HOA fight over World War II tank in River Oaks | khou.com
"Attorney Tony Buzbee bought a fully functional World War II tank overseas last year for $600,000. Now he's temporarily parked it outside his multi-million dollar home in River Oaks. "Took a year to get here but now it's on River Oaks Boulevard," said Buzbee. "This particular tank landed at Normandy. It liberated Paris and ultimately went all the way to Berlin. There's a lot of history here." But now the River Oaks Property Owners group isn't happy about it. "It's not violating any ordinance, but for some people it makes the homeowners association uncomfortable," said Buzbee. They sent Buzbee a letter saying the tank "impedes traffic", causes a "safety issue" and is causing "serious concerns for neighbors". "If you're offended just lighten up, my goodness it isn't hurting anyone," said Buzbee."
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You just knew it had to be an attorney, right?
5 comments:
”They [ the River Oaks H.O.A. corporation ] sent Buzbee a letter saying the tank ‘impedes traffic’, causes a ‘safety issue’ and is causing ‘serious concerns for neighbors’.”
“’If you're offended just lighten up, my goodness it isn't hurting anyone,’ said Buzbee.”
“But finding concerned neighbors wasn't easy. Everyone we spoke to loves it.”
“’I wish it was permanent,’ said Douglas. ‘I think it's an asset and I think if you watch the cars come up and slow down, you say to yourself, 'wow, that's America.’’”
But, but, but . . . the H.O.A. industry keeps telling us that
-- “the owners are the association,” and
-- “by definition, the association are the owners”, and that
-- “The ‘association’ may be a corporation but in fact it is all of our neighbors acting in concert” . . . “Disputes between an owner and the ‘association’ are at base just arguments among individual owners. But many still don’t see it that way and choose instead to see the association as a monolith operating independently of the owners”.
So how is it that these reporters could not find any homeowners who objected to Mr. Buzbee’s tank? When it is obvious to our legislators and judges that H.O.A. corporations do represent the community? Something just doesn't add up here.
robert @ colorado hoa . com said… “So how is it that these reporters could not find any homeowners who objected to Mr. Buzbee’s tank? When it is obvious to our legislators and judges that H.O.A. corporations do represent the community? Something just doesn’t add up here.”
Fortunately, the answer to that question was provided to us 60 years ago:
“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong” . . . “To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality” (Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. 1957).
Therefore, we can only conclude that the homeowners don’t know what they really like. They need the guidance of heavy-handed corporate governance to tell them what they want, in order to fully realize their responsibilities that come with being an involuntary member of a communisty association.
“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong” . . . “To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality” (Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. 1957).
Off-topic from the tank story, but speaking of Ayn Rand and contradictions and H.O.A. corporations, JAlanKatz once observed that:
"HOAs do a great job of illustrating to libertarians (who seem to need to learn this more than the average person, for some reason) that the world is not a deductive system, and all facts about human relations don't follow from a simple logical calculus. Simply spinning out definitions of voluntary and involuntary quickly gets you into a conundrum here."
"It is voluntary to join an HOA. It is fine and libertarian for them to require, as a condition of joining, a deed restriction - an agreement not to sell it to anyone who doesn't agree to join. It is fine (and advisable) for there to be some mechanism for setting HOA rules, and likely it is some sort of majority rule. It is likely that the majority will agree, rather quickly, to turn things over to a few officers, since most people have lives and don't want to spend all their time dealing with HOA rules - unless it's a retirement village."
"Very quickly, you will have an immaculate conception of a totalitarian state in this thought experiment. If you lived in that later state - say, your great grandparents joined, and you inherited the house - would it be unlibertarian of you, a violation of contract law, for you to tell a punk who demands $1,000 because he doesn't like the color of your house, to shove it?" (July 22, 2010. comment at The Free Capitalist Network, "Are HOAs Unlibertarian?")
1. Buzbee is a well know personal injury plaintiff's attorney in the Houston area. High dollar verdicts.
2. River Oaks is an old school "ritzy/wealthy" neighborhood in Houston. The residents are known for leaving blinds and curtains up so that passersby can see the conspicuous display of wealth (full story paintings, chandeliers, etc.)
"This particular tank landed at Normandy. It liberated Paris and ultimately went all the way to Berlin."
An Irony Curtain has descended across our neighborhoods. 70 million Americans are subject to the wretched political aims of communist regimes enforced by ruthlessly efficient capitalist means. Living in an H.O.A. means "вы выезжаете из Американского сектора" (you are leaving the American zone).
Perhaps one day they, too, will be free.
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