AP does story on HOAs
And if you follow the link to the whole story you will find yours truly quoted...

Homeowners following house rules
Associations becoming norm across nation

By Jim Wasserman, The Associated Press
July 6, 2003

GOLD RIVER -- As the war in Iraq became imminent, emergency room doctor and Vietnam veteran Bill Durston protested by taking down his American flag and raising his United Nations flag.

Citing its rules, his neighborhood homeowners association told him to take it down. Citing the Constitution, Durston refused.

The flag remains, as does the dispute between Durston and the association. It's one of many in the growing conflict between the nation's fastest-growing way of life -- life inside a homeowners association -- and traditions of liberty and free speech. Tension among the estimated 8 million Californians and 50 million Americans living under rules of a private residential government has lawmakers across the nation dealing with residents' rising unrest.

In a country founded on private property rights, homeowners associations, practicing what some call "micropolitics," increasingly dictate the nation's home colors, landscaping, pet sizes and placements of satellite dishes. They also restrict many forms of political expression Americans take for granted, even, until recently in many parts of the nation, flying the U.S. flag.

Experts call this still-accelerating trend one of the most stunning transformations in how Americans live, rent and buy homes.