 Ed standing on his porch beside the river. By Ed Garren |
It's why we're all here, America, the New World. Someone, back there in the not so distant past, our ancestors wanted land that they could call their own. That's why they came to America.
Consider the world our immigrant forebears came from. In mid 18th century Europe, most land was owned by a privileged few. They usually had titles, "Lord, Lady, Baron, Duke, Duchess", etc. Their families owned vast tracts of land, which peasants, serfs, tenants worked and paid rent to live on. No one ever sold land, especially to peasants. Thus one was born into a system that defined one's existence in perpetuity, with no possible chance for change. There was only so much land to go around, and it was firmly staked.
If you doubt the significance of this, consider all of the literature which contains reference to the importance of land ownership. In "Gone With The Wind" Scarlett's father admonishes her, "Land Katie Scarlett, land! That's what an irishman lives for. It's in your blood same as mine, don't ever forget." At the end of her story, after many husbands and children, it is the red earth of Tara that Scarlett returns to, it's bounty the only constant nurture of her life.
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 A view of Ed, and a river-spanning bridge, from his living room. By Ed Garren |
In "The Piano Lesson", "Boy Willie" comes to town with a truck of watermelons to sell so he can go back to Mississippi to buy a piece of land. It was land that his ancestors worked as slaves under the cruel "Ole Sutter." And now, his dream is to exact payback, buy the land that his family toiled on, but never reaped the profits from.
In "A Raisin In The Sun" the family matriarch, Lena Younger, yearns for floors to walk on that are her own, and a little patch of dirt to dig in back yard, so she and her little plant (currently bound to a small pot) can stretch and grow. Living in an apartment is killing her family, she want's her own land, earth under her feet.
When I lived in Miami, I had friends, Sheldon and Claire. "Shelly" was tall and pink skinned, but Claire, whose family came from Russia in the early 20th century had beautiful dark skin and jet black hair. She wore gold very well, looking more like a transplanted Israeli "Sabra" than a daughter of the Steppes.
 The street side of Ed’s home.By Ed Garren |
While I was there, they got a good deal on a townhouse and moved from their apartment on the third floor to ground level with a small terrace/patio in the back. She had the contractor take up two of the pavers in one corner of the patio, "I'm from peasant stock, I need to have a little patch of dirt to dig in. It's in my blood."
And of course, the very existence of the state of Israel is so that Jews everywhere can have a little patch of dirt that belongs to the tribes. It's no surprise that the first thing they did was irrigate it and grow an abundance of food from former desert.
This is deep in the bones of human experience, and it is central to the American Idea, that each person can have their own land to live on, and be "king" of their own castle.
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Right now, we're all very charmed with walking distance lattes and gourmet take out two doors down, but the very nature of cities is the antithesis of the human condition. Consider the cities of the middle ages, and the cities of today. Technology and plumbing have cleaned them up a lot, but shut off the electricity and the pumps and those high rise condos become unlivable very fast.
The problem is, the country is running out of desirable land. Since everyone wants an interesting urban lifestyle, or at least within easy travel time, rural life in the country has lost it's appeal. Two hour commutes, at three dollar plus per gallon fuel have ruined any lure the suburbs once had.
 Which leads one inexorably to the river. By Ed Garren |
Suddenly the condo is king, and narrow row houses are back in fashion. Educated professionals are returning to the urban core by the import car full. Trading land for fashion, open space for convenience, it is an interesting evolution. I have a friend who lived in an expensive condo in a well known urban core neighborhood for about three years. He has since moved to a suburban condo that is cheaper. He confessed to me a while back how much he hates his living space. Only windows at each end, shared green space, and parking. He says, "Strip off the designer paint and the stainless steel appliances and it's just a box, and there isn't any extra room."
The expensive urban core condo had been an even bigger disappointment. It only had windows on one side and half the units in the building were owned by speculators, for whom it was an absentee investment that sat empty waiting on the market to go up. So the building was half empty all the time. It was like living in a ghost town, or more accurately, a ghost hive. He enjoyed the neighborhood and walking, but all of it felt somewhat contrived. There was no real "soul" to the place. His suburban condo is even worse. It has nothing to walk to and is filled with people who are only living there long enough to move to something better.
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What Katrina and the Ninth Ward have taught us about New Orleans is that it takes economic diversity to give a city "soul." The post Katrina sterilized New Orleans is not very interesting. The interesting people are gone, including most of the musicians that gave the city it's musical flavor.
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When I arrived here in Portland (Oregon), I spent days driving around the neighborhoods and looking at properties. After weighing in all my options, I settled in the county's premier mobile home park, which is part of the RV park I'd originally stopped in, on an island, along the banks of the Columbia River. And I do mean the banks. I am 30 feet from the river, with a 200 degree panoramic view of the river, Mts. Hood and St. Helen's. Although I live on rented land, I own my home. I bought 1,400 square feet, double pane windows, extra insulated metal roof, a covered veranda around three sides, full amenities, for $51,000.
 By Ed Garren |
My lot rent includes lawn maintenance and club amenities. We have a lot of GLBT residents here. I have great dog loving neighbors, we walk or dogs among the quiet streets, a river front path and beautiful landscaping. Two gay men, a couple of over 30 years have an older single wide on "the cove" and a home in Palm Springs. They tell anyone who asks, "This is the nicest place we've ever lived." My rainbow wind sock broke and fell on the street. One of my neighbors picked it up and put it neatly on the hood of one of my cars so it wouldn't get dirty. it's a great place to live because we are all homeowners and we care about our community, which does not allow rented units. Every home must be owner occupied, and anyone living here must pass a full credit and criminal background check.
My friend who hates his condo comes at least two days a week to sit on my veranda and watch the boats go by. Others who've come to visit walk in, drop their jaws, then say things like "This is amazing" and "This would cost a million dollars anywhere else."
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People ask, "Why? It's a trailer park." My answer, "Land Katie Scarlett, land." We have our little patch of dirt around us. We have windows on all sides, no one tromping on the ceiling or under our feet. The density is just about right. Not too crowded, not too spread out. I traded land ownership for land use, not unlike leasing a car instead of buying it, preferring not to spend hundreds of thousands for a little patch of dirt. I can rent the space for a budgeted amount every month, which includes services, for much less than a mortgage, taxes and association fees.
As I've gotten older, I am more appreciative of the fact that all of this world is transient, that we really own nothing. Marjorie Kinnan-Rawlins put it best in her memoirs, "Cross Creek". "The earth may be borrowed, not bought. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons; to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time."
 From the banks of the mighty Columbia River. By Ed Garren |
From the banks of the mighty Columbia River, Ed Garren
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"The only devils in the world are those running round in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles ought to be fought." Mohandus K. Gandhi
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"The only devils in the world are those running round in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles ought to be fought." Mohandus K. Gandhi
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Ed Garren can be reached, even in the Red America’s wilds, at