Father-of-seven paints home with stars and stripes after officials tried to force him to make minor alterations to his home | Mail Online

Father-of-seven paints home with stars and stripes after officials tried to force him to make minor alterations to his home | Mail Online

Proving that this doesn't only happen in HOAs:  "Brent Greer, 43, was angry when a code enforcement officer visited his home in Bradenton, Florida after someone complained that he had left an old Christmas tree on a balcony - and slapped him with even more complaints. Among the gripes were missing window screens, peeling paint and the need for pressure washing, the Bradenton Herald reported."

VIDEO: To Prison For Poverty | MyFDL

VIDEO: To Prison For Poverty | MyFDL

Sometimes I hear from HOA residents that they feel like they are in prison. But there are some people who actually have been incarcerated because of privatization.  Private probation companies are getting people locked up for not paying--a modern reincarnation of debtor's prison.  And there's a video that tells their story, with a writeup by one of the directors at the link:



"If someone gets a traffic ticket and can’t pay, the judge puts them on “probation,” which really means walking down the hall and signing up for a payment plan with a private probation company who has a contract with the court. If they can’t pay, they go to jail. (Which is somehow supposed to make paying the ticket easier for someone who can’t afford it in the first place.) Like payday lenders, these for-profit companies seek out neighborhoods where they know the population will, on average, have a tougher time paying traffic tickets out right. Then they charge exorbitant fees. Hali Wood was hit with a $41 seat belt ticket. Her payment plan charged a monthly fee of $35. That’s 85% interest! This is unlike any other probation programs we’ve run across in almost two years of producing documentaries about the criminal justice system. Probation is supposed to help people avoid jail or prison. These companies are simply collections agencies on steroids."

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: "Land and the City"

I just returned from a conference at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA. The topic: "Land and the City."  It was an outstanding conference in every way.  The link goes to a summary of the papers.  Mine was on the relationship between CID housing and the increase in segregation by income that we have experienced in this country.