ABOUT STINKY LINKS

I divide these sidebar links into Churchill Crap and Nationwide Nasties.

Now and then I’ll drop and add links for variety.

By nationwide standards, the Churchill Group barely makes the major leagues.  They  own about 25 parks.  The largest groups own over 150. 

You might look at it this way:  According to Rupert Neate’s excellent Guardian article (click on it in NATIONWIDE NASTIES) about twenty million Americans live in trailer parks.  Surely that suggests that most of us DON’T live in old-fashioned parks owned by Mom and Pop.

Stinky Links (esp. Nationwide Nasties) lead both to tales of evictions, harsh treatment of residents, etc., and to reminders that for people with bucks to spare ‘mobile home parks’ are only another investment opportunity—like stocks or gold.

If you do a little web crawling, you’ll find a few sites like ours—blogs (or whatever) aimed at park residents and park living.   But you’ll find way more sites—some legitimate, many sleazy—that lure investors to make zillions by buying and selling parks.  You’ll turn up resources galore on how to choose the right park, how to select your manager, how to know when to sell . . . blah, blah, blah.

Please note:  I will usually provide only one Stinky Link per story.  If you noodle around on your favorite search engine, you’ll usually turn up more.  For example, a Google search on  “‘Regency Mobile Home Park’ Lousiville” brings up several yummy Louisville stories.  You also get leads for links to Churchill messes elsewhere.

A LOUD REMINDER:

The savvy reader of Stinky Links should always remember:

—Most of us are way likelier to blame than to praise.  

—Bad news stories are more fun for journalists to write.

—They’re more fun to read, too.

—Corrections never q-u-i-t-e catch up with horror stories that descrie and may exaggerate some mess.

—When a mess gets fixed, reports of the repair seldom make juicy news.

—Many of these stories are old.

If I didn’t love slimy stories, I wouldn’t share them.  But I try to remember that many of these tales are old, or lopsided, or whatever. 

—David