An (Urban) AS Community?

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In an earlier thread, WP members indicated 28-15 that an aspie community was possible.

See: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt215426.html

I think the next question should be, "What type of community". I see two major schools of thought on this matter.

The first is what I call the "rural (farm) concept", or "Aspie Acres". It has the advantages of using large amounts of labor, being self-sufficient in a medium to long-term plan, and being relatively quiet and lacking many environmental stressors.

The concept does have start-up cost issues. I've seen projections of 400 acres at 2,000/acre acquisition costs, another 2,000/acre development costs, to arrive at a minimum cost of 1.6 MM USD, even before factoring in outside utility lines, equipment, land improvements, and labor costs.

I have nothing against this concept, and I would of course support such a location.

The second concept is the "urban concept", or "AspieBURG". This concept is one of an aspie owned urban block, neighborhood, or set of buildings. It has the advantage of being already constructed, having existing utilities, existing services, and presumably access to jobs and transportation. The estimated start-up costs for the first building’s acquisition could be as little as $100,000 USD cash and the rest financed.

The concept does have the issue that long-term expansion will be expensive, and that it would be in an area with more restrictive zoning and local ordinances. Also, the noise and sensory experiences may be more than some would find acceptable.

Since I have more knowledge of this area than of the “rural concept”, I would like to discuss this “AspieBURG” concept in more detail.
In the past, some have advanced a concept of purchasing an “AS Building”, or block of buildings, or a converted garage/industrial building. The main perceived advantage with this concept is that there is one building, already constructed, and in a place with existing services.

I would add that the “Building” concept could be the first step in an Aspie community. At least in the United States, a single building could be acquired fairly inexpensively. While there are some issues with having the early community tied to one building, proper insurance coverage should remove most of the risk.

Also, a building in an existing urban environment would have the advantage of being in an existing economy. There would be economies of scale from purchasing required goods and services, an existing employment market to tap for residents of the community, and customers for businesses based out of the Aspie community.

The timeframe for a community could be drastically reduced by starting with a building in an urban area. If businesses or self-employed individuals could be located to be located with the community, a mortgage could be arranged to finance a property, allowing a fairly quick acquisition process, as opposed to the multi-year process of fundraising envisioned under some concepts.

On a pragmatic level - in urban areas, you don't have to constantly drive into town to get groceries, go shopping, go to the doctor, and the thousands of other errands. Country living isn't all that practical for people with AS, unless they enjoy driving a lot. The bad part might be that any affordable location might be in an area that wouldn't be good for people with AS, since it wouldn't be desirable property if it was available cheap. People with AS are not the best candidates for urban renewal and social development of an area There is also the idea of what employment is available - it would be easy to get people on an island in a city with employment out in industrial/office parks in the suburbs. Wow, sounds like a mammoth planning project. Even the weather would be an issue - I wouldn't want to be in Minnesota, for example. (How about Hawaii? I might sign up for that!)

The best location would be a high-tech hub where a lot of businesses who want AS-type workers and who want the feel-good PR of supporting such a project would donate to make it happen, and help facilitate employment.

The first point you mention is a key one, you don't have to drive everywhere. That's a cost that seldom shows up right away, but it adds up so fast.

Walt Disney himself was not able to pull off a complete city with industrial and office parks. An Island would be nice, but I think I'll get a large number of "stop dreaming" votes if I seriously proposed that. The wastewater management issues alone would drive the cost out of the range of anyone less than a fortune 100 company.



In a theoretical world, I would agree with that. The issue for now is that no high-tech company has stepped forward with such support yet. While I personally would not count on such support, I would think we would have a slightly better chance if there was an existing community to use as an example and model.

To clarify I meant an island in the sense of having a complex in a city center that is isolated from jobs with nothing nearby, so the community is essentially on an island with long commute/transit times to anywhere you'd want to go (such as to jobs in office parks that spring up in suburbia). That would be about the same level of badness as being in the country, only there's more parking in the country. The nice thing about living in an apartment is that it's easy to move if you need to go to where jobs are. A whole community complex would be harder to move

But, yes, as far as real islands go, I'm willing to give the Fiji AS community a shot.

I may be misinterperting your post. AspieBURG would'nt be an isolated apartment complex in the middle of a build-up urban area, it would consist of an AS community in an urban location, which would presumably include employement centers within easy commuting distance. By the very nature of (most) cities, jobs are located in the urban area.

an urban and a rural base means members can stay at either locale
and produce grown in the country could be used at the city location
a shuttle between the two could be run daily/weekly depending on size of membership

landowners with unused land could be approached
and council could make district plan allowances for charitable groups
some districts have local government friendly to communal living while other areas discourage hippie dwellings

Depending on the host jurisdiction, existing "Farmer's markets" might be a good ally for both concepts.

In the US model that I am familar with, a "Farmer's market" is set up to sell food and goods directly from the local farms, usually at a better price by cutting out the distribution chain and transportation expense. It would help an urban AS community by being a good place to buy less expensive food, and a good side distribution chain for a rural AS community. In the long run, the urban AS community could host the market.

In the cases that I am familar with, the "market" often has a decent amount of public subsidies attached, they attract a decent amount of political support.

I like the idea of comparing it to china town's where the geographic definitions are not strict, however the cultural distinctions are massive.


I can imagine nt's coming to aspburg, to buy comic books, unique healthcare products etc.

AspieBERG for me

Love the city life

I'd expect limited-run publishing (limited-run books, graphics, etc.) to be a good business. "Specialized content for a specialized niche market" might as well be a business motto. Once such a business is up and running, just having a distribution network to small colleges, book clubs, and book critics would get us a great deal of busness.

I'd have to research the comic book business in more detail before directly commenting on that. It is my understanding that there could be some demographic overlap there.

In the long run, at least one annual book fair, package vacations for aspiring writers, editing work for self-publishers, and distribution through (the hypothetical company)'s website would be a realistic possibility, if not a probability. Ideally, the book fair would piggy-back on an existing cultural or artistic event, maybe hold the book fair the day before an arts show nearby?

It needs to have Megatall skyscrapers 4,000FT tall and a Tram network...and subway system and airport....

I never figured out how to get the tram and subway systems working in SimCity 4, so I'm going to need advice on how we can incorporate that into an existing community.

One thing that has seldom been looked at, through touched on in Stoek's post, is if there are cultural instiutions that AspieBURG could provide to the rest of the urban area outside of the immediate community? One of the reasons that I would want to move to a community is for cultural resources, and I don't see a reason why we can't defray some of our costs by offering our cultural resources to outside the community.

Are there any educational or cultural resources that an Aspie Community could offer an urban area?

How about a retreat centre with love bombing-aspie maidens luring new members with quirky girl aspie jive and we could have a charismatic leader too

Someone to lead us to the promised land
aspies make such good leaders
and even better followers
like herding cats

And endless stream of very specific knowledge in the form of essays, source listings, and rantsImean lectures! >.>

So that's a yes on the educational front. :U

I put forward Lancaster as a host city, since we're a small city with a lot of empty buildings available.

Anyway, lets start drawing up a list of potential businesses that such a community could host.

Education, what I have noticed of this lot of hairless ground apes is a lack of any unity, social skill, but a universal focus on detail, if they are interested.

No one else is, so just shut up! Or sell it to those who have to know.

Computer training for groups of ten, at $1300 a head for fifteen hours over three days. Turning on the computer, Using the mouse, Opening a program, Using the keyboard. People are doing this.

Reports on subjects that others find boring, People invest millions in products without any understanding of where it fits the market, how it could be better, or who their customers are.

The speed of knowledge has increased, as has information, telling people what they should know some time in the future, is one of the more annoying aspie traits, that could be marketed.

Looking at the world, how many times have you thought they were marketing to twelve year olds? TV is, but so is everything else, that should be better, but they have workers raised by TV, so the results match.

We are known for over researching a subject. That is a skill that cannot be hired. What the best can get is some new minted MBAs, some Marketing Types, and a Graphic Designer, whos main focus is scoring sex.

Lacking Social Skills can be an advantage.

Aspie Marketing would get no respect, It calls for a front, something that sounds good, An Institute, what was the name of the place Rainman was confined?

I have been looking for art work, I am depressed. What I want, can define in detail, I cannot get. One of me, searching the world, seeking a skills match. That has business potential.

If not for Doctor X the X-Men would starve, and I still cannot figure how he makes anything off of them, unless he also produces the comics.

If I could explain how this works to you, I would not have to explain it.