Today's Blind Items - Lawless

I'm not sure if I can find it, but shortly after I started the site, I wrote about a singer who owned a trailer park and each trailer was being used as a grow site for pot. Considering the person I am writing about today is also a singer, this time of a permanent A list group who is in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, perhaps he knew the other person. This not just using trailers to grow. It is in Northern California. It is close to the coast to avoid any chance, or at least reduce the chance of being consumed by fire. It is 20 minutes from any kind of major road, and 30-45 from any kind of major town with a grocery store. It is perfect for the people who live there because none of them are up to any good. The singer doesn't like to talk about it because all he does is collect the rent, and a little taste. The way things work in California in these types of communities is you pay for a space. That's it. The landlord has no other obligations. Because the rents in an out of the way place like that are low, around $200 they are usually paid in cash. Often the case is that someone who is not afraid of violence is the one who collects the rent from each site. Often, they will live for free and take a cut of what they collect to make sure enforcement efforts are strong.

This little outpost of about 150 sites makes the singer a nice little steady income. Unlike many other owners, he reports all of the rental income he receives. What he doesn't report is the percentage he receives from the various enterprises going on at the sites. There is meth, but apparently only one person who is experienced at cooking it is allowed. There are a couple that are used as fencing locations and another couple that are safe houses for motorcycle gang members. There is one that is a strip club which is next door to one used as a brothel. It is amazing the kind of illicit businesses you can put into a double wide. Because it is so far from a grocery, there is a grocery store in one that charges normal prices because of a beating that occurred when it first opened with prices commensurate with being out in the middle of nowhere. The singer doesn't like to talk about any of it, but generates enough from his percentage that it exceeds royalties he receives from several of the band's records. You know, I titled this Lawless, but that is one thing that is crazy about the place. Sure, there are fistfights and there is one trailer that is used as a bar, but the rule is only fists. No feet and no weapons in a fight. There really is no violence because they don't want the police to show up for anything.