, anger, sadness, disbelief, and sympathy for others.

This is Pop's shed. With his bad shoulder and knee, he's emptying it slowly. The shed will come down before the move.
(btw, i thought this could have been a good blog opening shot too, being on the eve of the election and all!)

There goes the neighborhood... literally
 post by post.

 Some homes are looking swell as if nothing has changed. 


Lawn ornaments are in place as is porch decor and poodle graphic.

 I have never seen a dolphin decoration such as this.

 I always enjoy seeing David and...

None other than...


 Here today, gone tomorrow or by June 30, 2013.

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*(Every time I write "mobile home park" rather than "manufactured housing community" I feel like I am doing a disservice to the manufactured housing industry. But then I was reading Alan Wallis' "Wheel Estate: The Rise & Decline of Mobile Homes" (1991) last night. And Wallis also addresses the use of the two terms. Regarding the term "manufactured housing" here is what he says:

"I am aware of the term and appreciate the desire of the industry to use it. The fact remains that most people still think about the housing discussed here as mobile homes, and...I have kept the term mobile home because it conveys better than any other, the basic hybrid character of the innovation and the essential basis for the conflicts it has engendered."

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Taking the space here to express my extreme sorrow for the people who have lost 
homes and loved ones in Hurricane Sandy. Hang in there.