Salon.com Life | Out of the closet and behind the gate
"The first gated community marketed at gays and lesbians is under construction in a small Florida town. Will it be a queer utopia -- or one more sign of the fragmentation of America?"
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You may recall that the Public Policy Institute of California's recently published study about HOAs and gated communities concluded that this fragmentation was not taking place. They used quantitative methods and good data sources. But it is very hard to pick up the kind of fine-grained fragmentation that developers can create with HOAs. I don't know whether this gated community is being marketed as the Slate article says, but if it is, (and how about calling this niche the "gayted" community?) you'd never identify it using normal social science methodology.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Judge threatens to name receiver for embattled HOA
WEST PALM BEACH -- An irate judge Wednesday threatened to appoint a receiver to oversee a bitterly divided neighborhood, a rare move that could cost the community's homeowners thousands of dollars. "I'm tired of getting letters from people saying their homeowners association is falling apart," Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Tom Barkdull snapped at a court hearing. "These people need a definitive answer as to who's running the homeowners association."The dispute at Lake Charleston, a 10,000-resident community west of Boynton Beach, has given rise to two governing boards, with the current board annulling the decisions of its predecessor.
Thanks to Fred Pilot for passing this along. Here we have one of the failure scenarios I have been warning people about for years: implosion of HOAs under the pressure of internal conflict over governance issues. Read it and ask yourself what it would look like if there were many more such situations.
WEST PALM BEACH -- An irate judge Wednesday threatened to appoint a receiver to oversee a bitterly divided neighborhood, a rare move that could cost the community's homeowners thousands of dollars. "I'm tired of getting letters from people saying their homeowners association is falling apart," Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Tom Barkdull snapped at a court hearing. "These people need a definitive answer as to who's running the homeowners association."The dispute at Lake Charleston, a 10,000-resident community west of Boynton Beach, has given rise to two governing boards, with the current board annulling the decisions of its predecessor.
Thanks to Fred Pilot for passing this along. Here we have one of the failure scenarios I have been warning people about for years: implosion of HOAs under the pressure of internal conflict over governance issues. Read it and ask yourself what it would look like if there were many more such situations.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Anti-Privatisation Forum
Who knew there was such a thing? And in South Africa. I'm still trying to figure out what they are for, but I guess we know what they are against.
Who knew there was such a thing? And in South Africa. I'm still trying to figure out what they are for, but I guess we know what they are against.
SB 1682 Senate Bill - AMENDED
Would reform foreclosure for unpaid assessments. I need to read this more closely but it looks like something that could conceivably pass.
Would reform foreclosure for unpaid assessments. I need to read this more closely but it looks like something that could conceivably pass.
AB 2610 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis
This bill would fix the Le Parc and Oak Park Calabasas situation of bottomless pit liability for owners. It allows the association to re-incorporate without carrying the previous organization's liabilities. What I have linked has the text plus full explanation.
This bill would fix the Le Parc and Oak Park Calabasas situation of bottomless pit liability for owners. It allows the association to re-incorporate without carrying the previous organization's liabilities. What I have linked has the text plus full explanation.
Wales - Sickles and galactic credits confuse many
TWO in five people think "sickles" - the money used in the Harry Potter adventures - is a real foreign currency, it was revealed yesterday. And around 25% reckon that "credits" - the currency in Star Wars - is genuine money used overseas, the survey from the Post Office found.
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Some people think we should privatize money, on the theory that if you and I think are among the 40% and 25%, respetively, who think that sickles and galactic credits (or whatever) are valuable, why shouldn't we be able to use them as a medium of exchange?
But I'm sticking with dollars and cents.
TWO in five people think "sickles" - the money used in the Harry Potter adventures - is a real foreign currency, it was revealed yesterday. And around 25% reckon that "credits" - the currency in Star Wars - is genuine money used overseas, the survey from the Post Office found.
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Some people think we should privatize money, on the theory that if you and I think are among the 40% and 25%, respetively, who think that sickles and galactic credits (or whatever) are valuable, why shouldn't we be able to use them as a medium of exchange?
But I'm sticking with dollars and cents.
BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | South East Wales | Wasp smoke-out sets house ablaze
The perils of do-it-yourself pest removal...and talk about adding insult to injury: the wasps stayed even after the house burned.
It is thought the woman had lit a small fire outside the house to smoke out the wasps but timbers caught, spreading the flames to the roof... Although the house was filled with smoke, the wasps remained in their nest until pest control officers were called to remove them.
The perils of do-it-yourself pest removal...and talk about adding insult to injury: the wasps stayed even after the house burned.
It is thought the woman had lit a small fire outside the house to smoke out the wasps but timbers caught, spreading the flames to the roof... Although the house was filled with smoke, the wasps remained in their nest until pest control officers were called to remove them.
Drowning detection, pool surveillance with Poseidon
This is from an advertisement:
Poseidon is the lifeguard's third eye that never blinks. It uses advanced computer vision technology to analyze activity in the pool, captured by a network of cameras mounted both above and below the surface of the pool. Poseidon helps lifeguards monitor swimmers' trajectories, and can alert them in seconds to a swimmer in trouble...The Poseidon System will soon feature an optional “After Hours Intrusion” mode. Designed to detect the presence of one or more swimmers, the alarm can be configured to sound locally, at a police station or other security monitoring station.
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If such a technology exists, is there a duty to install it if the HOA can afford it, as in a big and well-funded place with no lifeguard on duty? And how would people feel knowing that they are being watched from below as they swim, by a "third eye that never blinks"?
This is from an advertisement:
Poseidon is the lifeguard's third eye that never blinks. It uses advanced computer vision technology to analyze activity in the pool, captured by a network of cameras mounted both above and below the surface of the pool. Poseidon helps lifeguards monitor swimmers' trajectories, and can alert them in seconds to a swimmer in trouble...The Poseidon System will soon feature an optional “After Hours Intrusion” mode. Designed to detect the presence of one or more swimmers, the alarm can be configured to sound locally, at a police station or other security monitoring station.
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If such a technology exists, is there a duty to install it if the HOA can afford it, as in a big and well-funded place with no lifeguard on duty? And how would people feel knowing that they are being watched from below as they swim, by a "third eye that never blinks"?
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
March 2004 Median Home Prices in California
This comes from the California Association of Realtors and is broken down by municipality. Unbelievable. Areas that were all middle class suburbs in the post WWII era are now out of sight except for the rich. In LA County, here are some samples. Pasadena: $468,000. Monrovia: $424,000. Gardena: $328,000 (Gardena?)
All of San Diego County rings in at a median of $420,000, and even National City has a median housing price of $327,500! No offense to residents of same, but...National City? It's basically a big shipyard, and historically one of the least desirable places to live in the area.
Every municipality in Orange County is over $300K, and the median county-wide is $478,000.
Perhaps you prefer the SF bay area. Like Marin County? How about a little pied a terre in, oh, say, modestly priced Novato for about $578,750?
How can people afford to live in California? Maybe they can't. The only prices that correspond to middle class salaries are in the desert, 70 miles plus from any urban center: Apple Valley, $170,000; San Bernardino, $157,000, and so on.
But there is a silver lining. As the accompanying press release notes, prices went up 22%, and sales were up 4%, from March 2003 to March 2004. So I guess people figure they will buy an expensive house for an investment, and what the heck, you can't buy anything that's really affordable anyway.
This comes from the California Association of Realtors and is broken down by municipality. Unbelievable. Areas that were all middle class suburbs in the post WWII era are now out of sight except for the rich. In LA County, here are some samples. Pasadena: $468,000. Monrovia: $424,000. Gardena: $328,000 (Gardena?)
All of San Diego County rings in at a median of $420,000, and even National City has a median housing price of $327,500! No offense to residents of same, but...National City? It's basically a big shipyard, and historically one of the least desirable places to live in the area.
Every municipality in Orange County is over $300K, and the median county-wide is $478,000.
Perhaps you prefer the SF bay area. Like Marin County? How about a little pied a terre in, oh, say, modestly priced Novato for about $578,750?
How can people afford to live in California? Maybe they can't. The only prices that correspond to middle class salaries are in the desert, 70 miles plus from any urban center: Apple Valley, $170,000; San Bernardino, $157,000, and so on.
But there is a silver lining. As the accompanying press release notes, prices went up 22%, and sales were up 4%, from March 2003 to March 2004. So I guess people figure they will buy an expensive house for an investment, and what the heck, you can't buy anything that's really affordable anyway.
ABCNEWS.com : Florida Town to Use Surveillance Cameras--Florida Town Will Soon Have Cameras and Computers Running Background Checks on Every Car and Driver
Hyper-security: It's not just for gated communities anymore.---as evidenced by Manalapan, Florida:
One of the nation's wealthiest towns will soon have cameras and computers running background checks on every car and driver that passes through. Police Chief Clay Walker said cameras will take infrared photos recording a car's tag number, then software will automatically run the numbers through law enforcement databases. A 911 dispatcher is alerted if the car is stolen or is the subject of a "be on the lookout" warning...Next to the tag number, police will have a picture of the driver, taken with another set of cameras upgraded versions of the standard surveillance cameras already in place.
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Makes for interesting reading. Check it out.
Hyper-security: It's not just for gated communities anymore.---as evidenced by Manalapan, Florida:
One of the nation's wealthiest towns will soon have cameras and computers running background checks on every car and driver that passes through. Police Chief Clay Walker said cameras will take infrared photos recording a car's tag number, then software will automatically run the numbers through law enforcement databases. A 911 dispatcher is alerted if the car is stolen or is the subject of a "be on the lookout" warning...Next to the tag number, police will have a picture of the driver, taken with another set of cameras upgraded versions of the standard surveillance cameras already in place.
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Makes for interesting reading. Check it out.
Minutes from April 15 meeting of CLRC
The California Law Revision Commission minutes from their latest meeting are up. There are some reports on the status of proposed legislation on financial privacy, unincorporated associations, dispute resolution, state oversight, and owner liability for torts of the association.
The California Law Revision Commission minutes from their latest meeting are up. There are some reports on the status of proposed legislation on financial privacy, unincorporated associations, dispute resolution, state oversight, and owner liability for torts of the association.
Monday, April 26, 2004
The Onion | America's Finest News Source?: Libertarian Reluctantly Calls Fire Department
CHEYENNE, WY--After attempting to contain a living-room blaze started by a cigarette, card-carrying Libertarian Trent Jacobs reluctantly called the Cheyenne Fire Department Monday. 'Although the community would do better to rely on an efficient, free-market fire-fighting service, the fact is that expensive, unnecessary public fire departments do exist,' Jacobs said. 'Also, my house was burning down.' Jacobs did not offer to pay firefighters for their service.
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I love it. Free market humor.
CHEYENNE, WY--After attempting to contain a living-room blaze started by a cigarette, card-carrying Libertarian Trent Jacobs reluctantly called the Cheyenne Fire Department Monday. 'Although the community would do better to rely on an efficient, free-market fire-fighting service, the fact is that expensive, unnecessary public fire departments do exist,' Jacobs said. 'Also, my house was burning down.' Jacobs did not offer to pay firefighters for their service.
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I love it. Free market humor.
ABC7Chicago.com: Now two cougars reported in Lake County
This just keeps getting better all the time.
This just keeps getting better all the time.
My Way News: New Home Sales Rise 8.9% in March
Sales of new homes surged by 8.9 percent in March, the largest monthly increase in nine months, as mortgage rates bottomed out for the year before a recent, steady ascent. The increase pushed sales of new, single family houses to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.228 million last month. That was up from 1.128 in February, the Commerce Department reported Monday.The monthly increase of 8.9 percent was the highest since June 2003. By region, new home sales soared by 19.3 percent in the South, hitting a record rate of 613,000. But in the Northeast, sales plummeted by 24.3 percent to a rate of 78,000. The West posted an increase of 5.1 percent to a pace of 349,000, and in the Midwest, sales rose by 5 percent to a pace of 188,000.
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Wow--an annual rate of over 1.2 million new homes. The boom in new housing continues, and remember that the lion's share of these new homes are in common interest developments. Because the new housing stock is so heavily loaded with CIDs, low interest rates are tantamount to federal promotion of more CID housing, albeit unintentionally.
Sales of new homes surged by 8.9 percent in March, the largest monthly increase in nine months, as mortgage rates bottomed out for the year before a recent, steady ascent. The increase pushed sales of new, single family houses to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.228 million last month. That was up from 1.128 in February, the Commerce Department reported Monday.The monthly increase of 8.9 percent was the highest since June 2003. By region, new home sales soared by 19.3 percent in the South, hitting a record rate of 613,000. But in the Northeast, sales plummeted by 24.3 percent to a rate of 78,000. The West posted an increase of 5.1 percent to a pace of 349,000, and in the Midwest, sales rose by 5 percent to a pace of 188,000.
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Wow--an annual rate of over 1.2 million new homes. The boom in new housing continues, and remember that the lion's share of these new homes are in common interest developments. Because the new housing stock is so heavily loaded with CIDs, low interest rates are tantamount to federal promotion of more CID housing, albeit unintentionally.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Diaperless Babies Seen As Earth-Friendly Solution -- 04/22/2004
"There is a way to have a baby and NOT use diapers," says one website advocating diaperless babies. Parents are urged to get in tune with their infant's body signals and hold babies over toilets, buckets and shrubbery or any other convenient receptacle when nature calls.
No, thank you. Please go away. Live in a forest and let your kids poop outdoors if you like, but you are herewith banished from public discourse for life. I have put this to a vote. Isabel, age 6, says, "That's crazy." Conor, age 6, says, "It's insane."
"There is a way to have a baby and NOT use diapers," says one website advocating diaperless babies. Parents are urged to get in tune with their infant's body signals and hold babies over toilets, buckets and shrubbery or any other convenient receptacle when nature calls.
No, thank you. Please go away. Live in a forest and let your kids poop outdoors if you like, but you are herewith banished from public discourse for life. I have put this to a vote. Isabel, age 6, says, "That's crazy." Conor, age 6, says, "It's insane."
County hires cougar ace
OK, now this is more like it. Privatization in action--government contracts out the service to a professional. No point in having the Health Department employees try to do something they can't. Especially when they could get eaten.
A Fox Lake man with dogs that are used to track large game in Wisconsin has been hired by the Lake County Health Department to be on call in case authorities receive a bona fide cougar sighting... Wayne Russell has used his dogs to track bobcats, wild boar, bears and raccoons in Wisconsin. The Health Department said his dogs are able to track a scent as old as 12 hours depending on the conditions. "Our goal is to trap the cougar, but we'd like to avoid killing it if at all possible," said Dale Galassie, executive director of the Health Department. The plan is to have the dogs run the cougar up a tree, which is what would happen in a real hunt, and then an animal control officer would tranquilize it, using a dart gun. The animal then would be tranported to a Wisconsin sanctuary for cougars.
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But don't tell the cougar. This won't work unless it's a surprise.
OK, now this is more like it. Privatization in action--government contracts out the service to a professional. No point in having the Health Department employees try to do something they can't. Especially when they could get eaten.
A Fox Lake man with dogs that are used to track large game in Wisconsin has been hired by the Lake County Health Department to be on call in case authorities receive a bona fide cougar sighting... Wayne Russell has used his dogs to track bobcats, wild boar, bears and raccoons in Wisconsin. The Health Department said his dogs are able to track a scent as old as 12 hours depending on the conditions. "Our goal is to trap the cougar, but we'd like to avoid killing it if at all possible," said Dale Galassie, executive director of the Health Department. The plan is to have the dogs run the cougar up a tree, which is what would happen in a real hunt, and then an animal control officer would tranquilize it, using a dart gun. The animal then would be tranported to a Wisconsin sanctuary for cougars.
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But don't tell the cougar. This won't work unless it's a surprise.
Quebec man dies after he forgets health card and is forced to return home
Advocates of the single-payer approach are fond of pointing out incidents like this when they happen in the US, which they don't much anymore. Now here's one in the land of single-payer bliss. Go figure.
Advocates of the single-payer approach are fond of pointing out incidents like this when they happen in the US, which they don't much anymore. Now here's one in the land of single-payer bliss. Go figure.
Arizona: Landowners thirst for fair play by HOA
Thanks to Fred Pilot for telling me where to find this story. There's a controversy playing out in AZ now over the announcement (I haven't seen it, but people are claiming it happened) that an attorney who was involved in a water dispute involving an HOA will now be running for city council. Seems that the HOA he represented shut off the water supply to some homes where the residents therein said they didn't belong to the HOA, but the HOA said they did. Here is a link to an article about the water dispute from May 25. HOA activists may be organizing opposition to his campaign.
It was, they thought, paradise. Until the letter arrived from attorney Augustus H. Shaw IV, who noted that there is "some uncertainty regarding whether you are a member of the Association." After laying out all the benefits of joining, Shaw dropped the bomb: "Please be aware that if you choose not to join the Association or it is determined that you are not a Member of the Association, you will not be entitled to the privilege of receiving Association provided water service." Three months later, on a 106-degree September day, the Saguaro View Homeowners Association cut off not only the Baynes' water but also that of their neighbor, a man whose family was living on the land long before Saguaro View ever devised a single covenant, condition or restriction.
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Arizona in the summer? 106 degrees Fahrenheit? No water? That's serious business. There have been a few of these cases where an HOA essentially drafted people into the development and required them to pay assessments and obey rules. These are difficult disputes to compromise, particulary if the owners say they have never been in any association but the newly-drawn property lines somehow include them, and the association is delivering some sevice--in this case, water--to the homes in question. As for the lawyer, it will be interesting to see if the HOA activists are able to influence the vote.
Thanks to Fred Pilot for telling me where to find this story. There's a controversy playing out in AZ now over the announcement (I haven't seen it, but people are claiming it happened) that an attorney who was involved in a water dispute involving an HOA will now be running for city council. Seems that the HOA he represented shut off the water supply to some homes where the residents therein said they didn't belong to the HOA, but the HOA said they did. Here is a link to an article about the water dispute from May 25. HOA activists may be organizing opposition to his campaign.
It was, they thought, paradise. Until the letter arrived from attorney Augustus H. Shaw IV, who noted that there is "some uncertainty regarding whether you are a member of the Association." After laying out all the benefits of joining, Shaw dropped the bomb: "Please be aware that if you choose not to join the Association or it is determined that you are not a Member of the Association, you will not be entitled to the privilege of receiving Association provided water service." Three months later, on a 106-degree September day, the Saguaro View Homeowners Association cut off not only the Baynes' water but also that of their neighbor, a man whose family was living on the land long before Saguaro View ever devised a single covenant, condition or restriction.
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Arizona in the summer? 106 degrees Fahrenheit? No water? That's serious business. There have been a few of these cases where an HOA essentially drafted people into the development and required them to pay assessments and obey rules. These are difficult disputes to compromise, particulary if the owners say they have never been in any association but the newly-drawn property lines somehow include them, and the association is delivering some sevice--in this case, water--to the homes in question. As for the lawyer, it will be interesting to see if the HOA activists are able to influence the vote.
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Mountain Lion Attacks On People in the U.S. and Canada
From 1991 through 2003, there were 73 mountain lion attacks on people, with 10 fatalities. No wonder they cancelled my daughter's soccer game.
From 1991 through 2003, there were 73 mountain lion attacks on people, with 10 fatalities. No wonder they cancelled my daughter's soccer game.
If you meet a mountain lion...: "Stay calm if you come upon a lion. Talk calmly yet firmly to it. Move slowly. Stop or back away slowly. Do not run. Raise you arms to appear larger. If the lion behaves aggressively, throw stones, branches, or whatever you can get your hands on. Without crouching down or turning your back. Fight back if a lion attacks you. Lions have been driven away by prey that fights back."
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This is advice from the Colorado Divison of Wildlife. I like the "stay calm" part. And we humans, having now been disarmed by government, are now advised by government to throw stones or branches at a 150 predatory cat if it charges. What are we, a bunch of chimpanzees? Thanks for nothing.
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This is advice from the Colorado Divison of Wildlife. I like the "stay calm" part. And we humans, having now been disarmed by government, are now advised by government to throw stones or branches at a 150 predatory cat if it charges. What are we, a bunch of chimpanzees? Thanks for nothing.
$200,000 neighborhood dispute | The Arizona Daily Star ?
Here's a story about Mika Sadai's lawsuit against her HOA. She is one of the leading Arizona activists. There's a photo of her, and on the left you will see a copy of...Privatopia.
A Casas Adobes woman has spent six years - and may have to pay a half-million dollars - fighting her homeowners association in court.
She thinks "HOAs" are so tyrannical she's also taken her fight to the Legislature, where she authored a bill to make it easier to sue them. The governor signed it into law last week, allowing individual homeowners to file suit against an association without support from other neighbors. Mika Sadai, 54, who owns eight homes in the neighborhood, has already racked up $200,000 to hire lawyers to fight the Casas Adobes Terrace Homeowners Association - and her neighbors - over disputes including board control issues and annual fees. And with a judge considering dismissing the case, Sadai could be ordered to pay another $300,000 or so in legal fees to the defendants' lawyers.
Here's a story about Mika Sadai's lawsuit against her HOA. She is one of the leading Arizona activists. There's a photo of her, and on the left you will see a copy of...Privatopia.
A Casas Adobes woman has spent six years - and may have to pay a half-million dollars - fighting her homeowners association in court.
She thinks "HOAs" are so tyrannical she's also taken her fight to the Legislature, where she authored a bill to make it easier to sue them. The governor signed it into law last week, allowing individual homeowners to file suit against an association without support from other neighbors. Mika Sadai, 54, who owns eight homes in the neighborhood, has already racked up $200,000 to hire lawyers to fight the Casas Adobes Terrace Homeowners Association - and her neighbors - over disputes including board control issues and annual fees. And with a judge considering dismissing the case, Sadai could be ordered to pay another $300,000 or so in legal fees to the defendants' lawyers.
Everett Business Journal - The condominium conundrum
Here's an article from a Washington state business publication that deals with the high cost of builder's liability insurance due to construction defect suits by HOAs. That's not why I posted it. My eyes happened to hit on this paragraph:
"For Snohomish County, the problem is particularly acute, since most of the
county requires all residential tract development, not just condominiums, to
establish a homeowner’s association. That means a broader range of housing
falls under the jurisdiction of the Condominium Act’s implied warranty
provision."
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So you see that it isn't just California, Florida, and the rest of the Sun Belt where municipalities are requiring HOAs. Even in Snohomish County, Washington, they are doing it.
Here's an article from a Washington state business publication that deals with the high cost of builder's liability insurance due to construction defect suits by HOAs. That's not why I posted it. My eyes happened to hit on this paragraph:
"For Snohomish County, the problem is particularly acute, since most of the
county requires all residential tract development, not just condominiums, to
establish a homeowner’s association. That means a broader range of housing
falls under the jurisdiction of the Condominium Act’s implied warranty
provision."
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So you see that it isn't just California, Florida, and the rest of the Sun Belt where municipalities are requiring HOAs. Even in Snohomish County, Washington, they are doing it.
County issues cougar warning...gee, thanks.
I feel so much safer now. The Lake County Health Department is on the case, armed with tranquilizer guns. Maybe they can threaten it with a series of rabies shots. Personally I's prefer a grizzled old lion hunter from Colorado with a .270 Winchester and a pack of hounds. A dart gun filled with sleepy juice may work fine with the occasional raccoon or badger, but I don't think anybody will be getting close enough to this cat for such antics. Zane Grey wrote a book called "The Lion Hunter" that I read when I was a kid. Out west they used dogs to tree the cat, then they shot it out of the tree. Maybe not too sporting, but cougars are fast, stealthy, and very dangerous.
"The mystery regarding what is believed to be a cougar in the Antioch area intensified Friday as the Lake County Health Department issued a rare safety alert to residents and schools. "We've gotten so many calls, it seems highly likely there is a cougar out there," said Leslie Piotrowski, spokeswoman for the department.
Residents were told to keep their cats indoors and not walk alone in wooded areas, among other warnings."
I feel so much safer now. The Lake County Health Department is on the case, armed with tranquilizer guns. Maybe they can threaten it with a series of rabies shots. Personally I's prefer a grizzled old lion hunter from Colorado with a .270 Winchester and a pack of hounds. A dart gun filled with sleepy juice may work fine with the occasional raccoon or badger, but I don't think anybody will be getting close enough to this cat for such antics. Zane Grey wrote a book called "The Lion Hunter" that I read when I was a kid. Out west they used dogs to tree the cat, then they shot it out of the tree. Maybe not too sporting, but cougars are fast, stealthy, and very dangerous.
"The mystery regarding what is believed to be a cougar in the Antioch area intensified Friday as the Lake County Health Department issued a rare safety alert to residents and schools. "We've gotten so many calls, it seems highly likely there is a cougar out there," said Leslie Piotrowski, spokeswoman for the department.
Residents were told to keep their cats indoors and not walk alone in wooded areas, among other warnings."
Daily Herald: Big cat news spreading to Antioch
More on the cougar. Keeping kids inside during recess, sending notes home from school, three mores sightings in Antioch, another in Libertyville--this thing gets around. But it looks like we have the A Team on the job:
The Wilmses enlisted Ron Flug, Lake County's master hunter safety instructor, to set live traps in the hopes of snaring what is described as an extremely secretive animal. Flug, who had a 44-magnum on his hip, spent the day in the brush tracking the animal. He found traces of geese and other animals the cougar apparently has been feeding on."He's got a food source here, a good food source. I don't think he'll move on any time soon," said Flug, a former expert marksman in the Navy."
More on the cougar. Keeping kids inside during recess, sending notes home from school, three mores sightings in Antioch, another in Libertyville--this thing gets around. But it looks like we have the A Team on the job:
The Wilmses enlisted Ron Flug, Lake County's master hunter safety instructor, to set live traps in the hopes of snaring what is described as an extremely secretive animal. Flug, who had a 44-magnum on his hip, spent the day in the brush tracking the animal. He found traces of geese and other animals the cougar apparently has been feeding on."He's got a food source here, a good food source. I don't think he'll move on any time soon," said Flug, a former expert marksman in the Navy."
Chicago Tribune | Cougar sightings puzzle officials
Thought I'd bring you all up to date on events in my neck of the woods--far north Lake County, Illinois, a few miles south of the Wisconsin border. My daughter's soccer game was cancelled this morning because somebody saw the cougar near the park yesterday. This is like "Jaws," but dry. What we need is a posse.
"The closest Patti Klodzinski had come to cougars was through binoculars in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. But that changed recently. The Antioch resident said she spotted one of the large cats near her back porch. "I had this almost primal fear," Klodzinski, 36, a mother of four, said Thursday. "I knew it wasn't a dog--it just kept prowling." There has been a flurry of calls--five since last week--about cougar sightings in Lake County."
Thought I'd bring you all up to date on events in my neck of the woods--far north Lake County, Illinois, a few miles south of the Wisconsin border. My daughter's soccer game was cancelled this morning because somebody saw the cougar near the park yesterday. This is like "Jaws," but dry. What we need is a posse.
"The closest Patti Klodzinski had come to cougars was through binoculars in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. But that changed recently. The Antioch resident said she spotted one of the large cats near her back porch. "I had this almost primal fear," Klodzinski, 36, a mother of four, said Thursday. "I knew it wasn't a dog--it just kept prowling." There has been a flurry of calls--five since last week--about cougar sightings in Lake County."
Friday, April 23, 2004
Surf City Condos' Status Is Illegal
"Dozens of Huntington Beach apartments have been illegally converted to condominiums in recent years, according to city officials, who say sellers could face criminal charges and unwitting buyers will have to pay more than $7,000 each in back fees...The owners of the suspect properties, who probably were unaware that they bought former apartments without the required city permits and approvals for the conversion, will be notified by mail in May, McGrath said. City officials will hold a community meeting several weeks later to answer questions and tell condo owners how to make their homes legal. To help the homeowners, she said, the city is taking steps including possible changes to the zoning code that would permit "most, if not all" of the properties to meet the code. "The way it's written right now, they can't," she said.The owners, however, will have to pay more than $7,000 in city permit fees in a lump sum."
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Ouch. I like the part about how the city is going to "help the homeowners." Right.
"Dozens of Huntington Beach apartments have been illegally converted to condominiums in recent years, according to city officials, who say sellers could face criminal charges and unwitting buyers will have to pay more than $7,000 each in back fees...The owners of the suspect properties, who probably were unaware that they bought former apartments without the required city permits and approvals for the conversion, will be notified by mail in May, McGrath said. City officials will hold a community meeting several weeks later to answer questions and tell condo owners how to make their homes legal. To help the homeowners, she said, the city is taking steps including possible changes to the zoning code that would permit "most, if not all" of the properties to meet the code. "The way it's written right now, they can't," she said.The owners, however, will have to pay more than $7,000 in city permit fees in a lump sum."
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Ouch. I like the part about how the city is going to "help the homeowners." Right.
Study shows voucher programs improve public schools
Here is a study by Harvard economics professor Caroline M. Hoxby titled "School choice and school competition: Evidence from the United States," that says "public schools do respond constructively to competition, by raising their achievementa nd productivity." Also, "students' achievement generally does rise when they attend voucher or charter schools," and "not only do currently enacted voucher and charter school programs not cream-skim; they disproportionately attract students who were performing badly in their regular public schools."
The experiments with school vouchers could turn out to be a major event. With many big-city public school systems being nothing more than horribly expensive, dangerous, and educationally-bankrupt holding tanks, and getting worse every day, this approach is at least worth trying. If evidence is coming in showing that the experiment may be good for private and public schools, it is a good thing all around. But watch for the teachers' unions and the schools of education to freak out over this study anyway.
Here is a study by Harvard economics professor Caroline M. Hoxby titled "School choice and school competition: Evidence from the United States," that says "public schools do respond constructively to competition, by raising their achievementa nd productivity." Also, "students' achievement generally does rise when they attend voucher or charter schools," and "not only do currently enacted voucher and charter school programs not cream-skim; they disproportionately attract students who were performing badly in their regular public schools."
The experiments with school vouchers could turn out to be a major event. With many big-city public school systems being nothing more than horribly expensive, dangerous, and educationally-bankrupt holding tanks, and getting worse every day, this approach is at least worth trying. If evidence is coming in showing that the experiment may be good for private and public schools, it is a good thing all around. But watch for the teachers' unions and the schools of education to freak out over this study anyway.
Way That Grades Are Set Is a Mark Against Professors
The grade inflation situation is so bad that even though it has nothing to do with my ordinary topics I have to post it. After all, I'm a university professor. Hey, nobody is perfect.
"• In 1966 at Harvard, 22% of all grades were A's; in 2003, 46% of all grades were A's. Similarly, a UCLA study reports that in 1968, 22% of all grades at 18 colleges and universities were A's, but by 2002 that percentage had risen to 47%.
• A recent Princeton University study reports that between 44% and 55% of all grades at the Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago are A's today.
• Less than 10% of all grades given out at Duke University are Cs, according to an article by Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer; in 1969, more than 25% were."
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This is from a Los Angeles Times commentary piece by Roger Arnold, an economics professor at Cal State San Marcos. It is worth reading in its entirety.
The grade inflation situation is so bad that even though it has nothing to do with my ordinary topics I have to post it. After all, I'm a university professor. Hey, nobody is perfect.
"• In 1966 at Harvard, 22% of all grades were A's; in 2003, 46% of all grades were A's. Similarly, a UCLA study reports that in 1968, 22% of all grades at 18 colleges and universities were A's, but by 2002 that percentage had risen to 47%.
• A recent Princeton University study reports that between 44% and 55% of all grades at the Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago are A's today.
• Less than 10% of all grades given out at Duke University are Cs, according to an article by Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer; in 1969, more than 25% were."
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This is from a Los Angeles Times commentary piece by Roger Arnold, an economics professor at Cal State San Marcos. It is worth reading in its entirety.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
'Rocketman' takes wing - SpecialsStrangeButTrue - www.smh.com.au
The ultimate privatization of flight is having your own rocket belt. They promised us this in the 1950s, remember? Well here it is, and it's too cool not to post. The photo is great. He has a costume and everything. All he needs is a ray gun. I want one of these getups.
"Rocketman Eric Scott shot 46 metres into the air in London and promptly claimed a world record. Scott, 41, from Dallas, Texas, donned his red and white jumpsuit and zoomed into the north London sky in his bid to achieve the highest human elevation using a Rocketbelt. His feat, which saw him reach the equivalent height of a 12-storey building, lasted just 26 seconds but allowed enough time for a couple of pirouettes."
The ultimate privatization of flight is having your own rocket belt. They promised us this in the 1950s, remember? Well here it is, and it's too cool not to post. The photo is great. He has a costume and everything. All he needs is a ray gun. I want one of these getups.
"Rocketman Eric Scott shot 46 metres into the air in London and promptly claimed a world record. Scott, 41, from Dallas, Texas, donned his red and white jumpsuit and zoomed into the north London sky in his bid to achieve the highest human elevation using a Rocketbelt. His feat, which saw him reach the equivalent height of a 12-storey building, lasted just 26 seconds but allowed enough time for a couple of pirouettes."
Chicago Tribune | Lawyers urged to `play nice'
I think stories like this are amusing. Imagine--asking lawyers to be "nice." Do you want a "nice" lawyer? But civility is now...
"...an issue being addressed by the Special Supreme Court Committee on Professionalism. "It's the subtle acts of incivility and unprofessionalism to the attorneys, the judges and to clients that we are trying to identify and do something about," said David Rolewick, a Wheaton attorney who is chairman of the committee.""
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Seriously, I think the decline in civility is a major problem, especially in civil litigation where you have depositions and other discovery procedures that are done without a judge present.
I think stories like this are amusing. Imagine--asking lawyers to be "nice." Do you want a "nice" lawyer? But civility is now...
"...an issue being addressed by the Special Supreme Court Committee on Professionalism. "It's the subtle acts of incivility and unprofessionalism to the attorneys, the judges and to clients that we are trying to identify and do something about," said David Rolewick, a Wheaton attorney who is chairman of the committee.""
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Seriously, I think the decline in civility is a major problem, especially in civil litigation where you have depositions and other discovery procedures that are done without a judge present.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Yahoo! News - Judges Declare War on Pet Pests
Two questions: 1) is the "ritzy development" an HOA? and 2) do the judges live in gated communties? Just asking:
"Irked by a profusion of pet excrement on the small lawn of the federal courthouse in downtown Austin, U.S. District Judges Sam Sparks and Lee Yeakel issued an order on Thursday: "Any person who authorizes or permits any animal to relieve itself on the grass or grounds of the United States Courthouse shall be subject to citation, fine, and/or arrest effective from this date... "Too many individuals had permitted their pets to relieve themselves on the grass and grounds," the order said. The courthouse neighbors a ritzy loft development, and the dog owners who live there are the apparent targets of the order. The courthouse has the only grass in the immediate area."
Two questions: 1) is the "ritzy development" an HOA? and 2) do the judges live in gated communties? Just asking:
"Irked by a profusion of pet excrement on the small lawn of the federal courthouse in downtown Austin, U.S. District Judges Sam Sparks and Lee Yeakel issued an order on Thursday: "Any person who authorizes or permits any animal to relieve itself on the grass or grounds of the United States Courthouse shall be subject to citation, fine, and/or arrest effective from this date... "Too many individuals had permitted their pets to relieve themselves on the grass and grounds," the order said. The courthouse neighbors a ritzy loft development, and the dog owners who live there are the apparent targets of the order. The courthouse has the only grass in the immediate area."
Monday, April 19, 2004
The Advocate - Finance board member sued over plan for new home
Here's the old "waiver and estoppel" argument in a complex factual situation with an old association. Cases like this are tough. If the HOA gives anybody a break, then somebody comes along and says "me too," arguing that the rule is no longer enforceable against anybody. To avoid claims like this, attorneys sometimes advise BODs to never make any exceptions. That often leads to silly and oppressive enforcement practices that end up in the press. Personally, I think boards should be able to waive rules or make common sense exceptions without losing the ability to enforce it later. But that requires courts to do case-by-case analysis that can go either way...
And one the question of building a new home on an old lot, should the old covenants still govern?
"Rubino, an attorney, said the set-back requirements should not matter because his house, built in 1949, is out of compliance now. "Right now, my house is in violation," he said. "It was built in violation . . . as were several other houses." The association has a history of letting the rules slide, he said. "They have allowed so many people to violate the restrictive covenants, they can't enforce them on me," he said. "You can't selectively enforce these restrictive covenants." Among the violators, Rubino said, is [the] association President...
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...and if so, that never looks good, does it?
Here's the old "waiver and estoppel" argument in a complex factual situation with an old association. Cases like this are tough. If the HOA gives anybody a break, then somebody comes along and says "me too," arguing that the rule is no longer enforceable against anybody. To avoid claims like this, attorneys sometimes advise BODs to never make any exceptions. That often leads to silly and oppressive enforcement practices that end up in the press. Personally, I think boards should be able to waive rules or make common sense exceptions without losing the ability to enforce it later. But that requires courts to do case-by-case analysis that can go either way...
And one the question of building a new home on an old lot, should the old covenants still govern?
"Rubino, an attorney, said the set-back requirements should not matter because his house, built in 1949, is out of compliance now. "Right now, my house is in violation," he said. "It was built in violation . . . as were several other houses." The association has a history of letting the rules slide, he said. "They have allowed so many people to violate the restrictive covenants, they can't enforce them on me," he said. "You can't selectively enforce these restrictive covenants." Among the violators, Rubino said, is [the] association President...
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...and if so, that never looks good, does it?
sacbee.com -- Politics -- Couple's plight raises questions
Here is another take on the famous Radcliffe foreclosure that includes a detailed account of how foreclosure sales work. Some will find it controversial because it seems to suggest that owners are often to blame for the foreclosure. Most scheduled foreclosures don't happen, the article says, because the owners pay up and avoid it, or they sell the house. For the few foreclosures that actually occur, the article says, the owners are often "irrational" and even "clueless" about the foreclosure process, so they end up losing a home, sometime with lots of equity, for a small amount of assessments, costs, and attorney fees. The article ends up talking about legislative reform being considered in California. Anyway, here's some of the text:
"Every few years, a story comes along that is similar to that of the Radcliffs: a home built or bought with very little or no mortgage, an illness or other personal problem that distracts the homeowner, an association that begins foreclosure for a trivial debt and a speculator who apparently snags a big profit. Homeowner advocates and some state lawmakers say the association foreclosure process is out of control. They say it defies reason that homeowners associations can foreclose for such small sums, robbing homeowners of thousands of dollars in equity...But homeowners associations say that without the power to foreclose they would need to dip into reserves to make up for residents who don't pay - and that they still could face insolvency. They say notification requirements ensure that homeowners know they are being foreclosed on and that only extraordinary cases lead to foreclosure, demonstrating that the system works. The sales are rare in part because it's almost never in a homeowner's interest to have the property sold at auction. If there's a dispute over debt, experts say, pay it and sue. If you can't afford to pay, file for bankruptcy - or sell the home on the open market. Either way, foreclosure is put off..."
Here is another take on the famous Radcliffe foreclosure that includes a detailed account of how foreclosure sales work. Some will find it controversial because it seems to suggest that owners are often to blame for the foreclosure. Most scheduled foreclosures don't happen, the article says, because the owners pay up and avoid it, or they sell the house. For the few foreclosures that actually occur, the article says, the owners are often "irrational" and even "clueless" about the foreclosure process, so they end up losing a home, sometime with lots of equity, for a small amount of assessments, costs, and attorney fees. The article ends up talking about legislative reform being considered in California. Anyway, here's some of the text:
"Every few years, a story comes along that is similar to that of the Radcliffs: a home built or bought with very little or no mortgage, an illness or other personal problem that distracts the homeowner, an association that begins foreclosure for a trivial debt and a speculator who apparently snags a big profit. Homeowner advocates and some state lawmakers say the association foreclosure process is out of control. They say it defies reason that homeowners associations can foreclose for such small sums, robbing homeowners of thousands of dollars in equity...But homeowners associations say that without the power to foreclose they would need to dip into reserves to make up for residents who don't pay - and that they still could face insolvency. They say notification requirements ensure that homeowners know they are being foreclosed on and that only extraordinary cases lead to foreclosure, demonstrating that the system works. The sales are rare in part because it's almost never in a homeowner's interest to have the property sold at auction. If there's a dispute over debt, experts say, pay it and sue. If you can't afford to pay, file for bankruptcy - or sell the home on the open market. Either way, foreclosure is put off..."
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Realty Times - Raising Cash Without Homeowner Association Assessments
"Instead of yet another assessment levied against home owners, how about a pancake breakfast bash, a rummage sale or selling ads in the homeowner association newsletter to come up with the money to replace that outdated roof on your condo development?"
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The article is about a 1999 book by CAI called "Increase Income, not Assessments." The article also mentions holding a car wash, setting up a service bureau, offering your development as a movie set, auctions, bingo, and renting parking places, etc.
I was wondering who exactly is supposed to have the time and energy to do all this car washing and cookie baking, considering that the HOA directors and committee members are volunteers who presumably have lives of their own. I wonder, if people won't make cookies for the bake sale, can you foreclose on them? Maybe I'll have to read the book to find out.
UPDATE:
Fred Pilot has sent the following correction to Broderick Perkins, author of the Realty Times article linked and quoted above:
"This quote was attributed to me in your story at
http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/19991216_assessments.htm
"I would expect an HOA's non-profit corporation charter could be jeopardized if the HOA's primary activity and source of income is business ventures designed to produce profits," said Frederick L. Pilot, president of the Sacramento, CA-based Common Interest Consumer Project.
It's not mine. Apparently you intended to quote Nancy Bianconi who is cited the the graf immediately preceding the quote attributed to me. Also, FYI the Common Interest Consumer Project was dissolved more than two years ago and the link you have for it above is dead."
"Instead of yet another assessment levied against home owners, how about a pancake breakfast bash, a rummage sale or selling ads in the homeowner association newsletter to come up with the money to replace that outdated roof on your condo development?"
----------------
The article is about a 1999 book by CAI called "Increase Income, not Assessments." The article also mentions holding a car wash, setting up a service bureau, offering your development as a movie set, auctions, bingo, and renting parking places, etc.
I was wondering who exactly is supposed to have the time and energy to do all this car washing and cookie baking, considering that the HOA directors and committee members are volunteers who presumably have lives of their own. I wonder, if people won't make cookies for the bake sale, can you foreclose on them? Maybe I'll have to read the book to find out.
UPDATE:
Fred Pilot has sent the following correction to Broderick Perkins, author of the Realty Times article linked and quoted above:
"This quote was attributed to me in your story at
http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/19991216_assessments.htm
"I would expect an HOA's non-profit corporation charter could be jeopardized if the HOA's primary activity and source of income is business ventures designed to produce profits," said Frederick L. Pilot, president of the Sacramento, CA-based Common Interest Consumer Project.
It's not mine. Apparently you intended to quote Nancy Bianconi who is cited the the graf immediately preceding the quote attributed to me. Also, FYI the Common Interest Consumer Project was dissolved more than two years ago and the link you have for it above is dead."
Weblog 101
Judging by the e-mail I'm getting, some people are easily confused by the format of a weblog and don't seem to understand how to read one. This is a new way of doing things, so let me explain a few things.
When you pass your cursor over a block of text and it lights up, that is a hyperlink, or just "link" for short. The link takes you to another file somewhere on the internet. Almost all my posts have hyperlinks. Many of them are links to on-line newspapers, like the internet version of the Los Angeles Times. The words "the Los Angeles Times" are a hyperlink. Click it if you don't understand what I just wrote. These links are the equivalent of citations in a printed publication because they are references, in this case electronic ones, to the full text of some other publication.
Often I make the header of the article the hyperlink. This is easy to do because Blogger (where this site is hosted) has a shortcut for that. Typically I put an excerpt from the article in italics, usually with quotation marks around it. The point is to get people to click the link and read the whole article.
Sometimes I put my own comments before and/or after the article in non-italic text. I use bold text throughout, in block quotations or my own comments, to highlight things that I think are especially important. If I have material in quotation marks in my comments on an article I have linked, the quoted material comes from the article I linked. I thought this was incredibly obvious, but in a post below (that I have now edited to fix this problem) I included a four-word quotation from an article I linked. I thought it was obvious that I was passing along a short quotation from the article. Some people didn't understand that, I guess. I cited the article by linking to the entire piece. I will have to be more explicit about this in the future. Live and learn.
But this points up a problem with the internet. Information gets cut and pasted and passed around so fast that people can circulate a rumor, a misunderstanding, or any other kind of misinformation with light speed. In the time it once took to write and mail a single letter, a group of overwrought and hypersensitive people e-mail misinformation back and forth, reacting to it over and over, and ultimately they all reach escape velocity over nothing at all. Remember the Y2K panic? People spent a gazillion dollars freaking out over that and it was a big fat nothing.
Maybe now there is such a thing as too much communication--at least, more than some people can handle given their propensity to overreact.
So, that's the way it works. Perhaps anybody who still doesn't understand should trot down to the local community college and take a course on how to use the internet. Or maybe get off the web entirely and spend all that spare time watching QVC.
Judging by the e-mail I'm getting, some people are easily confused by the format of a weblog and don't seem to understand how to read one. This is a new way of doing things, so let me explain a few things.
When you pass your cursor over a block of text and it lights up, that is a hyperlink, or just "link" for short. The link takes you to another file somewhere on the internet. Almost all my posts have hyperlinks. Many of them are links to on-line newspapers, like the internet version of the Los Angeles Times. The words "the Los Angeles Times" are a hyperlink. Click it if you don't understand what I just wrote. These links are the equivalent of citations in a printed publication because they are references, in this case electronic ones, to the full text of some other publication.
Often I make the header of the article the hyperlink. This is easy to do because Blogger (where this site is hosted) has a shortcut for that. Typically I put an excerpt from the article in italics, usually with quotation marks around it. The point is to get people to click the link and read the whole article.
Sometimes I put my own comments before and/or after the article in non-italic text. I use bold text throughout, in block quotations or my own comments, to highlight things that I think are especially important. If I have material in quotation marks in my comments on an article I have linked, the quoted material comes from the article I linked. I thought this was incredibly obvious, but in a post below (that I have now edited to fix this problem) I included a four-word quotation from an article I linked. I thought it was obvious that I was passing along a short quotation from the article. Some people didn't understand that, I guess. I cited the article by linking to the entire piece. I will have to be more explicit about this in the future. Live and learn.
But this points up a problem with the internet. Information gets cut and pasted and passed around so fast that people can circulate a rumor, a misunderstanding, or any other kind of misinformation with light speed. In the time it once took to write and mail a single letter, a group of overwrought and hypersensitive people e-mail misinformation back and forth, reacting to it over and over, and ultimately they all reach escape velocity over nothing at all. Remember the Y2K panic? People spent a gazillion dollars freaking out over that and it was a big fat nothing.
Maybe now there is such a thing as too much communication--at least, more than some people can handle given their propensity to overreact.
So, that's the way it works. Perhaps anybody who still doesn't understand should trot down to the local community college and take a course on how to use the internet. Or maybe get off the web entirely and spend all that spare time watching QVC.
Las Vegas SUN: Some associations targeting fake turf
Seems to me that people who live in a desert ought to think about conserving water instead of punishing people who save hundreds of gallons per year by installing artificial turf.
"When Kevin Peltier had synthetic turf professionally installed in the front lawn of his Summerlin home, he felt that he was helping to preserve the desert's most precious commodity: water. But two days after the turf was installed, Peltier received a letter from the Summerlin North Community Association that stated the synthetic lawn was "an unapproved condition" and must be removed immediately...
"The controversy is not limited to Summerlin, according to Eldon Hardy, the state ombudsman for common interest communities. His office gets complaints from all over the Las Vegas Valley from homeowners who have been told to take out their artificial turf.
"I'm a little frustrated with the attitude of some of the associations," Hardy said. "I could appreciate it if we weren't in a drought condition, where everybody could have real grass for nothing." Right now less than 10 percent of the 1,000 to 1,200 calls a month his office gets relate to artificial turf, he said, but he expects that to increase this summer, when heat and water restrictions provide a deadly mix to lawns. "I'm looking fearfully at how many complaints we will get this summer because people are going to be fined because their grass is brown and they're watering when they're allowed to," he said."
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Do I understand this correctly? If you water within the legal limits, you might end up with brown grass and get fined by your HOA for that? But if you install artificial turf you get fined for that? Catch 22?
We live in Lake County, Illinois, where most of the municipalities just dig wells and pump the groundwater to the residents. There's a lake across the street and a tiny stream running across our back yard from our sump pump and the neighbors'. We have more water than we need. But people are leaving Illinois for the Sun Belt, where there are concerns about drought already. I expect more water-related issues to come up in state and local politics in the years to come, and they could be serious.
Seems to me that people who live in a desert ought to think about conserving water instead of punishing people who save hundreds of gallons per year by installing artificial turf.
"When Kevin Peltier had synthetic turf professionally installed in the front lawn of his Summerlin home, he felt that he was helping to preserve the desert's most precious commodity: water. But two days after the turf was installed, Peltier received a letter from the Summerlin North Community Association that stated the synthetic lawn was "an unapproved condition" and must be removed immediately...
"The controversy is not limited to Summerlin, according to Eldon Hardy, the state ombudsman for common interest communities. His office gets complaints from all over the Las Vegas Valley from homeowners who have been told to take out their artificial turf.
"I'm a little frustrated with the attitude of some of the associations," Hardy said. "I could appreciate it if we weren't in a drought condition, where everybody could have real grass for nothing." Right now less than 10 percent of the 1,000 to 1,200 calls a month his office gets relate to artificial turf, he said, but he expects that to increase this summer, when heat and water restrictions provide a deadly mix to lawns. "I'm looking fearfully at how many complaints we will get this summer because people are going to be fined because their grass is brown and they're watering when they're allowed to," he said."
---------------------
Do I understand this correctly? If you water within the legal limits, you might end up with brown grass and get fined by your HOA for that? But if you install artificial turf you get fined for that? Catch 22?
We live in Lake County, Illinois, where most of the municipalities just dig wells and pump the groundwater to the residents. There's a lake across the street and a tiny stream running across our back yard from our sump pump and the neighbors'. We have more water than we need. But people are leaving Illinois for the Sun Belt, where there are concerns about drought already. I expect more water-related issues to come up in state and local politics in the years to come, and they could be serious.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
HoustonChronicle.com - Work nearly grinds to halt amid raid rumors
"Most days, teams of Latino immigrant workers swarm over the townhouses under construction near Gulfgate, filling the air with the buzz of power tools and orders shouted in Spanish. But the site was nearly silent Thursday. Instead of dozens of workers, there was just a handful, mostly Anglo contractors. Like dozens of work sites across greater Houston, construction at the Gulfgate site was nearly brought to a standstill because the immigrant workers had fled, likely after hearing rumors of government immigration raids."
The government denies there is any such crackdown planned. The rumor was spread through Spanish-language radio and eventually hit the TV, according to the article. This event does highlight the major role of illigal immigrant workers in the construction of new housing in the Sunbelt, most of which is in HOAs.
"Most days, teams of Latino immigrant workers swarm over the townhouses under construction near Gulfgate, filling the air with the buzz of power tools and orders shouted in Spanish. But the site was nearly silent Thursday. Instead of dozens of workers, there was just a handful, mostly Anglo contractors. Like dozens of work sites across greater Houston, construction at the Gulfgate site was nearly brought to a standstill because the immigrant workers had fled, likely after hearing rumors of government immigration raids."
The government denies there is any such crackdown planned. The rumor was spread through Spanish-language radio and eventually hit the TV, according to the article. This event does highlight the major role of illigal immigrant workers in the construction of new housing in the Sunbelt, most of which is in HOAs.
Iowa House advances citizen tax-vote measure
This is turning into an anti-taxation movement of sorts and bears watching.
DES MOINES (AP) - The Iowa House passed a resolution Friday that seeks a constitutional amendment requiring voter approval for future large tax increases. The resolution passed 48-40. A tax increase that surpasses 1 percent of the state's revenue in the previous year - currently about $44 million - would be subject to voter approval. Rep. Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said eight states now require a taxpayer vote to raise taxes. "Whose money is it? Is it ours or is it the taxpayers' - that is, the citizens of Iowa?" he asked. "I think it is theirs. This amendment is simple confirmation of that principle." Opponents said the amendment is an invitation for the state to raise fees to pay for government priorities because of the limit on raising taxes. The amendment also counts state funding cuts to local governments - ones that lead to a property tax increase - as a tax increase.
This is turning into an anti-taxation movement of sorts and bears watching.
DES MOINES (AP) - The Iowa House passed a resolution Friday that seeks a constitutional amendment requiring voter approval for future large tax increases. The resolution passed 48-40. A tax increase that surpasses 1 percent of the state's revenue in the previous year - currently about $44 million - would be subject to voter approval. Rep. Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said eight states now require a taxpayer vote to raise taxes. "Whose money is it? Is it ours or is it the taxpayers' - that is, the citizens of Iowa?" he asked. "I think it is theirs. This amendment is simple confirmation of that principle." Opponents said the amendment is an invitation for the state to raise fees to pay for government priorities because of the limit on raising taxes. The amendment also counts state funding cuts to local governments - ones that lead to a property tax increase - as a tax increase.
Friday, April 16, 2004
Volunteer to save California from toxic mold!
Now, this is what I call counting on a thousand points of light. The California legislature passes a law to protect the public against toxic mold, and the funding is supposed to come from voluntary contributions. As Dr. Evil would say, "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight."
SB 732 (Toxic Mold Protection Act of 2001)
Implementation Update
December 2003
Many people have contacted the California Department of Health Services (DHS) asking about the status of implementation of the Toxic Mold Protection Act of 2001 (SB 732). This statute, enacted January 1, 2002, charges DHS, assisted by a task force of volunteer stakeholders, to undertake a series of complex tasks. These include determining the feasibility of adopting permissible exposure limits for indoor molds and the development of new standards or guidelines to
· assess the health threat posed by the presence of indoor molds,
· determine valid methods for fungal sampling and identification,
· provide practical guidance for mold removal and abatement of water intrusion,
· disclose the presence of mold growth in real property at rental or sale, and
· assess the need for standards for mold assessment and remediation professionals.
However, the implementation of this statute depends on the provision of funding to accomplish these tasks.
Fund for voluntary contributions
The Public Health Protection from Indoor Mold Hazards Fund, authorized by AB 442 (budget trailer bill, 2002) has been established and is ready to accept contributions to help support DHS indoor mold-related activities, including, but not limited to, those mandated by SB 732. Donations can be made by sending a check payable to the California Department of Health Services (with notation for “Mold Fund”) to:
Michele Sabel
Environmental Health Investigations Branch
Department of Health Services
1515 Clay Street, Suite 1700
Oakland, CA 94612
Now, this is what I call counting on a thousand points of light. The California legislature passes a law to protect the public against toxic mold, and the funding is supposed to come from voluntary contributions. As Dr. Evil would say, "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight."
SB 732 (Toxic Mold Protection Act of 2001)
Implementation Update
December 2003
Many people have contacted the California Department of Health Services (DHS) asking about the status of implementation of the Toxic Mold Protection Act of 2001 (SB 732). This statute, enacted January 1, 2002, charges DHS, assisted by a task force of volunteer stakeholders, to undertake a series of complex tasks. These include determining the feasibility of adopting permissible exposure limits for indoor molds and the development of new standards or guidelines to
· assess the health threat posed by the presence of indoor molds,
· determine valid methods for fungal sampling and identification,
· provide practical guidance for mold removal and abatement of water intrusion,
· disclose the presence of mold growth in real property at rental or sale, and
· assess the need for standards for mold assessment and remediation professionals.
However, the implementation of this statute depends on the provision of funding to accomplish these tasks.
Fund for voluntary contributions
The Public Health Protection from Indoor Mold Hazards Fund, authorized by AB 442 (budget trailer bill, 2002) has been established and is ready to accept contributions to help support DHS indoor mold-related activities, including, but not limited to, those mandated by SB 732. Donations can be made by sending a check payable to the California Department of Health Services (with notation for “Mold Fund”) to:
Michele Sabel
Environmental Health Investigations Branch
Department of Health Services
1515 Clay Street, Suite 1700
Oakland, CA 94612
Arizona Senate OKs limiting HOA liens
This is the foreclosure bill that left the Government Committee last week and has now cleared the full Arizona Senate:
"This year’s most significant proposed reform for homeowners associations appears headed to the governor’s desk after the state Senate tentatively agreed Thursday to remove the power to foreclose on homes for unpaid fines. State lawmakers have been convinced by reform advocates that some HOAs abuse foreclosure by taking the home of someone who hasn’t paid fines for planting the wrong bushes or placing a trash can in the wrong place. But for the fourth straight year, lawmakers have rejected a proposal to restrict the use of liens and foreclosures on an HOA member who hasn’t paid association dues. HB2402 is one of a series of bills moving through the Legislature that are intended to scale back the power of HOA boards and management companies. Other proposals that appear to be headed to the governor or already have been signed would require annual audits and the release of additional association records and would block HOA rules that forbid political signs in front of homes. But Thursday’s vote goes to the heart of an HOA’s ability to enforce rules that can range from landscaping and parking to a house’s color palette. HB2402 still allows an HOA to place liens on a house for unpaid fines as well as legal costs incurred for trying to collect. But the HOA wouldn’t be allowed to use the lien to seize a home. Instead, the HOA might have to wait after the house is sold, when a lien must be paid from sale proceeds."
This "goes to the heart" language that I highlighted is pretty silly. Let's not get carried away. The cardiovascular analogy is better applied to the revenue stream, and the HOA can still foreclose over that. But this bill is an improvement. It is not a good situation if a BOD has the power to make a rule, cite you for violating it, find you guilty of the violation, sentence you to pay a fine, and foreclose on you if you don't pay. This is one stop shopping, complete with danger of abuse of power. Considering that the owners have no constitutional protections and there's no separation of powers, removing the power of the HOA to take your home for rule violations is an obvious and much needed reform in my opinion.
This is the foreclosure bill that left the Government Committee last week and has now cleared the full Arizona Senate:
"This year’s most significant proposed reform for homeowners associations appears headed to the governor’s desk after the state Senate tentatively agreed Thursday to remove the power to foreclose on homes for unpaid fines. State lawmakers have been convinced by reform advocates that some HOAs abuse foreclosure by taking the home of someone who hasn’t paid fines for planting the wrong bushes or placing a trash can in the wrong place. But for the fourth straight year, lawmakers have rejected a proposal to restrict the use of liens and foreclosures on an HOA member who hasn’t paid association dues. HB2402 is one of a series of bills moving through the Legislature that are intended to scale back the power of HOA boards and management companies. Other proposals that appear to be headed to the governor or already have been signed would require annual audits and the release of additional association records and would block HOA rules that forbid political signs in front of homes. But Thursday’s vote goes to the heart of an HOA’s ability to enforce rules that can range from landscaping and parking to a house’s color palette. HB2402 still allows an HOA to place liens on a house for unpaid fines as well as legal costs incurred for trying to collect. But the HOA wouldn’t be allowed to use the lien to seize a home. Instead, the HOA might have to wait after the house is sold, when a lien must be paid from sale proceeds."
This "goes to the heart" language that I highlighted is pretty silly. Let's not get carried away. The cardiovascular analogy is better applied to the revenue stream, and the HOA can still foreclose over that. But this bill is an improvement. It is not a good situation if a BOD has the power to make a rule, cite you for violating it, find you guilty of the violation, sentence you to pay a fine, and foreclose on you if you don't pay. This is one stop shopping, complete with danger of abuse of power. Considering that the owners have no constitutional protections and there's no separation of powers, removing the power of the HOA to take your home for rule violations is an obvious and much needed reform in my opinion.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Ban on 'Idiots and Lunatics' Sparks Electoral Row
Northern Ireland seems to have hit upon a solution to the basic problem with democracy. Maybe some HOAs might want to experiment with this:
Electoral chiefs in Northern Ireland were plunged into a row tonight over rules banning “idiots and lunatics” from voting.
Northern Ireland seems to have hit upon a solution to the basic problem with democracy. Maybe some HOAs might want to experiment with this:
Electoral chiefs in Northern Ireland were plunged into a row tonight over rules banning “idiots and lunatics” from voting.
Newfound World Shatters Distance Record
I just think this is cool:
Separate teams today announced the discoveries of three planets outside our solar system, including one that is more than three times farther away than the previous record holder. The planet and its host star are near the center of our Milky Way galaxy and about 17,000 light years away. Previously the most distant known planet was 5,000 light-years away. One of the newly spotted worlds and its host star are 17,000 light-years distant. They inhabit a crowded region of space toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The far-off planet is estimated to be about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter and presumed to be similarly gaseous. It orbits the star about three times farther than Earth is from the Sun, or 3 astronomical units (AU). Jupiter is 5.2 AU from the Sun. Its presence does not surprise astronomers, but they are thrilled to have developed a new technique that can locate such faraway objects.
I just think this is cool:
Separate teams today announced the discoveries of three planets outside our solar system, including one that is more than three times farther away than the previous record holder. The planet and its host star are near the center of our Milky Way galaxy and about 17,000 light years away. Previously the most distant known planet was 5,000 light-years away. One of the newly spotted worlds and its host star are 17,000 light-years distant. They inhabit a crowded region of space toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The far-off planet is estimated to be about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter and presumed to be similarly gaseous. It orbits the star about three times farther than Earth is from the Sun, or 3 astronomical units (AU). Jupiter is 5.2 AU from the Sun. Its presence does not surprise astronomers, but they are thrilled to have developed a new technique that can locate such faraway objects.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
MercoPress - Followup: Here's why the Rio de Janeiro government wants to turn the favelas into a gated community (see below)
"Rio Governor asks for 4.000 Special Forces.
After five full days of bloody fighting between drug gangs and police forces the governor of the Brazilian state of Rio do Janeiro Rosinha Matheus officially requested 4.000 Special Forces from the federal government to help combat organized crime in the city’s shanty towns, favelas."
"Rio Governor asks for 4.000 Special Forces.
After five full days of bloody fighting between drug gangs and police forces the governor of the Brazilian state of Rio do Janeiro Rosinha Matheus officially requested 4.000 Special Forces from the federal government to help combat organized crime in the city’s shanty towns, favelas."
SB1137, Arizona
This bill was signed by the Governor on April 12. I have linked to the House summary of the bill rather than the text because it is easier to understand the significance of the measure this way. As the summary says, "Current law requires that in order to challenge the validity of any corporate action, the corporation’s membership must obtain at least 10 per cent of the voting members or at least 50 members (unless fewer are provided for in the articles of incorporation). SB 1137 establishes a separate statutory provision applicable to HOAs that proposes to allow an HOA member to challenge the corporation’s power to act." In other words, now a single member of an HOA can challenge board decisions.
This bill was signed by the Governor on April 12. I have linked to the House summary of the bill rather than the text because it is easier to understand the significance of the measure this way. As the summary says, "Current law requires that in order to challenge the validity of any corporate action, the corporation’s membership must obtain at least 10 per cent of the voting members or at least 50 members (unless fewer are provided for in the articles of incorporation). SB 1137 establishes a separate statutory provision applicable to HOAs that proposes to allow an HOA member to challenge the corporation’s power to act." In other words, now a single member of an HOA can challenge board decisions.
The New York Times > National > Built With Steel, Perhaps, but Greased With Pork
Here's a great example of Paul Samuelson's theory about the problem with public goods. There is no check on oversupply. Put differently, there is just no adequate mechanism for the taxpayers to let the legislators know they don't want their money wasted on pork barrel projects like these. Bush is going to veto this bill, I think. Congress simply can't control its spending. They are like the serial killer who writes the note saying "Stop me before I kill again!" They keep adding on their own pet projects and then they logroll and vote for each others, and soon you have abominations like the highway bill.
KETCHIKAN, Alaska, April 8 — "Even by the standards of Alaska, the land where schemes and dreams come for new life, two bridges approved under the national highway bill passed by the House last week are monuments to the imagination. One, here in Ketchikan, would be among the biggest in the United States: a mile long, with a top clearance of 200 feet from the water — 80 feet higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and just 20 feet short of the Golden Gate Bridge. It would connect this economically depressed, rain-soaked town of 7,845 people to an island that has about 50 residents and the area's airport, which offers six flights a day (a few more in summer). It could cost about $200 million. The other bridge would span an inlet for nearly two miles to tie Anchorage to a port that has a single regular tenant and almost no homes or businesses. It would cost up to $2 billion. These "bridges to nowhere," as critics have dubbed the two costliest of the high-priority projects in the six-year, $275 billion House bill, are one reason Republicans are fighting among themselves in shaping the nation's transportation spending."
Here's a great example of Paul Samuelson's theory about the problem with public goods. There is no check on oversupply. Put differently, there is just no adequate mechanism for the taxpayers to let the legislators know they don't want their money wasted on pork barrel projects like these. Bush is going to veto this bill, I think. Congress simply can't control its spending. They are like the serial killer who writes the note saying "Stop me before I kill again!" They keep adding on their own pet projects and then they logroll and vote for each others, and soon you have abominations like the highway bill.
KETCHIKAN, Alaska, April 8 — "Even by the standards of Alaska, the land where schemes and dreams come for new life, two bridges approved under the national highway bill passed by the House last week are monuments to the imagination. One, here in Ketchikan, would be among the biggest in the United States: a mile long, with a top clearance of 200 feet from the water — 80 feet higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and just 20 feet short of the Golden Gate Bridge. It would connect this economically depressed, rain-soaked town of 7,845 people to an island that has about 50 residents and the area's airport, which offers six flights a day (a few more in summer). It could cost about $200 million. The other bridge would span an inlet for nearly two miles to tie Anchorage to a port that has a single regular tenant and almost no homes or businesses. It would cost up to $2 billion. These "bridges to nowhere," as critics have dubbed the two costliest of the high-priority projects in the six-year, $275 billion House bill, are one reason Republicans are fighting among themselves in shaping the nation's transportation spending."
Residents petition for safeguards against condo and homeowners associations
Cyber Citizens for Justice rally to demand changes in Florida law, including creation of an ombudsman office. Includes photos.
Cyber Citizens for Justice rally to demand changes in Florida law, including creation of an ombudsman office. Includes photos.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
AB 2610 Assembly Bill - AMENDED
Now there is some meat on the bones of AB 2610, the California bill that I referred to below when it was just a measly spot bill with no actual textual changes from existing law worth mentioning. But now, as I say, it is real piece of legislation. Go ye forth and read of it.
Now there is some meat on the bones of AB 2610, the California bill that I referred to below when it was just a measly spot bill with no actual textual changes from existing law worth mentioning. But now, as I say, it is real piece of legislation. Go ye forth and read of it.
"gated community: It's in the dictionary! To be precise, the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
gated community
SYLLABICATION: gat·ed community
PRONUNCIATION: gtd
NOUN: A subdivision or neighborhood, often surrounded by a barrier, to which entry is restricted to residents and their guests.
gated community
SYLLABICATION: gat·ed community
PRONUNCIATION: gtd
NOUN: A subdivision or neighborhood, often surrounded by a barrier, to which entry is restricted to residents and their guests.
JS Online: Vouchers spur lasting achievement gains in MPS schools, study says
I think school vouchers are a good test of the belief that public services can be improved by regulated privatization, in the form of school choice plans that force the public schools to perform or lose funding. Naturally teachers' uniions are dead against any such program, and against any other law that would hold them accountable in any way, shape, or form for accomplishing anything at all. They are even against having teachers tested to see if they are competent to teach their subjects. It's pretty simple: either we try school vouchers and give parents choice, coupled with mandatory standardized testing so they can make intelligent choices, or the big-city public schools will never get better. They might even get worse, which in the case of Chicago, Milwaukee, the District of Columbia, and a few other systems might seem impossible but isn't.
I think school vouchers are a good test of the belief that public services can be improved by regulated privatization, in the form of school choice plans that force the public schools to perform or lose funding. Naturally teachers' uniions are dead against any such program, and against any other law that would hold them accountable in any way, shape, or form for accomplishing anything at all. They are even against having teachers tested to see if they are competent to teach their subjects. It's pretty simple: either we try school vouchers and give parents choice, coupled with mandatory standardized testing so they can make intelligent choices, or the big-city public schools will never get better. They might even get worse, which in the case of Chicago, Milwaukee, the District of Columbia, and a few other systems might seem impossible but isn't.
Financial Times:Rio de Janeiro state plans to wall off slums
Here in the USA some of us wall out the poor. But in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they have decided to wall them in. To wit:
The government of Rio de Janeiro state yesterday proposed to build a wall around its sprawling favelas in an effort to help control rampant crime in the picture postcard city.
"The wall won't put an end to violence [in the slums] but if we don't contain it, it will destroy the [surrounding] forest, the economy of Rio de Janeiro and the lives of the city's residents," Luiz Paulo Conde, deputy governor, said on Monday.
Here in the USA some of us wall out the poor. But in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they have decided to wall them in. To wit:
The government of Rio de Janeiro state yesterday proposed to build a wall around its sprawling favelas in an effort to help control rampant crime in the picture postcard city.
"The wall won't put an end to violence [in the slums] but if we don't contain it, it will destroy the [surrounding] forest, the economy of Rio de Janeiro and the lives of the city's residents," Luiz Paulo Conde, deputy governor, said on Monday.
Monday, April 12, 2004
MSNBC - Why Housing Is About to Go "Pop!"
One view on the housing market, from Business Week Online's Mark Weisbrot:
"If you still need proof that a bubble is building in the housing market take a look at the findings of my economist colleague Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy & Research in Washington, D.C. He has tracked national housing prices going back to 1951. Prices pretty much track the rate of inflation up until 1995. But since then, average prices on new and existing homes have soared more than 35 percentage points beyond the overall rate of inflation. Is that unusual? You bet it is..."
...and he goes on from there. An interesting argument, but this has been predicted many times and so far hasn't happened. People are reluctant to sell at a loss so they hold onto their houses, and that keeps supply low, and that keeps prices up. At least, that's what they told me in Econ 101. And it's what happened in California in the early 1990s, and I hear that even the Hawaian market is coming back after the collapse caused by the Japanese eternal recession (a factor that figures into the Weisbrot article). Give it a read.
One view on the housing market, from Business Week Online's Mark Weisbrot:
"If you still need proof that a bubble is building in the housing market take a look at the findings of my economist colleague Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy & Research in Washington, D.C. He has tracked national housing prices going back to 1951. Prices pretty much track the rate of inflation up until 1995. But since then, average prices on new and existing homes have soared more than 35 percentage points beyond the overall rate of inflation. Is that unusual? You bet it is..."
...and he goes on from there. An interesting argument, but this has been predicted many times and so far hasn't happened. People are reluctant to sell at a loss so they hold onto their houses, and that keeps supply low, and that keeps prices up. At least, that's what they told me in Econ 101. And it's what happened in California in the early 1990s, and I hear that even the Hawaian market is coming back after the collapse caused by the Japanese eternal recession (a factor that figures into the Weisbrot article). Give it a read.
KPUA.net - KPUA Hawaii News - Kaneohe woman awarded $470,000 in condo mold lawsuit
These mold lawsuits against HOAs are becoming a cottage industry (no pun intended). The mold removal procedures are costly and scary looking, with people running around in hazmat suits like characters from an end-of-the-world movie--how about, "The Mold That Ate My Condo"?
These mold lawsuits against HOAs are becoming a cottage industry (no pun intended). The mold removal procedures are costly and scary looking, with people running around in hazmat suits like characters from an end-of-the-world movie--how about, "The Mold That Ate My Condo"?
fresnoBee.com: Metro: Small special districts fear state raid on their funds
"Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed 2004-05 budget calls for taking away millions of dollars in property tax revenues paid to cities, counties and special districts. The money will help the state pay for public education at the kindergarten through high school level...Special districts, which are forms of local government created by a community to meet specific service needs, could face devastating losses if the governor's proposed budget is passed, said Catherine Smith, executive director of the California Special Districts Association. The budget proposal calls for special districts statewide to lose between $100 and $110 million or about 25% of their revenues."
Fred Pilot passed this link along. All levels of state and local government California are feeling the pinch, and next to the bottom rung are the special districts, with low visibility and no clear constituencies to object to measures like this. Special districts, such as mosquito abatement districts, will be hit harder than municipalities because of their lack of political clout. The bottom rung of the intergovernmental ladder is, of course, HOAs. They just get told what to do and have to raise private revenues to do it. They don't even get help from the tax collector, unlike business improvement districts (which don't have to threaten foreclosure to collect because government collects for them).
"Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed 2004-05 budget calls for taking away millions of dollars in property tax revenues paid to cities, counties and special districts. The money will help the state pay for public education at the kindergarten through high school level...Special districts, which are forms of local government created by a community to meet specific service needs, could face devastating losses if the governor's proposed budget is passed, said Catherine Smith, executive director of the California Special Districts Association. The budget proposal calls for special districts statewide to lose between $100 and $110 million or about 25% of their revenues."
Fred Pilot passed this link along. All levels of state and local government California are feeling the pinch, and next to the bottom rung are the special districts, with low visibility and no clear constituencies to object to measures like this. Special districts, such as mosquito abatement districts, will be hit harder than municipalities because of their lack of political clout. The bottom rung of the intergovernmental ladder is, of course, HOAs. They just get told what to do and have to raise private revenues to do it. They don't even get help from the tax collector, unlike business improvement districts (which don't have to threaten foreclosure to collect because government collects for them).
Sunday, April 11, 2004
AB 2610 Assembly Bill - INTRODUCED
This is a link to the text of a bill being pushed by California attorney Jim Lingl, and introduced by Assembly Member Strickland, that would limit the liability of individual HOA unit owners for judgments against the incorporated association that exceed the limits or coverage of the association's liability insurance policies. I believe this text is a "spot" bill that will be rewritten. Jim is trying to avoid the "bottomless pit" liability of owners that raised its ugly head in bankruptcy court in the Le Parc and Oak Park Calabasas cases. I'm going to be watching this issue closely.
This is a link to the text of a bill being pushed by California attorney Jim Lingl, and introduced by Assembly Member Strickland, that would limit the liability of individual HOA unit owners for judgments against the incorporated association that exceed the limits or coverage of the association's liability insurance policies. I believe this text is a "spot" bill that will be rewritten. Jim is trying to avoid the "bottomless pit" liability of owners that raised its ugly head in bankruptcy court in the Le Parc and Oak Park Calabasas cases. I'm going to be watching this issue closely.
Los Angeles Times: Crazy for condos
CONDOMINIUMS, historically considered a purchase of last resort, increasingly are the most popular option on the block, resulting in sharply higher prices and attracting high-income move-up buyers seeking a simpler lifestyle...Condos currently account for nearly a quarter of all home resales in Southern California, up from 17% a decade ago. Part of that increase is attributable to major revitalizations underway in the downtown areas of San Diego and Los Angeles, which are attracting a new group of buyers interested in high-density housing."
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Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link. It seems to me that the real estate market is on a separate track from the press/public policy track. People buy condos for economic and lifestyle reasons, without thinking much about the challenges involved in living in them.
CONDOMINIUMS, historically considered a purchase of last resort, increasingly are the most popular option on the block, resulting in sharply higher prices and attracting high-income move-up buyers seeking a simpler lifestyle...Condos currently account for nearly a quarter of all home resales in Southern California, up from 17% a decade ago. Part of that increase is attributable to major revitalizations underway in the downtown areas of San Diego and Los Angeles, which are attracting a new group of buyers interested in high-density housing."
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Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link. It seems to me that the real estate market is on a separate track from the press/public policy track. People buy condos for economic and lifestyle reasons, without thinking much about the challenges involved in living in them.
Contractors say lawsuits propel home prices
SACRAMENTO BEE — "New-home construction costs in California could go through the roof, say specialty contractors, if something isn't done to curb construction-defect lawsuits. They blame lawsuits for their escalating costs on general liability insurance. Some specialty contractors, who are the plumbers, roofers and others hired to build new houses, say their premiums have increased 300 percent to 500 percent in the past three years. They say increases wind up being passed to home buyers, adding tens of thousands of dollars to a new home's price. "
This is a familiar refrain from developers and construction contractors. It misses the point, which is, who should bear the financial risk of loss from latent (i.e., not apparent to the eye) defects in original construction? The candidates are: the building professionals who made all the mistakes in the first place; their liability insurance carriers; the buyers, who didn't know and had no way of knowing that the defects were there, and who weren't even around when the mistakes were being made; the buyers first party property insurance carriers.
OK, time's up. Answer, if I ran the world: the carriers for all the building professionals (developer, general contractor, subcontractors) who screwed up put together the money to pay the owners and/or their HOA. Then the carriers pursue their coverage issues and if they win, the insured construction professionals have to pay back their carriers. But it isn't fair to make the owners wait while complex coverage issues are litigated or arbitrated between the wrongdoers and their carriers.
SACRAMENTO BEE — "New-home construction costs in California could go through the roof, say specialty contractors, if something isn't done to curb construction-defect lawsuits. They blame lawsuits for their escalating costs on general liability insurance. Some specialty contractors, who are the plumbers, roofers and others hired to build new houses, say their premiums have increased 300 percent to 500 percent in the past three years. They say increases wind up being passed to home buyers, adding tens of thousands of dollars to a new home's price. "
This is a familiar refrain from developers and construction contractors. It misses the point, which is, who should bear the financial risk of loss from latent (i.e., not apparent to the eye) defects in original construction? The candidates are: the building professionals who made all the mistakes in the first place; their liability insurance carriers; the buyers, who didn't know and had no way of knowing that the defects were there, and who weren't even around when the mistakes were being made; the buyers first party property insurance carriers.
OK, time's up. Answer, if I ran the world: the carriers for all the building professionals (developer, general contractor, subcontractors) who screwed up put together the money to pay the owners and/or their HOA. Then the carriers pursue their coverage issues and if they win, the insured construction professionals have to pay back their carriers. But it isn't fair to make the owners wait while complex coverage issues are litigated or arbitrated between the wrongdoers and their carriers.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
...not to put too fine a point on it, but...
Fred Pilot has a comment regarding this paragraph in the Wasserman piece linked below:
"Amid more than 260,000 private communities nationally and 36,000 in California, at least one third have steadily put off raising necessary assessments for fear of political conflict, and now need repairs and facelifts for which they significantly lack money, say those who monitor homeowner association finances."
But according to Fred:
"I don't think Wasserman has it exactly right here since many HOA boards of directors as we know aren't all that politically responsive to the concerns of their constituents. In addition, boards can put assessment increases to a vote of the owners -- and in fact are required by law to do so in California if the increase exceeds 20 percent. I think the reluctance to increase regular assessments or levy special assessments is frequently because the directors themselves don't want to pay them. (You can quote me on your blog if you want)"
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But...but...but...I thought this was local democracy at its finest...the 21st century version of the New England town meeting...
Fred Pilot has a comment regarding this paragraph in the Wasserman piece linked below:
"Amid more than 260,000 private communities nationally and 36,000 in California, at least one third have steadily put off raising necessary assessments for fear of political conflict, and now need repairs and facelifts for which they significantly lack money, say those who monitor homeowner association finances."
But according to Fred:
"I don't think Wasserman has it exactly right here since many HOA boards of directors as we know aren't all that politically responsive to the concerns of their constituents. In addition, boards can put assessment increases to a vote of the owners -- and in fact are required by law to do so in California if the increase exceeds 20 percent. I think the reluctance to increase regular assessments or levy special assessments is frequently because the directors themselves don't want to pay them. (You can quote me on your blog if you want)"
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But...but...but...I thought this was local democracy at its finest...the 21st century version of the New England town meeting...
Green Valley News & Sun "HOA 'reform' losing ground"
Are those scare quotes around the word "reform," and if so why? The article stresses opposition to HB2402 from an association of associations.
Are those scare quotes around the word "reform," and if so why? The article stresses opposition to HB2402 from an association of associations.
Private communities come apart
When homeowners associations run short of cash, maintenance falls by the wayside
By Jim Wasserman, Associated Press
...What started 35 years ago as a pleasant community run by a private homeowners association has become an object lesson in the worst that can happen when such a neighborhood starts to unravel. Its original owners moved out, new owners failed to maintain the property, neglect accelerated into falling property values, then crime and eventual collapse. Now, state and local taxpayers are paying $80 million to turn it into a nonprofit housing complex called Phoenix Park. While extreme, it could be the fate of thousands of privately run communities throughout the nation, which are flirting with declines by failing to spend adequately on upkeep, even as owning a home in private communities has become the nation's fastest-growing lifestyle. Amid more than 260,000 private communities nationally and 36,000 in California, at least one third have steadily put off raising necessary assessments for fear of political conflict, and now need repairs and facelifts for which they significantly lack money, say those who monitor homeowner association finances.
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I'd suggest you read the whole article. Jim Wasserman has been doing HOA stories for some time and knows his stuff. This is an issue I've been harping on for about fifteen years and I have yet to see much legislative interest in it. I guess they are waiting for a full blown meltdown. Can you say "savings and loan industry," boys and girls?
When homeowners associations run short of cash, maintenance falls by the wayside
By Jim Wasserman, Associated Press
...What started 35 years ago as a pleasant community run by a private homeowners association has become an object lesson in the worst that can happen when such a neighborhood starts to unravel. Its original owners moved out, new owners failed to maintain the property, neglect accelerated into falling property values, then crime and eventual collapse. Now, state and local taxpayers are paying $80 million to turn it into a nonprofit housing complex called Phoenix Park. While extreme, it could be the fate of thousands of privately run communities throughout the nation, which are flirting with declines by failing to spend adequately on upkeep, even as owning a home in private communities has become the nation's fastest-growing lifestyle. Amid more than 260,000 private communities nationally and 36,000 in California, at least one third have steadily put off raising necessary assessments for fear of political conflict, and now need repairs and facelifts for which they significantly lack money, say those who monitor homeowner association finances.
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I'd suggest you read the whole article. Jim Wasserman has been doing HOA stories for some time and knows his stuff. This is an issue I've been harping on for about fifteen years and I have yet to see much legislative interest in it. I guess they are waiting for a full blown meltdown. Can you say "savings and loan industry," boys and girls?
Here's the .pdf version of 4th DCA opinion in Villa De Las Palmas HOA v. Terifaj
One interesting aspect of the Terifaj case is that the "no pets" rule was not recorded at the time Terifaj bought her unit, but Terifaj knew the rule existed. In other words, she had actual notice of the covenant but not record notice. How important is that? If you look at most cases on HOA covenant enforcement they nearly always emphasize that the restrictions were recorded and that means the owner took the property subject to the restrictions. Here, if they weren't recorded at the time of her purchase, to put this in animal metaphor terms, is this a case of "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander"?
One interesting aspect of the Terifaj case is that the "no pets" rule was not recorded at the time Terifaj bought her unit, but Terifaj knew the rule existed. In other words, she had actual notice of the covenant but not record notice. How important is that? If you look at most cases on HOA covenant enforcement they nearly always emphasize that the restrictions were recorded and that means the owner took the property subject to the restrictions. Here, if they weren't recorded at the time of her purchase, to put this in animal metaphor terms, is this a case of "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander"?
law.com - the Terifaj arguments
Here's a link to a summary of the Cal Supreme Court oral arguments in Villa De Las Palmas Homeowners Association v. Terifaj, held last Tuesday. Scroll down past the sex offender case to the bottom and you'll see it under the heading, "But Goldfish Don't Bark."
Here's a link to a summary of the Cal Supreme Court oral arguments in Villa De Las Palmas Homeowners Association v. Terifaj, held last Tuesday. Scroll down past the sex offender case to the bottom and you'll see it under the heading, "But Goldfish Don't Bark."
Why the Terifaj case?
The California Supreme Court is reviewing a lower court ruling in the Terifaj case, and I will link that opinion when I find it. But it is curious because Terifaj, which involves a "no pets" restriction, would seem to be governed by the Nahrsedt case that the Cal SC decided a few years back. That case said pet restrictions were reasonable and also established a pro-BOD standard for determining reasonableness (reasonable in the abstract rather than reasonable as applied in the instant case).
Anyway, why are they taking up such a similar issue? Does it mean they are going to reconsider Nahrstedt?
Here's some speculation from a person with some solid insider perspective, Marjorie Murray, Chief Legislative Advocate/CID Housing of the Congress of California Seniors:
Evan --
One ingredient which may be at work in the Supreme Court's willingness to review Paula Terifaj's case is AB 512 signed into California law last year. The law is obviously not retroactive.
However, it established the principles that (1) rulemaking is a joint function of boards and homeowners (2) rules must be in writing and promulgated (3) homeowners can exercise a referendum right in order to repeal rules. In other words, it establishes the principle -- without saying so -- that rulemaking is a political process and not the "rational" process that Nahrstedt presumes.
The sponsor of AB 512 was the California Law Revision Commission. You can come to your own conclusions about whether the court took this fact into consideration as well.
The Congress of California Seniors succeeded in getting AB 512 amended so that the original timetable for homeowners to respond to new rules proposed by the board was extended from 15 to 60 days. We also got it amended to make clear that boards could not deny homeowners access to membership records in order to organize a referendum, i.e. that access to records was a legitimate "member's interest" as defined in current California law.
Marjorie Murray
Chief Legislative Advocate/CID Housing
Congress of California Seniors
The California Supreme Court is reviewing a lower court ruling in the Terifaj case, and I will link that opinion when I find it. But it is curious because Terifaj, which involves a "no pets" restriction, would seem to be governed by the Nahrsedt case that the Cal SC decided a few years back. That case said pet restrictions were reasonable and also established a pro-BOD standard for determining reasonableness (reasonable in the abstract rather than reasonable as applied in the instant case).
Anyway, why are they taking up such a similar issue? Does it mean they are going to reconsider Nahrstedt?
Here's some speculation from a person with some solid insider perspective, Marjorie Murray, Chief Legislative Advocate/CID Housing of the Congress of California Seniors:
Evan --
One ingredient which may be at work in the Supreme Court's willingness to review Paula Terifaj's case is AB 512 signed into California law last year. The law is obviously not retroactive.
However, it established the principles that (1) rulemaking is a joint function of boards and homeowners (2) rules must be in writing and promulgated (3) homeowners can exercise a referendum right in order to repeal rules. In other words, it establishes the principle -- without saying so -- that rulemaking is a political process and not the "rational" process that Nahrstedt presumes.
The sponsor of AB 512 was the California Law Revision Commission. You can come to your own conclusions about whether the court took this fact into consideration as well.
The Congress of California Seniors succeeded in getting AB 512 amended so that the original timetable for homeowners to respond to new rules proposed by the board was extended from 15 to 60 days. We also got it amended to make clear that boards could not deny homeowners access to membership records in order to organize a referendum, i.e. that access to records was a legitimate "member's interest" as defined in current California law.
Marjorie Murray
Chief Legislative Advocate/CID Housing
Congress of California Seniors
Friday, April 09, 2004
State: Bills threaten condo boards' sway: legislation in the works would change the way associations alter the existing rights of condo owners
"Florida lawmakers are considering changing state law to give Florida's 1.1-million condo owners a way to challenge rules about pets, rental rights or parking spaces. Two bills working their way through the Legislature would require condo boards to hold a public hearing on altering rights owners had when they moved in, such as renting their condo seasonally. Owners also could demand a poll of everyone; a right could not be changed unless a majority agreed. Sellers would be required to provide potential buyers a simplified disclosure form detailing the financial health of the condominium association, including liabilities, such as lawsuits or future assessments.To avoid lawsuits, the legislation would create a state ombudsman's office that could mitigate complaints between condo owners and their association boards, an idea that has drawn criticism from one of the state's leading condominium lawyers. A $4 annual state fee that condo owners already pay for regulatory oversight would fund the office. Much of that money now funds general state government. House sponsor Julio Robaina, R-Miami, also wants to create a state advisory council to propose future changes to state law or the ombudsman office."
The industry is not happy with this proposed legislation. To wit: "Meanwhile Gary Poliakoff of Fort Lauderdale, whose law firm, Becker & Poliakoff, represents more than 4,000 condo associations in the state, led the opposition. "Those bills deserved to be drowned," Poliakoff said last week. In early March, Poliakoff wrote his clients: "During the 31-plus years I have been an advocate for the rights of condominium owners ... I have never seen proposed legislation which is more destructive."
"Florida lawmakers are considering changing state law to give Florida's 1.1-million condo owners a way to challenge rules about pets, rental rights or parking spaces. Two bills working their way through the Legislature would require condo boards to hold a public hearing on altering rights owners had when they moved in, such as renting their condo seasonally. Owners also could demand a poll of everyone; a right could not be changed unless a majority agreed. Sellers would be required to provide potential buyers a simplified disclosure form detailing the financial health of the condominium association, including liabilities, such as lawsuits or future assessments.To avoid lawsuits, the legislation would create a state ombudsman's office that could mitigate complaints between condo owners and their association boards, an idea that has drawn criticism from one of the state's leading condominium lawyers. A $4 annual state fee that condo owners already pay for regulatory oversight would fund the office. Much of that money now funds general state government. House sponsor Julio Robaina, R-Miami, also wants to create a state advisory council to propose future changes to state law or the ombudsman office."
The industry is not happy with this proposed legislation. To wit: "Meanwhile Gary Poliakoff of Fort Lauderdale, whose law firm, Becker & Poliakoff, represents more than 4,000 condo associations in the state, led the opposition. "Those bills deserved to be drowned," Poliakoff said last week. In early March, Poliakoff wrote his clients: "During the 31-plus years I have been an advocate for the rights of condominium owners ... I have never seen proposed legislation which is more destructive."
NBC 4 - House and Home - Houses Slip Further Out Of Californian's Reach
LOS ANGELES -- Slightly less than a quarter of Californians can afford to buy a median priced home, down from about 30 percent last year, a report released Thursday by the California Association of Realtors showed.
The minimum annual household income needed to buy a median-priced home at $394,300 in February was $91,690, based on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 5.74 percent and a 20 percent downpayment, according to CAR. In February 2003, when the median price was $326,640 and the prevailing interest rate was 5.93 percent, CAR calculated the minimum annual income needed to buy a home was $77,220. Southern California's high desert area was most affordable area, with 55 percent of families earning enough to buy a median priced home.
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And that is why people are spending four hours per day in their cars. Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending this link.
LOS ANGELES -- Slightly less than a quarter of Californians can afford to buy a median priced home, down from about 30 percent last year, a report released Thursday by the California Association of Realtors showed.
The minimum annual household income needed to buy a median-priced home at $394,300 in February was $91,690, based on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 5.74 percent and a 20 percent downpayment, according to CAR. In February 2003, when the median price was $326,640 and the prevailing interest rate was 5.93 percent, CAR calculated the minimum annual income needed to buy a home was $77,220. Southern California's high desert area was most affordable area, with 55 percent of families earning enough to buy a median priced home.
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And that is why people are spending four hours per day in their cars. Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending this link.
Southland's Census Story, in a Word: Boom!
Southern California picked up an estimated 1 million new residents over the last three years as the Bay Area — a population magnet during the dot-com boom — stagnated, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The figures show Southern California's pace of growth accelerating from the late 1990s — a finding that has significant consequences for a region already confronting congestion in everything from freeways to classrooms. In a reversal of past trends, most of Southern California's recent growth came from births — particularly in older, immigrant-heavy cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties — rather than from resettlement of adults seeking work, demographers said.Still, Southern California continues to attract new families — particularly to inland communities from Antelope Valley to Temecula, where homes cost less than in crowded coastal counties. "Cheap dirt … cheap houses," said John Husing, a Redlands economist. "No matter what anyone says, people continue to want a single-family detached home, and they will crawl over the hills from Orange and Los Angeles counties on their hands and knees to get it."
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Indeed. So we have the Southern California population swelling by one million in three years, much of the growth being not in-migration of job seekers, as in the post-WWII years, but instead representing the high birthrate of immigrant families. That is very expensive growth because kids have to be educated, and that means pressure on the public schools and other public services. Note this from the article: "Andy McCue, director of the UC Riverside Center for Sustainable Suburban Development...predicted that swelling school-age populations in Riverside County alone over the next decade will require the construction of 36 elementary schools, 11 junior highs, and 10 high schools — costing an estimated $1.34 billion."
And the money to do that will come from...where, exactly? Homeowners? I don't think so.
As the article notes, traffic congestion is already beyond belief and getting worse. The cities, especially Los Angeles, are becoming unliveable for people who want the American Dream (as Husing notes above). So people are moving out to what was once the desert, where they end up in an HOA-run new development more often than not, that gives them at least the promise of suburban living--if you don't mind an ambient temperature that runs around 110 Fahrenheit in the summer and a four hour commute to work.
When I was a teenager I would ride my Yamaha 125 Enduro out in the desert around Palmdale and Lancaster. There was nothing anywhere to be seen but desert, and nobody complained about the howling of dozens of unmuffled two-stroke dirt bikes, because nobody could hear it. But now that whole area is full of houses, with the occupants driving two hours each way to LA and Orange County for work. The population explosion in Southern California is pushing people out to Pluto in search of a place to live a decent life. How long can this continue? What are the limits of this process? More to the point, is it the case that nobody in or out of government has the power to stop, slow, or even rationalize it?
Southern California picked up an estimated 1 million new residents over the last three years as the Bay Area — a population magnet during the dot-com boom — stagnated, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The figures show Southern California's pace of growth accelerating from the late 1990s — a finding that has significant consequences for a region already confronting congestion in everything from freeways to classrooms. In a reversal of past trends, most of Southern California's recent growth came from births — particularly in older, immigrant-heavy cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties — rather than from resettlement of adults seeking work, demographers said.Still, Southern California continues to attract new families — particularly to inland communities from Antelope Valley to Temecula, where homes cost less than in crowded coastal counties. "Cheap dirt … cheap houses," said John Husing, a Redlands economist. "No matter what anyone says, people continue to want a single-family detached home, and they will crawl over the hills from Orange and Los Angeles counties on their hands and knees to get it."
---------------
Indeed. So we have the Southern California population swelling by one million in three years, much of the growth being not in-migration of job seekers, as in the post-WWII years, but instead representing the high birthrate of immigrant families. That is very expensive growth because kids have to be educated, and that means pressure on the public schools and other public services. Note this from the article: "Andy McCue, director of the UC Riverside Center for Sustainable Suburban Development...predicted that swelling school-age populations in Riverside County alone over the next decade will require the construction of 36 elementary schools, 11 junior highs, and 10 high schools — costing an estimated $1.34 billion."
And the money to do that will come from...where, exactly? Homeowners? I don't think so.
As the article notes, traffic congestion is already beyond belief and getting worse. The cities, especially Los Angeles, are becoming unliveable for people who want the American Dream (as Husing notes above). So people are moving out to what was once the desert, where they end up in an HOA-run new development more often than not, that gives them at least the promise of suburban living--if you don't mind an ambient temperature that runs around 110 Fahrenheit in the summer and a four hour commute to work.
When I was a teenager I would ride my Yamaha 125 Enduro out in the desert around Palmdale and Lancaster. There was nothing anywhere to be seen but desert, and nobody complained about the howling of dozens of unmuffled two-stroke dirt bikes, because nobody could hear it. But now that whole area is full of houses, with the occupants driving two hours each way to LA and Orange County for work. The population explosion in Southern California is pushing people out to Pluto in search of a place to live a decent life. How long can this continue? What are the limits of this process? More to the point, is it the case that nobody in or out of government has the power to stop, slow, or even rationalize it?
Administrative agency to oversee Calif. HOAs?
Check out the latest from the California Law Revision Commission, where they are discussing the pros and cons of that very idea. It seems that it would be an agency with regulatory power, like the FCC or OSHA. This type of agency normally has rule-making authority, the ability to investigate alleged violations of those rules and bring charges, and some sort of administrative adjudication power. In other words, the HOA oversight agency would be...sort of like an HOA :-)
Check out the latest from the California Law Revision Commission, where they are discussing the pros and cons of that very idea. It seems that it would be an agency with regulatory power, like the FCC or OSHA. This type of agency normally has rule-making authority, the ability to investigate alleged violations of those rules and bring charges, and some sort of administrative adjudication power. In other words, the HOA oversight agency would be...sort of like an HOA :-)
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Neighbors howl about dog-park plan
Thanks to Mika Sadai for passing along this story. Here's a bit of it:
The pampered pooches of Birmingham have had their own bakery, water bowls
strategically placed throughout the shopping district and the kind of
fashionable attire any discriminating doggie would not be caught dead
without.
Now, they're getting their own park.
But the plan to designate a dog park on the border of Bloomfield Hills irks
some Bloomfield Estates subdivision residents, who are unleashing a lawsuit
on the City of Birmingham. Dog doo -- and the other issues associated with
cavorting canines -- doesn't belong in their neighborhood, they've argued to
Oakland County Circuit Judge Deborah Tyner. She has scheduled a motion for
summary disposition on April 21.
"Dogs bark and they make noise and they stink and they leave things behind
on property," said Raymond Morrow, the Troy-based Bloomfield Estates
Homeowners Association attorney. "The people that live across the street and
next to it, they're aghast at this."
-----------------------
Thanks to attorney Morrow for informing us that dogs bark AND make noise. I did not know this. Ours, a large rottweiler-descended mutt named Rocko, can only bark, so perhaps we should teach him to play the French horn so that he can keep up with the other dogs who are more versatile. He doesn't stink, although he does have a needle-sharp set of king-size choppers, one of which accidentally made an inch-long rip in my right palm a couple of months ago, requiring five stitches. It was entirely my fault. Poor Rocko didn't even know what happened and was very worried about me. I think.
Thanks to Mika Sadai for passing along this story. Here's a bit of it:
The pampered pooches of Birmingham have had their own bakery, water bowls
strategically placed throughout the shopping district and the kind of
fashionable attire any discriminating doggie would not be caught dead
without.
Now, they're getting their own park.
But the plan to designate a dog park on the border of Bloomfield Hills irks
some Bloomfield Estates subdivision residents, who are unleashing a lawsuit
on the City of Birmingham. Dog doo -- and the other issues associated with
cavorting canines -- doesn't belong in their neighborhood, they've argued to
Oakland County Circuit Judge Deborah Tyner. She has scheduled a motion for
summary disposition on April 21.
"Dogs bark and they make noise and they stink and they leave things behind
on property," said Raymond Morrow, the Troy-based Bloomfield Estates
Homeowners Association attorney. "The people that live across the street and
next to it, they're aghast at this."
-----------------------
Thanks to attorney Morrow for informing us that dogs bark AND make noise. I did not know this. Ours, a large rottweiler-descended mutt named Rocko, can only bark, so perhaps we should teach him to play the French horn so that he can keep up with the other dogs who are more versatile. He doesn't stink, although he does have a needle-sharp set of king-size choppers, one of which accidentally made an inch-long rip in my right palm a couple of months ago, requiring five stitches. It was entirely my fault. Poor Rocko didn't even know what happened and was very worried about me. I think.
Why 44% of New Hampshire voters should not be allowed to vote in November
44% of them think the US economy is still in recession
...a recession is defined as two or more quarters of negative growth in the Gross Domestic Product
and the economy has had positive economic growth for NINE consecutive quarters.
I think anybody who still believes the national economy is in recession should stay home on November 2, 2004, and watch reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard. Leave the voting to grown-ups, OK?
44% of them think the US economy is still in recession
...a recession is defined as two or more quarters of negative growth in the Gross Domestic Product
and the economy has had positive economic growth for NINE consecutive quarters.
I think anybody who still believes the national economy is in recession should stay home on November 2, 2004, and watch reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard. Leave the voting to grown-ups, OK?
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
AZ foreclosure bill clears committee, but in radically reduced form
HB 2402, that would have made HOAs wait 3 years to foreclose and also require that the foreclosure sale be for fair market value, passed out of the Senate Government Committee today, but in a form that leaves its proponent unhappy. I hear from several people that the committee was set to vote a clear "no" on the bill, so a deal was struck that removed the three-year waiting period and fair market value provision, along with other language. What is left? No foreclosure for fines generated from rules violations. A massive disappointment for the bill's proponents, but on the other hand banning foreclosure for fines is something they certainly wanted, so it's a net gain on the reform front. The industry people, such as the CAI folks who strongly opposed the bill, can live with what passed and I hear they are ecstatic over the outcome.
HB 2402, that would have made HOAs wait 3 years to foreclose and also require that the foreclosure sale be for fair market value, passed out of the Senate Government Committee today, but in a form that leaves its proponent unhappy. I hear from several people that the committee was set to vote a clear "no" on the bill, so a deal was struck that removed the three-year waiting period and fair market value provision, along with other language. What is left? No foreclosure for fines generated from rules violations. A massive disappointment for the bill's proponents, but on the other hand banning foreclosure for fines is something they certainly wanted, so it's a net gain on the reform front. The industry people, such as the CAI folks who strongly opposed the bill, can live with what passed and I hear they are ecstatic over the outcome.
CleanCondos.org --
The Service Employees International Union is endorsing the Florida bills numbered H1223 and S2498 that would create an ombudsman office, mandate disclosure of BOD conflicts of interest, require "buyer beware" notices, and other measures. It is unusual for these HOA consumer protection bills to get support from interest groups, so this is a noteworthy development.
The Service Employees International Union is endorsing the Florida bills numbered H1223 and S2498 that would create an ombudsman office, mandate disclosure of BOD conflicts of interest, require "buyer beware" notices, and other measures. It is unusual for these HOA consumer protection bills to get support from interest groups, so this is a noteworthy development.
Charlotte Observer: Trash gets unequal treatment at condos--Some townhomes get own rollout containers; others must share bins (warning: registration required)
A double taxation conflict rears its head: "It's unjust," Schultze said. "We pay our taxes and we should be provided with the services the rest of the city gets."
A double taxation conflict rears its head: "It's unjust," Schultze said. "We pay our taxes and we should be provided with the services the rest of the city gets."
MSNBC - Private guards repel attack on headquarters--Blackwater Security sends helicopter to ferry out wounded Marine
An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.
-------------------
I have noticed the tenor of news coverage about the thousands of private security people in Iraq--overwhelmingly negative, often referring to them as "mercenaries." These are mostly ex-military from what I have read. The ones who were murdered and their bodies desecrated by maniacs in Fallujah were providing security for a food convoy. The ones in this story about Najaf performed heroically and saved the life of a wounded Marine, among others.
What exactly is the problem with this that has Dan Rather et al in a flat spin? First, it seems to me that plenty of people need protection in Iraq right now, and the military isn't mainly in the security guard business, so what exactly is the mainstream media's problem? Second, it is my understanding that these news agencies are some of the main employers of these folks for their own protection, so their surprise at the existence of "mercenaries" is obviously feigned and supremely hypocritical.
Maybe a security guard is a mercenary if hired by anybody other than a news agency. Is that the rule?
An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.
-------------------
I have noticed the tenor of news coverage about the thousands of private security people in Iraq--overwhelmingly negative, often referring to them as "mercenaries." These are mostly ex-military from what I have read. The ones who were murdered and their bodies desecrated by maniacs in Fallujah were providing security for a food convoy. The ones in this story about Najaf performed heroically and saved the life of a wounded Marine, among others.
What exactly is the problem with this that has Dan Rather et al in a flat spin? First, it seems to me that plenty of people need protection in Iraq right now, and the military isn't mainly in the security guard business, so what exactly is the mainstream media's problem? Second, it is my understanding that these news agencies are some of the main employers of these folks for their own protection, so their surprise at the existence of "mercenaries" is obviously feigned and supremely hypocritical.
Maybe a security guard is a mercenary if hired by anybody other than a news agency. Is that the rule?
Mercury News: A police presence for gated homes--Silver Creek complex to get traffic patrols
To outsiders, the gated community surrounding the Silver Creek Valley Country Club has everything a neighborhood could want: million-dollar homes, security guards, well-groomed yards and scenic views. But residents say there's one thing they don't have: a way to stop drivers from speeding on the 30 miles of roads inside the 1,500-acre community. That will change in May, when San Jose traffic officers will begin to enforce the laws that apply to private property as well as public. It's the first time an upscale community, which maintains the private roads with homeowner fees, has received the city service.
----------------------
Well, that's a switch. Usually cities avoid responsibility for things like this. Some CIDs have private speed limits and private speeding tickets.
To outsiders, the gated community surrounding the Silver Creek Valley Country Club has everything a neighborhood could want: million-dollar homes, security guards, well-groomed yards and scenic views. But residents say there's one thing they don't have: a way to stop drivers from speeding on the 30 miles of roads inside the 1,500-acre community. That will change in May, when San Jose traffic officers will begin to enforce the laws that apply to private property as well as public. It's the first time an upscale community, which maintains the private roads with homeowner fees, has received the city service.
----------------------
Well, that's a switch. Usually cities avoid responsibility for things like this. Some CIDs have private speed limits and private speeding tickets.
Voters in Inglewood Turn Away Wal-Mart
"A bid by the world's largest corporation to bypass uncooperative elected officials and take its aggressive expansion plans to voters failed Tuesday, as Inglewood residents overwhelmingly rejected Wal-Mart's proposal to build a colossal retail and grocery center without an environmental review or public hearings. "
--------------------------
So there won't be a Walmartville after all. But note this comment from a local lawmaker: "They want to be the big gorilla and not even offer one banana," Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood) said Tuesday. "Clearly, this is a test site for Wal-Mart to determine if they can go from city to city to city, preempting state law and local building and safety codes…. I think everyone should prepare for a full frontal attack from Wal-Mart." That is an interesting prospect. Wal-Mart could go voter shopping until they find 40 places where the population is willing to give them the extremely one-sided arrangement they want--one no public official would ever agree to, but maybe some voters somewhere will. They could probably stretch the opposition pretty thin if they hit four or five towns at once...
"A bid by the world's largest corporation to bypass uncooperative elected officials and take its aggressive expansion plans to voters failed Tuesday, as Inglewood residents overwhelmingly rejected Wal-Mart's proposal to build a colossal retail and grocery center without an environmental review or public hearings. "
--------------------------
So there won't be a Walmartville after all. But note this comment from a local lawmaker: "They want to be the big gorilla and not even offer one banana," Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood) said Tuesday. "Clearly, this is a test site for Wal-Mart to determine if they can go from city to city to city, preempting state law and local building and safety codes…. I think everyone should prepare for a full frontal attack from Wal-Mart." That is an interesting prospect. Wal-Mart could go voter shopping until they find 40 places where the population is willing to give them the extremely one-sided arrangement they want--one no public official would ever agree to, but maybe some voters somewhere will. They could probably stretch the opposition pretty thin if they hit four or five towns at once...
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Are the lights out? OK, the meeting is called to order...
Fred Pilot passes along a message that somebody sent to a newsgroup about a unique approach to parliamentary procedure that goes on in their HOA:
Sez Fred: "Memo to HOA directors: If the HOA is going broke and you don't want the bad news to get out and wreck your property values, hold board meetings in unlit rooms.: [anonymous post to newsgroup follows:]
'They have not announced it publicly, as they don't announce anything
publicly (except assessments and monthly fee increases). All secret and
hush-hush!! In fact they frequently hold secret meetings, (with the lights out) in the Rec room so that Homeowners won't know that they have been meeting. (all illegal of course).'"
----------------------------
How come my department heads over the years never thought of this? We've been holding meetings with the lights on! Wow. A Homer Simpson moment.
Fred Pilot passes along a message that somebody sent to a newsgroup about a unique approach to parliamentary procedure that goes on in their HOA:
Sez Fred: "Memo to HOA directors: If the HOA is going broke and you don't want the bad news to get out and wreck your property values, hold board meetings in unlit rooms.: [anonymous post to newsgroup follows:]
'They have not announced it publicly, as they don't announce anything
publicly (except assessments and monthly fee increases). All secret and
hush-hush!! In fact they frequently hold secret meetings, (with the lights out) in the Rec room so that Homeowners won't know that they have been meeting. (all illegal of course).'"
----------------------------
How come my department heads over the years never thought of this? We've been holding meetings with the lights on! Wow. A Homer Simpson moment.
Monday, April 05, 2004
A modest proposal
I'm following Fred Pilot's observation (see post below) to its logical conclusion. Let's end all the squabbling about assessment collection and the abuse of foreclosure power by having the other utilities follow the lead of the US Postal Service. Give the HOA the final responsibility for delivery of water, electricity, and gas, just as they are now getting the tail end of mail delivery. They get the final job of turning on and off the utilities, just like the Postal Service is giving them the keys to the mailbox. Then instead of foreclosing on those who don't pay assessments on time, the HOA can turn off all their utilities as well as shutting down their mail. Send them into the Middle Ages until they cough up the bread. Don't pay on time? Fine. No problem. See how you like living in 1365.
I'm following Fred Pilot's observation (see post below) to its logical conclusion. Let's end all the squabbling about assessment collection and the abuse of foreclosure power by having the other utilities follow the lead of the US Postal Service. Give the HOA the final responsibility for delivery of water, electricity, and gas, just as they are now getting the tail end of mail delivery. They get the final job of turning on and off the utilities, just like the Postal Service is giving them the keys to the mailbox. Then instead of foreclosing on those who don't pay assessments on time, the HOA can turn off all their utilities as well as shutting down their mail. Send them into the Middle Ages until they cough up the bread. Don't pay on time? Fine. No problem. See how you like living in 1365.
Las Vegas SUN: Postal proposal prompts concerns
Monica Caruso passed this story along to me.
Responsibility for keys would be shifted to homeowner groups
"Homeowners and renters who need keys or lock changes for their mailboxes soon will have to get them from their home builder or homeowners association instead of a post office, if the U.S. Postal Service has its way.The Postal Service says it is making that change to save money. But critics say it will lead to less privacy and security in an age where mail theft is an easy route to identity theft...
Julene Hayworth, a former aide to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., turned government affairs specialist for the Southern Nevada Home Builder Association, said that the ultimate impact of the postal policy will be to make postal officials out of homeowners association leaders or federal agents out of builders.
"They don't want to be responsible for the keys," she said. "But you are still under federal law. Mail tampering is a federal, criminal law. You are asking homeowners associations and builders to be liable under federal law."
Another concern among home builders is that homeowners associations often have come into conflict with their residents, creating a potentially troubling situation when an association could have access to the private correspondence of a resident."
...
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So now we are privatizing the ultimate responsibility for mail delivery and handing it over to our new level of amateur government? Who comes up with these ideas? As Fred Pilot observes, "Not going along with the program or paying your assessments? You can pick up your mailbox key at the HOA manager's office-- provided you bring a cashier's check for the full amount of your fines, late assessments and of course any late charges and attorneys fees." Indeed. But here's an interesting wrinkle. Many HOA disputes involve issues of notice, such as whether the HOA gave the owner notice of violation or delinquent payments, and often that notice is delivered by....US Mail. Which under this proposal will be in the ultimate control of the HOA.
Don't associations have enough to do already without turning them into the Pony Express?
Monica Caruso passed this story along to me.
Responsibility for keys would be shifted to homeowner groups
"Homeowners and renters who need keys or lock changes for their mailboxes soon will have to get them from their home builder or homeowners association instead of a post office, if the U.S. Postal Service has its way.The Postal Service says it is making that change to save money. But critics say it will lead to less privacy and security in an age where mail theft is an easy route to identity theft...
Julene Hayworth, a former aide to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., turned government affairs specialist for the Southern Nevada Home Builder Association, said that the ultimate impact of the postal policy will be to make postal officials out of homeowners association leaders or federal agents out of builders.
"They don't want to be responsible for the keys," she said. "But you are still under federal law. Mail tampering is a federal, criminal law. You are asking homeowners associations and builders to be liable under federal law."
Another concern among home builders is that homeowners associations often have come into conflict with their residents, creating a potentially troubling situation when an association could have access to the private correspondence of a resident."
...
-----------------------------
So now we are privatizing the ultimate responsibility for mail delivery and handing it over to our new level of amateur government? Who comes up with these ideas? As Fred Pilot observes, "Not going along with the program or paying your assessments? You can pick up your mailbox key at the HOA manager's office-- provided you bring a cashier's check for the full amount of your fines, late assessments and of course any late charges and attorneys fees." Indeed. But here's an interesting wrinkle. Many HOA disputes involve issues of notice, such as whether the HOA gave the owner notice of violation or delinquent payments, and often that notice is delivered by....US Mail. Which under this proposal will be in the ultimate control of the HOA.
Don't associations have enough to do already without turning them into the Pony Express?
Stymied by Politicians, Wal-Mart Turns to Voters--to create regulation-free city-within-a-city...per New York Times
INGLEWOOD, Calif., April 2 — As Wal-Mart continues its march across the American landscape, this Los Angeles suburb of 112,000 people is the latest testing ground for the company's exercise of political and marketing muscle. Inglewood voters go to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether to turn over 60 acres of barren concrete adjacent to the Hollywood Park racetrack to Wal-Mart to create a megastore and a collection of chain shops and restaurants. The ballot initiative is sponsored by Wal-Mart, which collected more than 10,000 signatures to put the question to voters after the Inglewood City Council blocked the proposed development last year, citing environmental, traffic, labor, public safety and economic concerns.
While Wal-Mart has turned to the ballot in a number of cities and towns to win the right to build its giant emporiums, the Inglewood initiative is significantly different. The proposal would essentially exempt Wal-Mart from all of Inglewood's planning, zoning and environmental regulations, creating a city-within-a-city subject only to its own rules. Wal-Mart has hired an advertising and public relations firm to market the initiative and is spending more than $1 million to support the measure, known as initiative 04-A.
--------------
The electoral aspects of this are fascinating. Inglewood is an old suburb located on the border of Los Angeles, right next to Los Angeles International Airport and including Hollywood Park, the gigantic horse racing track. The city, the story notes, is about half black and half latino and the unions and community groups are heavily opposed to the initiative. Now, tomorrow we will see how many voters of a liberal demographic slant will vote to create a private corporate city-within-a-city, overriding their own elected representatives to do so. As the story notes, if this effort succeeds Wal-Mart can be expected to do the same thing elsewhere (they want to build 40 more of these super-stores in California within the next 5 years!) As the song "New York, New York" goes, "if I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere, come through for me...INGLEWOOD?"
INGLEWOOD, Calif., April 2 — As Wal-Mart continues its march across the American landscape, this Los Angeles suburb of 112,000 people is the latest testing ground for the company's exercise of political and marketing muscle. Inglewood voters go to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether to turn over 60 acres of barren concrete adjacent to the Hollywood Park racetrack to Wal-Mart to create a megastore and a collection of chain shops and restaurants. The ballot initiative is sponsored by Wal-Mart, which collected more than 10,000 signatures to put the question to voters after the Inglewood City Council blocked the proposed development last year, citing environmental, traffic, labor, public safety and economic concerns.
While Wal-Mart has turned to the ballot in a number of cities and towns to win the right to build its giant emporiums, the Inglewood initiative is significantly different. The proposal would essentially exempt Wal-Mart from all of Inglewood's planning, zoning and environmental regulations, creating a city-within-a-city subject only to its own rules. Wal-Mart has hired an advertising and public relations firm to market the initiative and is spending more than $1 million to support the measure, known as initiative 04-A.
--------------
The electoral aspects of this are fascinating. Inglewood is an old suburb located on the border of Los Angeles, right next to Los Angeles International Airport and including Hollywood Park, the gigantic horse racing track. The city, the story notes, is about half black and half latino and the unions and community groups are heavily opposed to the initiative. Now, tomorrow we will see how many voters of a liberal demographic slant will vote to create a private corporate city-within-a-city, overriding their own elected representatives to do so. As the story notes, if this effort succeeds Wal-Mart can be expected to do the same thing elsewhere (they want to build 40 more of these super-stores in California within the next 5 years!) As the song "New York, New York" goes, "if I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere, come through for me...INGLEWOOD?"
Here's the link for downloading the PPIC studyl
Finally their site is back up. The report, Planned Developments in California: Private Communities and Public Life, is by
Tracy M. Gordon and the pdf version is downloadable.
Finally their site is back up. The report, Planned Developments in California: Private Communities and Public Life, is by
Tracy M. Gordon and the pdf version is downloadable.
Chicago Tribune: Ill wind blows in California over feng shui idea
Lawmaker ignores snickers, proposes new building codes to accommodate earth energies
By Michael Martinez
Tribune national correspondent
Published April 5, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- What troubled California needs is some good chi.
So says Democratic Assemblyman Leland Yee of San Francisco, the speaker pro tempore in the Legislature's lower chamber, who is sponsoring a resolution urging the state architect and local municipalities to revise their building rules and regulations to better allow for feng shui.
Yes, the usual California jokes already have begun, Yee acknowledged.
...
Feng shui, which means "wind" and "water," considers location, land, building shape, neighboring structures and history of use in establishing spaces that make people feel at ease with their surroundings. Room arrangement, color, furniture placement and landscaping also are design factors.
For example, entry into a home shouldn't have a straight view to the outside because the chi rushes right out of the space, experts said. In offices, desks should face toward a door, and workers can use rock gardens, little fountains and plants to evoke a natural environment, experts said.
...
-------------------
Can you imagine some new feng shui CC&Rs? If you think banning solar panels is bad, imagine the association telling you which way you can point your desk.
Lawmaker ignores snickers, proposes new building codes to accommodate earth energies
By Michael Martinez
Tribune national correspondent
Published April 5, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- What troubled California needs is some good chi.
So says Democratic Assemblyman Leland Yee of San Francisco, the speaker pro tempore in the Legislature's lower chamber, who is sponsoring a resolution urging the state architect and local municipalities to revise their building rules and regulations to better allow for feng shui.
Yes, the usual California jokes already have begun, Yee acknowledged.
...
Feng shui, which means "wind" and "water," considers location, land, building shape, neighboring structures and history of use in establishing spaces that make people feel at ease with their surroundings. Room arrangement, color, furniture placement and landscaping also are design factors.
For example, entry into a home shouldn't have a straight view to the outside because the chi rushes right out of the space, experts said. In offices, desks should face toward a door, and workers can use rock gardens, little fountains and plants to evoke a natural environment, experts said.
...
-------------------
Can you imagine some new feng shui CC&Rs? If you think banning solar panels is bad, imagine the association telling you which way you can point your desk.
Napless Daily News: Furor over solar panels
Solar storm
Homeowners wishing to install solar panels often find themselves in conflict with associations concerned with aesthetics
By LAURA LAYDEN, lllayden@naplesnews.com
April 3, 2004
"...many homeowner associations in Florida try to keep residents from putting solar panels on their rooftops, despite a state law that prohibits such restrictions."
------------
And according to the article, so do some municipalities. The issue seems to be that many people think solar panels are ugly.
Solar storm
Homeowners wishing to install solar panels often find themselves in conflict with associations concerned with aesthetics
By LAURA LAYDEN, lllayden@naplesnews.com
April 3, 2004
"...many homeowner associations in Florida try to keep residents from putting solar panels on their rooftops, despite a state law that prohibits such restrictions."
------------
And according to the article, so do some municipalities. The issue seems to be that many people think solar panels are ugly.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
sacbee.com -- News -- County explores new ways to combat flow of red ink
Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending me the link to this story about how Sacramento County, California, is in major financial trouble:
"Desperate to shrink a horrific budget deficit, Sacramento County economic development officials are pressing to reverse a longtime county policy and start chasing "big-box" stores...While many California counties are hurting, Sacramento County's penchant for heavy residential development has left it with a collection of aging bedroom communities that offer little in the way of sales tax growth."
So what happened is the county allowed lots of residential development in unincorporated county land, and then several of these large subdivision areas became municipalities that attracted retail. So now the unincorporated areas of the county lack retail, which means the county budget can't draw on much of a sales tax base. The problem is that 47% of the county's population lives in unincorporated areas. That adds up to a major imbalance between the cost of services the county provides to those people, and the revenue base.
Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending me the link to this story about how Sacramento County, California, is in major financial trouble:
"Desperate to shrink a horrific budget deficit, Sacramento County economic development officials are pressing to reverse a longtime county policy and start chasing "big-box" stores...While many California counties are hurting, Sacramento County's penchant for heavy residential development has left it with a collection of aging bedroom communities that offer little in the way of sales tax growth."
So what happened is the county allowed lots of residential development in unincorporated county land, and then several of these large subdivision areas became municipalities that attracted retail. So now the unincorporated areas of the county lack retail, which means the county budget can't draw on much of a sales tax base. The problem is that 47% of the county's population lives in unincorporated areas. That adds up to a major imbalance between the cost of services the county provides to those people, and the revenue base.
The PPIC website is down...
...but thanks to Fred Pilot I have a copy of their California CID study and it is quite an interesting piece of work. It deseves serious consideration, but I'm on a publication deadline so I can't spend a couple of hours with it. Still, after a quick scan, I don't see how Weintraub could arrive at the interpretation of the study he presented in his article. I wonder if he lives in a gated community and doesn't want to feel guilty about it. :-)
I'd say the study pretty much supports the general trends Reich, Barton and Silverman, myself, and others anticipated years ago. Maybe it isn't as dramatic as Reich's "secession of the successful," but that was said for dramatic effect anyway, in a magazine. And the trends are blurred if you consider all CIDs as part of the same sector, because of low-end condos being lumped in with high-end developments--there are now CIDs at all parts of the price range.
And in any event, if you are trying to see whether the rich are seceding into Privatopia, the issue is not "what percentage of CID-dwellers are rich?" The issue is, "What percentage of the rich live in CIDs?" And if the answer is, "most of them," or "many of them, and the percentage is increasing," then the fact that there are trickle-down CIDs for the less affluent is beside the point (except that it bodes ill for the future financial health of such CIDs). This study doesn't go at the question this way. It asks questions about CID housing as a single sector and compares it with traditional housing as a sector. This is great, and I'm all for doing it, but it doesn't resolve the question of whether the successful are seceding. For that, you need to study the successful.
Also, it is clear that using voting as the measure of civic participation, as the PPIC study does, is a major mistake that leads to an erroneous theoretical conclusion. People often vote out of the most selfish, anti-community, motivations imaginable (in fact, most models of voting assume self-interested voters). Voter turnout is correlated with wealth, education, and age, not a desire to participate in community life. So yes, the residents of CIDs are voting, but no, that doesn't mean they are active participants in the life of the community outside their gates and walls. You need to know things that are harder to measure. It is easy to get voter turnout. It is hard to see how people are really living.
This sort of thing is common in social science. Remember the joke about the cop who approaches the drunk standing under a streetlight and asks him what he's doing? Drunk says, "Looking for my keys." Cop says, "Where did you lose them?" Drunk says, "Across the street." Cop says, "So why are you looking for them over here?" Drunk say, "Because the light is better over here."
...but thanks to Fred Pilot I have a copy of their California CID study and it is quite an interesting piece of work. It deseves serious consideration, but I'm on a publication deadline so I can't spend a couple of hours with it. Still, after a quick scan, I don't see how Weintraub could arrive at the interpretation of the study he presented in his article. I wonder if he lives in a gated community and doesn't want to feel guilty about it. :-)
I'd say the study pretty much supports the general trends Reich, Barton and Silverman, myself, and others anticipated years ago. Maybe it isn't as dramatic as Reich's "secession of the successful," but that was said for dramatic effect anyway, in a magazine. And the trends are blurred if you consider all CIDs as part of the same sector, because of low-end condos being lumped in with high-end developments--there are now CIDs at all parts of the price range.
And in any event, if you are trying to see whether the rich are seceding into Privatopia, the issue is not "what percentage of CID-dwellers are rich?" The issue is, "What percentage of the rich live in CIDs?" And if the answer is, "most of them," or "many of them, and the percentage is increasing," then the fact that there are trickle-down CIDs for the less affluent is beside the point (except that it bodes ill for the future financial health of such CIDs). This study doesn't go at the question this way. It asks questions about CID housing as a single sector and compares it with traditional housing as a sector. This is great, and I'm all for doing it, but it doesn't resolve the question of whether the successful are seceding. For that, you need to study the successful.
Also, it is clear that using voting as the measure of civic participation, as the PPIC study does, is a major mistake that leads to an erroneous theoretical conclusion. People often vote out of the most selfish, anti-community, motivations imaginable (in fact, most models of voting assume self-interested voters). Voter turnout is correlated with wealth, education, and age, not a desire to participate in community life. So yes, the residents of CIDs are voting, but no, that doesn't mean they are active participants in the life of the community outside their gates and walls. You need to know things that are harder to measure. It is easy to get voter turnout. It is hard to see how people are really living.
This sort of thing is common in social science. Remember the joke about the cop who approaches the drunk standing under a streetlight and asks him what he's doing? Drunk says, "Looking for my keys." Cop says, "Where did you lose them?" Drunk says, "Across the street." Cop says, "So why are you looking for them over here?" Drunk say, "Because the light is better over here."
Q&A with Mark Baldassare, Public Policy Institute of California
...in which he says the following:
"I think that if we don't close the achievement gap in this state, then we are creating a society in which we will have the rich and the poor, the well-off, the people who have advantages and the people who don't, the people who have good jobs and the people who don't, people who depend upon public institutions for their support, and people who can go to private institutions."
----------------
And of course that's why people who agree with Dr. Baldassare, head of research at the PPIC, voted against vouchers and for easier school bond funding. But CID owners disproportionately voted the other way, according to the PPIC study.
...in which he says the following:
"I think that if we don't close the achievement gap in this state, then we are creating a society in which we will have the rich and the poor, the well-off, the people who have advantages and the people who don't, the people who have good jobs and the people who don't, people who depend upon public institutions for their support, and people who can go to private institutions."
----------------
And of course that's why people who agree with Dr. Baldassare, head of research at the PPIC, voted against vouchers and for easier school bond funding. But CID owners disproportionately voted the other way, according to the PPIC study.
sacbee.com -- Opinion -- Daniel Weintraub: Life behind gates isn't so isolating
This is an article about a new study from the Public Policy Institute of California that I haven't read yet. Check out this, from the Weintraub article:
"The study found that voters in planned communities were almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, with each around 40 percent, compared to a big advantage for Democrats in traditional neighborhoods. But at least in 2000, their voting behavior was not terribly different from the rest of the state.
"While 28 percent of voters outside planned communities supported a proposition authorizing state-funded school vouchers, for example, 31 percent of voters in planned communities voted for the measure. And while 56 percent of voters outside planned neighborhoods supported a measure making it easier for voters to approve local school bonds, 52 percent of residents inside planned communities supported the proposition. Results like this suggest a slight conservative tilt, but given the partisan trends already noted, it's surprising that the political differences aren't greater."
-------------------
So, CIDs are significantly more Republican and show more support for private schools and less support for public schools. And these are exactly the kinds of differences that I and other observers have suggested we would see. But according to Weintraub, the study is "casting doubt on old assumptions about gated communities, and the extent to which their residents wall themselves off not only from their neighbors but from the rest of society and its civic life as well."
Doesn't look that way from the evidence in the article. I'd say those differences may be statistically significant, but I'll suspend judgement until I see the study.
This is an article about a new study from the Public Policy Institute of California that I haven't read yet. Check out this, from the Weintraub article:
"The study found that voters in planned communities were almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, with each around 40 percent, compared to a big advantage for Democrats in traditional neighborhoods. But at least in 2000, their voting behavior was not terribly different from the rest of the state.
"While 28 percent of voters outside planned communities supported a proposition authorizing state-funded school vouchers, for example, 31 percent of voters in planned communities voted for the measure. And while 56 percent of voters outside planned neighborhoods supported a measure making it easier for voters to approve local school bonds, 52 percent of residents inside planned communities supported the proposition. Results like this suggest a slight conservative tilt, but given the partisan trends already noted, it's surprising that the political differences aren't greater."
-------------------
So, CIDs are significantly more Republican and show more support for private schools and less support for public schools. And these are exactly the kinds of differences that I and other observers have suggested we would see. But according to Weintraub, the study is "casting doubt on old assumptions about gated communities, and the extent to which their residents wall themselves off not only from their neighbors but from the rest of society and its civic life as well."
Doesn't look that way from the evidence in the article. I'd say those differences may be statistically significant, but I'll suspend judgement until I see the study.
Saturday, April 03, 2004
California Law Revision posts agenda for April 15 meeting
And there are quite a few topics on it. Financial privacy, state oversight of CIDs, civil discovery, equitable relief, several specific pieces of legislation...the CLRC mill grinds very, very, fine, and very, very sssllllloooowwwwlllyyyy...
And there are quite a few topics on it. Financial privacy, state oversight of CIDs, civil discovery, equitable relief, several specific pieces of legislation...the CLRC mill grinds very, very, fine, and very, very sssllllloooowwwwlllyyyy...
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