Florida Makes Off-Grid Living Illegal

[MrBates2]

Florida Makes Off-Grid Living Illegal – Mandates All Homes Must Be Connected To An Electricity Grid

It’s no secret that an opposition to sustainable living exists. Earlier this year, Texas state brought several SWAT teams to a sustainable community and threatened to shut it down. Each one of the community members were initially handcuffed at gunpoint. It was called “The Garden of Eden Community,” and was totally self sustainable. You can read more about that here.

This time, it’s Robin Speronis that’s come under fire. She lives off the grid in Florida, completely independent of the city’s water and electric system. A few weeks ago, officials ruled her off-grid home illegal. Officials cited the International Property Maintenance Code, which mandates that homes be connected to an electricity grid and a running water source. That’s just like saying our dependency on corporations isn’t even a choice. The battle to live without most utilities has been ongoing for Robin, the self-sufficient woman has lived for more than a year and a half using solar energy, a propane camping stove and rain water.

In the end, she was found not guilty of not having a proper sewer or electrical system; but was guilty of not being hooked up to an approved water supply.

So what exactly is off grid living?

“It means living independently, mainly living independently of the utility companies. Providing your own power. It does not mean living in the stone age, it’s not about bush craft. It’s about generating your own power, your own water, dealing with your own waste. Probably as part of a community, not living on your own like a hermit. It’s also about being more self-reliant and being less dependent on the system. Perhaps realizing that the system isn’t really protecting us anymore and we have to look after ourselves.” - George Noory

 

[JohnnySavage]

This was interesting 6 months ago when it was in the press. Kinda old news now that all the facts have been fleshed out.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Except its ok to camp in most public parks, not to forget the homeless. But the law begs the real question: WHAT ABOUT ALL THE HOMELESS?

We hadda a gal here who built a trailer park for homeless men who cant live around kids. Jesus! The bitches went apeshit till the park closed. Then the county hadda a problem housing perverts. The gal housed them for free. So the pols politely let her re-open, and quietly told the do-gooder gals to STFU.

 

[Sean]

Vettebigot will be along momentarily to explain how those Republican lawmakers are protecting that woman's freedom.

 

[JohnnySavage]

I forget the details, and don't feel like googlizing, but it wasn't a clear outrage as the OP would believe. The woman (as I recall) refused to pay her sewer bill so the service was shut off. Then she started dumping buckets of piss and shit in the storm drain, causing a health problem. And it wasn't florida, it was a developed county's zoning that did her in. Had she been living outside the zoned area, she could have shit in a bucket to her heart's content.

 

[pointless]

she should just composted it. pee is full of nitrogen. i hear plants love that shit. she could've had a nice, happy garden.

 

[eyer]

Assembling a catchment system with a capacity of approximately 21,000 gallons, and including our recent rainfalls, 16,450 gallons are now literally on tap...

...this in a state which seems almost entirely under some collective degree of water use restriction.

The key it seems to me to truly independent living is to first sincerely acknowledge that the traditional collective powers that be make the rules of the game and that's a fact that ain't going to change. Thus, if you still need to play any part of their game, but don't intend to follow their rules, then it's unavoidable that at some time you'll find yourself prosecutable...

...the answer, of course, is to recondition yourself of the need to play the collective game as much as humanly possible, thereby automatically exempting yourself as much as practically possible from the game's predictable consequences - all the while strengthening yourself in the glorious ambivalence of individual liberty.

The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.

- H.L. Mencken

 

[Que]

The entire concept is immoral.

Sgt Spidey is worried about the cost of a birth certificate as a "poll tax", and you have to literally pay to exist on property that you own.