Saturday, April 09, 2011

HOA goes after woman's garage as 'community center'

A Tierrasanta homeowners association is cracking down on a 70-year-old woman whose garage has become a neighborhood gathering place of sorts, with folding chairs, a television and ample Chargers paraphernalia. The Villa Portofino association has fined Marylin Weber $120, saying she can’t use her garage as living space. Weber is refusing to pay the fine or back down, saying her garage is the community center in her neighborhood. The door is often open and neighbors stop by to knit, watch Jeopardy or celebrate birthdays.
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One of the basic principles of Privatopia is HOAs serve to build community spirit. After all, the private local government industry markets them as "community associations." However when community evolves naturally as this story illustrates, HOAs can be decidedly anti-community.

4 comments:

gnut said...

> One of the basic principles of Privatopia is HOAs serve to build community spirit.

And one of the basic principles of Communism was a dictatorship of the proletariat. But after the dictatorships were established, the "of the proletariat" part somehow never got implemented.

During the Cold War, there were a class of people, rightfully known as "useful idiots," who believed that Communist states protected and advanced the interests of the workers.

But they are nothing at all like the people who believe that homeowners associations protect and advance the interests of homeowners. Oh no. Because "HOAs are very local and small, participants are often neighbors and hence have incentive to settle disagreements in a civil manner."

Conservatives/libertarians/AynRandians really believe that Communistyism can work, if the right people are in charge. This is why a common retort by these HOApologists is to "get involved" and "join the board" and other worthless slogans. These modern day Walter Durantys will do everything possible to ignore and cover up the actions committed by Communistyists against tens of millions of individual American home owners.

Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler said...

You think we imprison people on a whim? If you think our humanistic system capable of such a thing, that alone would justify your arrest.

Anonymous said...

dilbert.com/strips/comic/2006-05-12/

Anonymous said...

Back in 2009 (over two years ago), an HOA demanded that a disabled veteran remove his Marine Corps bumper sticker from his car. It was discussed here.

On another internet forum about this story, somebody posted the following comment (#27):

"The HOA has to draw a line somewhere. You let a guy get away with bumper stickers, next thing you know he's hanging out in his garage. Anarchy."