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Wikipedia - Trailer park
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A trailer park is a neighborhood consisting of an area of land where travel trailers rest. The term may also be used to refer to mobile home parks or manufactured home communities.
In the United States, tornadoes and hurricanes often inflict their worst damage on trailer parks, usually because the structures are not secured to the ground and their construction is significantly less able to withstand high wind forces than regular houses. However, most modern manufactured homes are built to withstand high winds as well as a mainstream home, using hurricane straps and proper foundations.
In the United States, trailer parks are stereotypically viewed as lower income housing whose occupants live at or below the poverty line, have low social status and lead a desultory and deleterious lifestyle. Despite the advances in manufactured home technology, the trailer park stereotype still survives, evidenced in a quote by Presidential adviser James Carville in the course of one of the Clinton White House political scandals, "Drag $1 bills through trailer parks, there's no telling what you'll find"," regarding Paula Jones.[1] The stereotype are also seen in pop culture, such as in the cartoon series King of the Hill, Luanne's broken family had been living in a trailer park. Her aunt Peggy Hill once unintentionally uttered "trailer park trash" also hurt her to tears. It is also seen in the Canadian Mockumentary, Trailer Park Boys.
There are several advantages to living in a trailer park that cause select people from all income levels to favor them over more traditional housing forms. As trailer owners lease private land from a trailer park owner, the trailer park owner controls all aspects of the park as a private land owner would. Owners may make certain restrictions on who may lease a lot. Also owners or their manager agents conducting park business on their behalf will not allow lawns to be left uncut, homes to enter into disrepair, or unapproved objects to be left laying about outdoors. This goes against many stereotypes of trailer parks but most modern trailer parks are favorable places to live.
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[edit] Emergency trailer parks
This perception of trailer parks was not improved by FEMA's creation of emergency trailer parks for the displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina, the quality and temporary nature of which was disputed.[2] Many stereotypes have developed regarding people who live in trailer parks, which are similar to stereotypes of the poor.
On the other hand, it has become more socially acceptable in recent years to live in a trailer park[citation needed]. Substantial improvements in the size and amenities of trailers and other recreational vehicles, together with the development of the internet, have made a semi-nomadic lifestyle more popular among retirees, writers, consultants and others whose income is not dependent on a fixed location. The increased popularity of these vehicles for recreational use has also led to the improvement of many of the parks themselves.
[edit] Outside North America
In Europe, particularly in Germany and Spain, there are several disputed trailer parks mostly forcefully or unlawfully placed on squatted land in the midst of urban centers (Berlin, Hamburg, Barcelona). Names for such phenomena include Wagenburg, Wagendorf or Bauwagenplatz (all German, meaning: "wagon fort", "trailer village" and "construction trailer place" respectively) and people living there are often associated with the punk movement and do it yourself (short DIY) punk ethic. A somewhat similar phenomenon exists in Britain, in the form of communities established informally by New age travelers, Irish travelers, and Roma. On the whole, however, trailer parks are much less common in these countries than they are elsewhere and in North America and are much less emblematic of a distinct lifestyle and membership to a certain social class.
In Australia, there is generally no differentiation between a trailer park and an RV park. The term "caravan park" is used to refer to both.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Adam Cohen (1997-01-20). ""Will she have her day in court?"". Time (magazine) (New York).
- ^ [1] Road to New Life After Katrina Is Closed to Many New York Times, July 12, 2007]
[edit] External links
Trailer Park Snacks (http://trailerparksnacks.com) - A line of snacks using iconic Trailer Park themed items, including; pink flamingos, trailer names/types, and weather conditions that have historically destroyed Trailer Parks.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Trailer park".