Boing Boing: Update on Louis Rossetto's mother's house
This was passed on to me by a reader. It is a detailed account from the weblog BoingBoing of a Landmark Preservation Committee in the People's Republic of Berkeley. Very interesting reading. This is so similar to the reactions people report about their HOA Architectural Review Committee that I think it merits consideration--even if you do away with HOAs, you are not free. There are layers of oversight lurking to waylay you. I'd thank the person by name but all I have is an e-mail address and I hate to give those out without permission--so, thanks!

Update on Louis Rossetto's mother's house--
A couple of days ago, I wrote about the problems Louis Rossetto's mother was having trying to get permission from the city to add a small addition to her house in Berkeley (Link). On Monday, Berkeley's Landmarks Preservation Commission held a meeting to decide whether to grant landmark status to the house. In short, his mother got permission to build the addition. Congratulations!
Here's Louis' report from the meeting:

A report from the front: the battle was lost - but the war won!
[the details of the meeting follow]

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The author of the meeting narrative says he was...

...saddened to have witnessed first hand a truly arbitrary, philistine process that must be repeated ad nauseum across America, and that causes neighborhood wars, promotes mediocrity (if not worse), and can leave people emotionally and financially ruined without even protecting the alleged purposes of the landmark ordinances. As my mother wrote in her ad, this wasn't about preservation, this was about the local Soviet trying to assert its control over the block.
[more]

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