Evan McKenzie on the rise of private urban governance and the law of homeowner and condominium associations. Contact me at ecmlaw@gmail.com
Friday, December 23, 2005
Home Is Where The Rules Are Bob Nelson's Op-Ed in the Washington Post, giving a boost to his new pro-HOA book...thanks to Nancy Levy for the link.
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Yes I read this article. I think that Mr. Nelson has made a serious error in his premise that American citizens are willingly surrendering their rights to private governances.
I wrote a letter to the editor at the Washington Post, and was informed that it will be published.
Needless to say, it is not sympathetic to Mr. Nelsons views.
I'll look for that letter to the WAPO. But as I was writing to another correspondent earlier today, Bob acknowledges a lot of the problems with HOAs. He also has a whole chapter full of reform proposals that are worth considering.
I have attached my letter to the WAPO, better late than never...
Sacrifices for Homeownership [FINAL Edition] The Washington Post - Washington, D.C. Date: Dec 30, 2005 Start Page: A.26 Section: EDITORIAL Text Word Count: 141
Copyright The Washington Post Company Dec 30, 2005 Robert Nelson's Dec. 18 Outlook article, "Home Is Where the Rules Are," gave ill-deserved praise to homeowner and condominium associations.
Mr. Nelson said millions of Americans are "choosing" to subordinate themselves to private governances in their own communities. Many housing developments built today are required by municipalities to have association structure. In many parts of the country, the choice is severely limited to association housing.
Homeowner associations relieve municipalities of having to provide many services and are therefore quasi-public, yet association governance is allowed to ignore the most basic constitutional constraints by which public government must abide.
Mr. Nelson's thoughts would have been more relevant to the issue had he examined why 55 million Americans must surrender many of the rights guaranteed them in the Bill of Rights, simply to acquire and live in their own homes.
MIKE REARDON
Falmouth, Mass.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
3 comments:
Yes I read this article. I think that Mr. Nelson has made a serious error in his premise that American citizens are willingly surrendering their rights to private governances.
I wrote a letter to the editor at the Washington Post, and was informed that it will be published.
Needless to say, it is not sympathetic to Mr. Nelsons views.
I'll look for that letter to the WAPO. But as I was writing to another correspondent earlier today, Bob acknowledges a lot of the problems with HOAs. He also has a whole chapter full of reform proposals that are worth considering.
I have attached my letter to the WAPO, better late than never...
Sacrifices for Homeownership
[FINAL Edition]
The Washington Post - Washington, D.C.
Date: Dec 30, 2005
Start Page: A.26
Section: EDITORIAL
Text Word Count: 141
Copyright The Washington Post Company Dec 30, 2005
Robert Nelson's Dec. 18 Outlook article, "Home Is Where the Rules Are," gave ill-deserved praise to homeowner and condominium associations.
Mr. Nelson said millions of Americans are "choosing" to subordinate themselves to private governances in their own communities. Many housing developments built today are required by municipalities to have association structure. In many parts of the country, the choice is severely limited to association housing.
Homeowner associations relieve municipalities of having to provide many services and are therefore quasi-public, yet association governance is allowed to ignore the most basic constitutional constraints by which public government must abide.
Mr. Nelson's thoughts would have been more relevant to the issue had he examined why 55 million Americans must surrender many of the rights guaranteed them in the Bill of Rights, simply to acquire and live in their own homes.
MIKE REARDON
Falmouth, Mass.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
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