Strategic apartments

I have been on the lookout for an apartment for some months now. Sometimes just to study, or to gauge if it would be an ideal place to relocate to. We have just acquired a Jeep to work as our bug out vehicle, and to save us some much needed money I have opted to find a cheaper place for us.

The new apartment must compare well to our current one-in terms of qualifying as a decent bug in location. You see our current apartment is located outside of Manhattan, NYC. Still in a high value target area, but would be safe enough since the immediate target would be Manhattan. It is built on ground with about 60 feet of elevation-safe from flooding in case of a hurricane. The building is a pre-war building, made of brick, cinder block and steel. Interior partitions are of plaster-but the exterior would make good protection from bullets and radiation. We have steel doors all throughout the building-every main door to an apartment is steel, and interior doors are solid wood. We are above the ground floor as well, with a secure fire escape and multiple exits and ventilation sources. Another plus, geographically, is that have visual access to a major thoroughfare to get out of our island, and another access to the nearest bridge to get to the mainland. I know these would serve us well when a major evacuation starts. If our plans fail (bov, walk, bridges blocked), we have an alternate means to get out of the city-which I will opt not to mention any further-a very unique route only possible due to our unique relationship to a feature of the city.

So we are looking for a similarly advantageous apartment to relocate to. Some of our criteria for the location are:

• Crime rate (carjacks, robberies, muggings, drug activity)
• Local population (seniors, teenagers, unemployed) - will help me assess what threats to expect. I do not want to waste my time with local vandals and thugs. I keep an eye out for rowdy teens and know what areas they hang out at and how "rowdy" they are-if there is danger, I want to know how to minimize its risks to me.
• Surrounding businesses-these reflect what the community is about. What products, any food stamp programs, local interests like fishing, organic stores...On one occasion I learned about hidden gardens in my area when I had a chat with a local vendor at a dollar store. I was talking about the mason jars I was buying and he mentioned people who buy them have gardens, mostly in their senior years in parts of the area where no renters are found.
• Proximity to bridges out of the area and into US mainland-These will get clogged fast in an emergency and I want to be able to get to it as fast as possible. Maybe even relay info to parts of our group so they can avoid a nearby bridge if it is jammed.
• Proximity to police facilities and fire stations - Being close to them would offer security and some assurance (mostly, but they can always turn bad if things get bad enough).
• Proximity to Prisons, mental institutions, rehab centers (our current one is close to one of these) I recall reading about Egypt, that the prisons were set open and the prisoners let loose. It was a scare tactic for the people to get back home and protect their self interests rather than participate in the revolution. Being close to these places are never a good idea in the first place.
• Cleanliness of streets (litter is related to stress and quality of life)
• Cultural makeup (too much of one race/nationality is a contributor to rioting and gangs)
• Presence of offices and stores which support government hand-outs

For the building and apartment itself, we consider:

• Multiple exit routes-being above the ground floor with an alternate exit is ideal
• Access to a backyard or balcony-as we intend to upgrade our garden
• A working fireplace - hard to come by but would be a big plus so we keep a lookout
• A basement in the building-yup just good a old fashioned fall-out shelter
• Garage if possible-this would be a big plus as we can store more of our stuff and work on our bug out vehicle away from public view
• Building construction-we would be lucky to find a solid brick building or one made of modern cmu and brick together. I am in the building industry, and we can identify which walls would be useful for sheltering in place.
• A two story single-detached family home would be great as we would not have to deal with a horde of people living in the same building-but it would be hard to find one with a brick structure. However it would make the garden an easier goal.

It sounds like a pretty simple criteria. Still, we have yet to find a place which addresses these needs. Now and then we find something which looks promising-until we do our research and find that the local crime rate is high, or that rent is expensive.

Just another average day in a ticking time bomb of a city.

The scenarios I prep for [part 1]

New York city has a population of more than 8 million people as of the 2009 census. 3.9 million of these are male, 4.4 million are female. The median age of these people are 35.9 years. Among these, 42,480 are in nursing homes, 15,338 are in local jails and 4,801 are in halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse. The local population is diverse-with various races and nationalities, religious beliefs, affiliations and morals. All these people rely heavily on the one city's infrastructure- a high maintenance network of just in time systems. Mass transit of subways bring people in and out of an island city. Bridges and tunnels surround Manhattan, control and security provided by surveillance and roving security personnel. Food is shipped in by the truckload on a daily basis-loaded into groceries and restaurants all over-which feed the masses of people coming to the city to work. The convenience of living in such a city often hide the dangers and pending disasters associated with such a high density area working on a very interdependent and fragile system.

I have always been concerned about survivability in my area. Such a dense city with so many dependent people would be a disaster. And with the recent events happening all over, I cannot avoid thinking about my plans and preparations. There have been floods, droughts, earthquakes, financial crisis, inflation...I spend my hours pondering what this radically different time holds for the rest of us. I cannot focus on my work sometimes. I spend my hours-those that I have for myself when I am free of the chains of this daily work cycle-preparing for what may come. Almost daily I read up on specific news from certain news sources; some mainstream and some less reliable ones. I note down observations for the day when I had just scouted the neighborhood on the way home-regarding specific information which would be of value for when all my planning must be put to action. I note down tools which need to be acquired-manual hand tools and some powered ones. I prepare meat to preserve and store, constantly figuring out how long our stock will last us. I research and print instructions on how to install electricity. I check on the progress of our potato plant, and prepare for addition of other ones. I do a quick run on our group's plans for escaping the city. It sounds hectic, and it is. Sometimes it overwhelms me, especially so when I feel its urgency. These last few months have been going too fast, and I can only hope and pray that I have done all I can to avert disaster.

One of the must urgent issues I have would be an economic collapse. US now regularly uses the word "default", where it had blocked out the use of the word "recession". It may not be a full shtf scenario, not a wrol life, but it will get really ugly. Since this would be a long boring post if I wrote down all the scenarios I prep for, I'd rather break them down into smaller posts. And as I said, the most immediate one is economic collapse.

Economic collapse:

This is not a local issue-if the country's financial system fails it fails everywhere. The problems will be global-since everything is pegged on our currency. A collapse will have very specific effects in this urban environment. In a city of apartment renters-homelessness would go through the roof. Think about it, how can rent be paid if one barely has any money for food? Do you think that the land owners will just let people squat on their property for nothing? People would be homeless, entire families out on the street. If we end up there as well, I'd try to treat it as a camping trip in an urban area.

What kind of jobs would be available? I am trying to make plans and train myself in jobs that would still be around in such an event. Repairmen, engineers, construction workers, mechanics and general laborers may fare better than office workers. I wonder if a job in IT would fare well...technology would definitely be around but on what level? Also, how would schooling work? Education would be substandard as we lose good teachers. A lot of schools have closed in the past few years as well...this is a real consideration. I have thought of stocking books and educational tools, pencils and paper for this purpose. It may not be high up on my list as it is still early for my family, but it is on the to-do-list. Also, public utilities would go down, or would be of substandard quality. The quality of water in countries which faced an economic meltdown dropped significantly. Electricity was also scarce and thus there were roving blackouts. With these came disease and crime.Make plans for purifying water at home (not necessarily from a river out in the woods) and make plans for security at night, when there are no lights and perhaps no police to come to help.

I have stored food and water for my small family to feed us when food prices skyrocket. Our main plan is to bug in when the collapse begins. We'll avoid the riots and the crime by staying in a secure and familiar area. Our apartment can be made secure-the front door is steel and we have a steel table which would barricade it perfectly. Our window has access to an emergency fire escape which I will secure so only the occupants can use it-not thieves or looters. If the electricity goes out, we have lights and and a source of heat. We can cook without the gas from the utility line-and can convert to propane for some time. We've also stocked up on rechargeable batteries and disposable ones-of standard sizes so we can use use them on most of our electronics. In the future I plan to acquire a solar charger to supplement our electrical needs. Not a priority since my wife and I have experience living with roving blackouts when we were younger. As for money, we do not have a lot of money in the banks-and these would serve us little even if we got them out. It would be a good thing to have an emergency fund, in cash, at home or at some safe place for your use.

As part of what I have scouted before, I know which apartment buildings have a chimney, which ones have a source of water or a garden. We know where to find payphones hidden in a quiet corner. We know where to find meat or food besides the grocery. I know these can be useful to me later, and so I have those listed down as part of our plans. Scouting for such useful information is a good exercise I believe, and best done while things are normal and peaceful.

In reality, the biggest issue will be homelessness and food. It will be harder for those who have families, as their needs will be different with the innocent children. My preps do not cover all my concerns on this matter, and I am still working on them. Like I said, better to do them amidst these normal and peaceful times.

Newark, NJ drive through

I was working this weekend and was driving through New Jersey. As I often do I was scouting the neighborhood, making mental notes of the areas we were passing through. We went from Manhattan to Jersey city, through Newark and further along Mountain Ave.

I felt a sense of fear grip me as I realized that I had been driving for miles amongst streets filled with boarded up homes and businesses. Literally blocks and blocks of homes and commercial spaces were boarded up with plywood or closed and padlocked. It was a slow but real and heavy realization of how bad the area was. I pondered what could the people in the area be going through right now-where are they and what jobs they have ended up with? Are these recent? The plywood on the windows-on multi-story buildings-seemed new. I was hoping they were just derelict buildings, but the sidings are new on the homes, the paint was still good. These could have been closed maybe only months ago.

It was another bad sign which was on my list of things to look out for. Despite the news of growth and jobs, I kept wary. And now, it seems the news cannot hide the truth for much longer. If you notice, the news are slowly admitting the real problems-transitioning to the bad news. And if you realize, after months we went on with no mention of the word "recession" from the government or the news, suddenly we're looking at the reality of defaulting on our national debts. How can this transition be so sudden? Because it was all pent up problems which we had tried to keep quiet.

I spent today at work listening into CNN's live broadcast of the debt reduction debate. I am in my 30s, living in NYC. Normally people like me would be plugged in to their music-not listening to 60 year old career politicians bragging about their achievements and blaming each other.

Entry one :

So I have decided to go ahead with this blog-after much delay and hesitation. I often consider the problem-would I have enough time to write amidst all the things I am rushing to do? There would be some great material to write about-and that is all because of this unique time we are in. We as a country, as a society, as a species are in a very unique moment in the history of this planet. The things that are about to come will more than suffice for things to write about-and they will probably be too much that they will devour all of us and none of us will have time for such activities such as updating a blog.

These last few months, and intense weeks, I have been buying a lot of preps. These are my preparations for my family in the event of hyperinflation. These are very specific items and supplies for this concern. Everywhere you look the signs are there-but somehow I can't explain them well to my folks and the other normal minded people.

Take for example, my parents have some cash saved for a rainy day and I have opened up the idea of saving some of their money in a foreign currency-mainly to shield them from any devaluation of the US dollar. In my novice understanding, I was thinking that the Canadian dollar would do well. They have not had a major financial failure, their banking system WORKS far better than ours. Plus they are just a few hours away from where we live here in New York city. They later on told me that they were not worried about it as their financial advisors in the company had very good forecasts for the country's economy. Said gold would go down real soon as well. These advisors are from wall street. They rely on the very same system that would benefit from the continuance of the current messed up system. Of course they'd say the future is full of sunshine. In my family I am the man who cries wolf over and over.

I say the economy is still unsafe. We here in America are still insensitive to it because we listen to our own news and reports. But take into consideration the life changing events transpiring in some of the poorer nations.Revolts in several countries have been the trend in recent months-and some are still ongoing. These countries have tolerated their dictators for decades, but only now do they finally rise up. Why? Because they could no longer put bread on the table. That is the final straw for most people. They can tolerate dictatorship for as long as they have food for their families-but with hyperinflation restricting access to food the people reach their limits. Who can say that we are immune to such a reaction?

Oh and by the way as I write this, it is the first of July. The Federal government will now require you to report your financial assets overseas on any accounts which collectively reach $10,000. The form is called FBAR for Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. Pretty sneaky way to enforce a law that lets them track where the money goes. Also, a bigger issue whose effects we have to watch out for-the last round of Federal printed has just run out.