have you heard this guys point of view ?

Have you watched any of his vids? He has a pretty fascinating story and background.

 

I lived in the city of Chicago for a few years in a building just east of Sheridan Rd.... you're right.... city dwellers don't look up unless it's to see if the pedestrian light changed or where the pigeon poop came from.
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Grant Park was the place to go and hang out back then.... now it's Navy Pier. Both areas are filled to the brim with action and lots of block cops. It's a situation where you're ok when there's oodles of ordinary folk sandwiching you in securely and cops just about everywhere on foot and horseback but.... not so ok when you're forced to be out worrying about what's in the shadows. It's the shadows and it's not exactly the pigeon lady or the homeless guy camped out between buildings that gives you the heevie jeevies. There were definitely some areas you just flat out didn't drive through back then. Same scenario now only with some of the projects torn down... there's different areas you don't drive through. Everyone learns real quick that if you have to be routed through one of those areas.... you never ever ever stopped for a stop sign and you blew through red lights the minute you got the chance or kept your hand on shift so you could throw the car in reverse and ram the guy behind you to get away.
Where I grew up.... we were free. Truly free to join together with other kids of all ages to go sit by the river on the logs telling ghost stories or what ever. When we were in our teen years we'd take off to the hay loft sneaking beers and Boone's Farm bought by older siblings.... we had little adult supervision but... those were the days of older kids to keep behavior in check and the party line when your mother found out what you were up to before you had a chance to explain. A good prank was banging on the outhouse after dark when someone was in it or riding a horse through you mother's kitchen. No fear of accepting help from any motorist if your car ever broke down either and definitely fear of your own parents getting their hands on you than any police officer if you ever got caught doing something that wasn't kosher. To me at least.... my guard was down for all of 1 week when I lived in the city and I soon learned even in a large group walking somewhere.... you never know who's gonna grab your purse and dash off with it or cop a free feel. I can recall declining the additional monthly valet fee for my car as opposed to having to walk to it myself. I changed my mind real quick... too many shadows and parked cars in the parking garage. All of your senses are on hyper alert when ever you are not in the midst of a crowd. It's hard to explain... I wasn't ever that in-sync with my surroundings before living in Chicago.... you learn... you adapt.... or you get beat over the head and end up in an ER with no ID on you. In the suburbs where we live now, children still ride bikes and screw around in corn fields when they're older. You won't see that in the city unless you're in an older ethnic neighborhood where if we pay close attention.... we'll find grandmas and grandpas staked out watching over all the younguns. Here, they pretty much do as these please under the age of 12 as long as one adult is in close proximity or when they hit about junior high in small groups on their own. For us, our kids played in the back yard by themselves after about age 8 only because I could see what they were doing from the kitchen window. When they were older, they still stuck to the back yard. Here.... you open the door when somebody knocks.... there... you look at who it is before buzzing them in and even then you get a good look at who you're opening the door to through the peep hole.... there are no back doors in hi-rises. Here in the burbs... if you break down nobody will stop so no worries about making the decision of whether to accept help or not. I loved the inner city for all that it offered round the clock but our building had exceptional security, a grocery store and full gym on the 1st floor with a host of other businesses like a dry cleaners and.... I still could never live there again.
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One plus to living in the city is that lots of the old buildings still have cast iron tubs.... it's a good place to lay if bullets start flying through the walls or windows. A friend I worked with who grew up in Chicago taught me that. Seriously, I do see a benefit to staying put in the city if you're already there but not for the long haul. A part of me does agree with ColtC as I also felt he was justifying his decision to move to a city of 6M. His choice.

 

Screw the big cities - I want SPACE around me to maneuver! If things go truly bad, I can be in the swamp inside a halfhour. I grew up in there - I OWN the swamp......

In a big city, I'd be just another refugee.......

So it depends on where you grow up and what you are accustomed to.

 

I'd take the swamp and the people living in it over Chicago AND the suburbs and their people any day. Alligator isn't half bad.

 

I live on an abandoned Military base outside Mobile in a rural area. There are maybe fifty households within the parameters of the old base and maybe two thirds of them are occupied. About 10% of the remaining will have to be burned out and two roadways guarded, then unless they are fleet as swamp deer and sneaky as nutria, they won't get in. Water would be the easiest approach for them and that is wide open. A couple of crew served weapons will certainly be on hand.
We CAN shut this area down.

 

hey, I have been reading lights out, that book is awesome and scary all at the same time. I think its a very good read. I see the books point of view even though its just a scenario the city folk will see the town burned down and much looting and death, but in the book the country folk have it real bad. They do not have enough to help them fight off gangs and large groups well powered up. and in the book all those were burned out pretty quick and killed.I think its the great government that would love all this, it would lower the population real quick and then the troops can come in and kill the rest and start loading the trouble makers up into them nice fema housing that once you are in you stay in!

 

Years ago a friend I were talking about scenarios after shtf, and we felt that there would be people coming from the 'city' out to rural areas because that's where they feel the 'goods' are. Doesn't mean I'm gonna move. I mean when shtf is not gonna change based on where I'm living. Good and bad points no matter where someone lives. Just be prepared.

 

Just to clear the air here. Yankeeprepper lived in Chicago years ago. This is a two part video series he made because he had so many questions about bugging in when living in a large urban environment. WATCH PART 1 - the OP only posted part 2. He no longer lives there. He has not lived in Chicago for at least 7 years. He lives in rural Minnesota, near St. Paul. His videos are not advocating staying in a city, it is explaining how it can be feasible. In fact, he is a Rawles-type survivalist and seeks to stay in as rural a setting as he feasibly can while maintaining a link to a small community. As with anything dealing with other people's opinions and statements, YMMV.

 

Market the message to city dwellers

If his message is well-marketed to city dwellers, perhaps more of them will re-think their bug-out plans and choose to bug-in instead. That would be highly desirable for me because it would mean fewer potential "door knockers" looking for provisions and/or shelter in my neighborhood.

So, rather than knocking this guy's logic, I will applaud it for mis-directing urban dwellers to stay in their respective cities. Every person that stays in the city is one less that me and my family have to worry about.

 

Alot of the reasons that people move to cities now will be the reasons that they are good post SHTF. I think in general if you don't prep, you are gonna be in trouble no matter where you live. Same goes if your preps aren't realistic. If living in a large city is a necessity for you, and you make some realistic preps, the city is as survivable as anywhere else. I believe in most scenarios, the bulk of the unrest will be in cities. However, the louder an area is, the easier it is to hide. If you look at it from an ORM point of view, your odds are nearly the same. Chances of you being noticed and targeted goes way down in a large city with active rioting and large loud roving gangs that are easily avoided. Chances of accidentally being discovered and killed or removed from your preps goes up with so much activity. The opposite can be said for rural living. In a city, it would be easy to form a strong and large community of like minded people that live inside a small radius and could provide security yet still live with a low profile in small cells. The opposite is again true for rural living. It would be very easy to have multiple small stashes and safe houses set up in a city by storing some in every members place and rotating from place to place to avoid the hotbeds of activity. This would prevent all your eggs being in one basket, which causes the need to defend your position instead of abandoning it and leaving your provisions hidden in plain sight to be retrieved later when the danger passes. This would allow you to avoid confrontation, which is preferred in nearly every situation. Every situation has it's benefits and pitfalls, but ALL situations are survivable with the right kind of planning and mindset.

 

Wow I didn't know Chicago was so different from the ghettos I worked in. The gang members want to get money and get high. They stand there and shoot at each other over drug turf. Getting shot is a badge of honor. Yes they are some what smart they do learn.

I was a SWAT cop for 6 years I have done ops in cities in those killing allies and in the woods. Both have advantage and disadvantage. There is no open field of fire in trees you move cover to cover just like in a city.

I think his bottom line is he intends to disappear amount the sheep in the stock yard this works until there aren't many sheep left. Yes you can hide in the woods or in the city. Both may work or they may not. What will work in the small town or country area is knowing the people around you and setting up a community defense and support structure. You can do this because you know the people and some trust is there. The numbers of armed men will be a factor in keeping others from even trying to take you stuff.

I have lived in cities The ability to walk and be alone among six million is do to the fact that none of them give a sh.. about you. Herb Cain many years ago wrote a column about a women in San Francisco who was grabbed by a man with a knife and dragged into an alley, she screamed and he told her lady this is SF no one cares he then raped her. Great place to try and survive.

We are by nature a social animal. Gangs form a family of sorts that they will follow and fight for with as much loyalty as an police officer or solider. When ordered to go room to room or house to house they will. They do have rank structure. Many join the military to learn combat skills and take them back to the ghetto.

So the base bottom line is I will take my chances among the country folk I know rather that the city dwellersI don't.

 

Look it is as simple as this If you you live in the city, a person needs to prepare just like anyone else has to. The big differance is in a city there has to have tight knit operational security. You cant just bring in a load of guns and ammo. You have to act like your not preparing at all You have to take a gun safe somewhere and change boxes with a refrigerator box.

Look I know what I am saying sounds like Foolishness but, It's not. If you are in a urban setting you have just as much of a chance to survive a shtf situation as anybody else and if you do take that option of bugging in, in a urban setting. In a city, bars on the windows and an alarm system are everyday things in a urban setting, things like Brick walls and Automatic gates. That is common place. But you have to be non-chelant about it. Get some refrigerator boxes from a big box store and keep them at a storage facility and when you get your gun safe(s), take them to the storage facility first---- unbox it, Load it or them with your guns and ammo. then camo them with the refridgerator boxes, get them to your house and just bring them in, simple. If you are bringing in food. bring it in there cases but just camo them a bit.
everybody uses boxes from a grocery store to move. just put some masking tape on the boxes and bam. that way you can get prepared and not give up any operational security...........

Now when you are in the country, yeah you can prepare, but be ready to defend it.

 

if shtf happens, most of people would probably leave the city, leaving empty houses and apartments. bad guys, gangs, know where the preps and food is: country people, farmers and preppers. i agree with yenkeyprepper that establishing security is much easier in the city. one could use balconies and rooftops for growing food, breeding rabbits, chicken.if someone wants to attack you, they'll have to come down narrow corridor and face sawn-off shotgun or AK concerto in death-moll.
i believe that i would more easily survive in the city, then in the country during the first year of shtf. later you could move out of the city. just my 2c

 

Cities only started to exist after agriculture became adequate enough to support them, After a while in a truly teotwawki they would have to be almost totally abandoned as they would have very little means to resupply them selves. I read somewhere that small communities would fare the best, where you have enough people to secure the area and enough land to grow and produce what is necessary. If you want a good Ideal of what a truly teotwawki event could be like look at the fall of Rome and the 600 years after. The cities were abandoned and took apart to make homes, even the roads were torn up for their bricks.

 

And even before the collapse of Rome, was the collapse of the Minoan/Mycenean culture way back around 1620 BC. After the catastrophic earthquakes and volcanos centered around present day Santorini, the whole Minoan empire began to collapse, leaving them at the mercy of the Mycenaens (Odysseus and his contemporaries). They collapsed in turn, and the Aegean went from being powerful and wealthy to being forgotten until Heinrich Schliemann and Charles Evans unearthed them again in the late 19th century.

History is full of examples of what happens in SHTF/TEOTWAWKI scenarios. Cities collapse and the survivors head for the hills.