FreeMontclair.US
Here, courtesy of Chris Casey, is a website devoted to establishing basic freedom of speech for residents of Virginia's HOAs. There is a bill, SB 964, in the Virginia state legislature that would prevent HOAs in VA from squelching political speech at campaign time. Of course, CAI's Virginia Legislative Action Committee is opposing it, saying, "Imagine the homes in your community taking on the appearance of a local state highway at election time!! Not a very pretty sight."

This is just shameful. To me, that statement says all you need to know about CAI's disdainful attitude toward democracy. This is an organization that started out in 1973 with a belief in participatory local democracy. Read their early publications. HOAs were to be all about re-creating the New England town meeting. But eventually CAI became entirely a trade association, and as it was taken over by lawyers and managers, CAI has become increasingly committed to replacing local democracy with top-down, authoritarian property management. That way, the professionals who constitute CAI become the real government of the nation's HOAs. The professionals know that the volunteer directors just don't have time or the expertise to do the job alone, and even if they can, they still can't command respect from the members without the constant threat of litigation by the association's attorney.

I hope this anti-democratic statement is brought to the attention of the state legislators who pay for all those campaign signs that offend CAI's delicate sensibilities at election time.

Telegraph | News | Entire village suspected of mayor's murder
Here's a headline you won't often see. I posted this for all the folks who think their HOA president is bad. It could be worse. What if you couldn't herd farm animals through the neighborhood?

TheStar.com - News - Gulf turtles revive under sun lamp
Would somebody please explain to these sea turtles that the problem is supposed to be global warming, not frozen turtles? Don't they read their email?

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas–At least three dozen sea turtles are getting a little vacation under heat lamps in this spring-break capital after being rescued from an arctic blast that caused water temperatures in their arm of the Gulf of Mexico to plummet to little more than 10C. The rapid drop this week left the cold-blooded creatures comatose in the shallow bay where juveniles feed. Rescuers feared the cold would kill the turtles, which weigh 225 kilos when mature, or make them sluggishly vulnerable to sharks.

Lindenhurst shifts funding ideas | Chicago Tribune
We live in Lindenhurst, where a little drama has played itself out recently that shows the interplay between HOAs and TIF districts in suburban real estate development. There is one big parcel of good land for development left here. A big San Diego developer proposed to use the 200 acre parcel for 800 homes and 700,000 feet of retail space. Sounds good, right? Except that at the last minute it was disclosed that the developer wanted it to be a TIF. And that's what led 600 people to show up at a Village Board meeting and object to the TIF, and three school districts to threaten a lawsuit if the village approved the TIF. Outcome: board says no to the TIF. They are up for re-election in April, by the way. I will have more to say about HOAs and TIFs, but I see both as forms of special districts that allow municipalities to do development in non-traditional ways and make out well financially. And both have effects on other aspects of public life and public financing that others find very objectionable. The article lays out what a TIF is, in case readers of this blog don't know.

BBC NEWS | England | Wiltshire | Mystery over roadside underwear
This should be easy to solve. What Monty Python alumnus lives closest?

Police in a Wiltshire village have been trying to get to the bottom of an underwear mystery. Around 30 pairs of knickers have been draped over road signs and gravestones in Purton, near Swindon

Comments enabled
Let's see what happens. Please keep it civil.

YOU'RE FLAGGED!! Trump fined over large flag at Fla. club - Yahoo! News
Fred Pilot found this little item, and tags it as follows: "The Donald gets a taste of HOA life by a municipality HOA wannabe."


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Officials in the ritzy coastal town of Palm Beach have voted to fine Donald Trump $1,250 a day for flying a large American flag atop an 80-foot flagpole at his lavish club in violation of town codes.

Fred Pilot comments on the "Subdivision opposes maintenance tax" story (see below)
These are Fred's comments:
-------------
I think this trend recognizes the reality (a refreshing change from the "HOAs protect property values" pap) that homebuyers are rejecting private local government in the form of mandatory HOAs and seek a return to traditional, public government. Local governments see the handwriting on the wall and are wisely preparing for a wave of defunct and dissolved HOAs. The trend holds a big plus for property owners: unlike HOA assessments, property taxes that fund special districts are income tax deductible.

----------------
Fred also wants to know why I disabled the comments feature on this blog. The answer is because I got so many commercial spam posts and rage-filled, defamatory, screeds. Maybe I should enable it again and see what happens? What do you think, readers?

Northwest Herald - Subdivision opposes maintenance tax
Fred Pilot sent me this. Here we have a municipality setting up a backup plan in case an HOA fails in its maintenance responsibility. If that happens, the municipality uses a special district to force the residents to pay for the maintenance. This is becoming fairly common.



WOODSTOCK – Apple Creek subdivision residents spoke out this week against a special taxing area proposed for the new Woodstock subdivision. City officials explained that the proposed special service area would levy a tax on the property owners only if the homeowners association failed to maintain common areas.

MercuryNews.com | 01/18/2007 | No-spank bill on way
When Sweden did this years ago, Americans were amused. Now, here it comes to the largest state in the nation. The left wing of the Democratic party has always wanted to turn the US into Sweden. I thought they would start with Minnesota, but I guess California will do. This bill makes it a crime--a misdemeanor--to spank a 3 year old. Obviously the idea is to start with the young ones, so they can make the "why would anybody hit a 3 year old" argument, and then extend it to the rest of the kids. And the larger objective is to socialize parenting--to assert sweeping governmental control over the family. Hillary Clinton says it takes a village. I guess in California it takes a state legislature.



SACRAMENTO - The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children? Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.

Residents to decide on road fee | The Bryan-College Station Eagle
Private road goes bad. HOA asks city to take it over. City say, residents of HOA must contribute bucks to upgrade road to public standards first, at cost of $500 each. Watch for many more such stories over the coming years, as cheap private infrastructure crumbles prematurely, and HOA residents seek public bailout, having no bread in reserves with which to fix the problems.

First, Hunter's Creek resident David Acker started noticing cracks forming along the edges of the private roadways lining his 2-year-old subdivision. Then there were weeds growing out of the pavement. Eventually, he said, he even saw a few mesquite saplings starting to sprout. Acker joined about 20 neighbors at the Brazos County Courthouse Tuesday morning during a public hearing to gauge support for a county plan to fix the roadway problems. The solution county officials have proposed is for each of the east Brazos County neighborhood's approximately 40 residents to pay a one-time $500 fee to get the roads up to county standards. After that, officials said, the county can take over permanent responsibility for maintenance as it does for other subdivisions. According to Acker, who is president of the Hunter's Creek Neighborhood Association, the proposed solution has about 99 percent support from homeowners there.

Associations' rules can really hit home - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
But then, we all knew that, didn't we?

From reminding property owners when it is time to paint their houses to not allowing fences or sheds on property they own, these resident-run groups often supersede municipal rules.

Tampa Bay Newspapers : Grants available for homeowner associations  
Another example of HOAs being built into the intergovernmental system as extensions of local government:

LARGO – Through the Good Neighbors Partnership Grant Program, homeowner associations have a chance to get free money. A Good Neighbors Partnership Grant Workshop will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 6 p.m., at Largo City Hall Community Room.
warding up to $10,000 in matching funds, the City Commission established the program to help fund neighborhood projects, such as entryway monuments, park improvements, decorative lighting and landscaping.

Freeport balks at dredging canal for harbor
This story is from Texas. Seems the local government doesn't think it has authority to dredge a canal, but an HOA could, if it could be brought back from the dead. So the story goes. Isn't it something when an HOA has the power to solve problems the municipality is helpless to deal with?

FREEPORT — If residents of the Bridge Harbor subdivision want to see their neighborhood canal dredged, they should form a homeowner’s association for the effort, City Council members said Tuesday night...City representatives said the city should not be involved with any dredging efforts because of possible liability issues if dredging were to spread chemical contaminants that might have accumulated at the base of the canal...Although the subdivision is within city limits, the city does not control the canal, which courses about a mile through the waterside community. Federal and state agencies control water access, while the private corporation which owns Bridge Harbor also owns the actual canal bottom.
City Attorney Wallace Shaw told the homeowners they should “resurrect a homeowners’ association or some other non-profit group to take ownership of this canal,” and then dredging could ensue. Jim Pirrung, who has lived in Bridge Harbor for 17 years, disagreed.
“I would like to see the city buy the canal and dredge it and then assess property owners for costs,” he said. “We had a home association before annexation, but afterwards the association died from lack of interest. It was assumed the city would take over the responsibilities of a homeowners’ association.” Shaw said such an arrangement isn’t possible. “There’s no way repair of the canal could be assessed by the city like street (repairs),” he said. “There’s no authority from the Legislature for a city to do that.”

United Press International - NewsTrack - San Antonio community wants embryos out
Here's a remarkable story sent over by Fred Pilot:

SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The Dominion Homeowners Association in San Antonio issued a "cease and desist" notice to an embryo brokerage accused of violating deed restrictions.
The association claims Jennalee Ryan, the owner of the Abraham Center of Life, is violating her deed agreement in the upscale community by operating the business out of her home, the San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday.

City Council might study neighborhood associations : Local : Albuquerque Tribune
It's about time. But check out the relationship with the city that these HOAs have already:

City Councilor Don Harris isn't involved in this dispute - his district is on the other side of town - but he's heard this sort of problem story enough that he wants to do something about it. "Most neighborhood associations and homeowners associations are functioning fairly well, but there is a significant minority where residents feel disenfranchised," he said. On Wednesday, Harris will introduce legislation to study the problems and pursue a solution. His bill would create a nine-member task force and charge it with investigating the situation and looking over two pieces of draft legislation that would set up new regulations for both types of neighborhood groups. The proposed rules, which Harris said likely wouldn't be introduced until summer, impose standards for the election of association officers, and in the case of homeowner associations, mandate that records be open for public inspection. While homeowners associations basically function as their own entities, neighborhood associations play a critical role in city government as a whole. The city maintains a formal process for recognizing associations (right now there are 188) and shares information with them about upcoming city projects, development proposals and even liquor license applications in their area...The official relationship goes further. City councilors, if they didn't already have an incentive to know their neighborhood leaders, are by law supposed to be given the contact information of officially recognized neighborhood association leaders. The same list is given to the news media on a monthly basis, meaning association leaders are routinely called on to represent their area to the rest of the city and region. The overall importance of associations is all the more reason, Harris said, to make sure the groups are transparent, democratic and actually representing their areas. "The neighborhood is oftentimes your first line of government," he said.

Poinciana Park parents want sex offender out | naplesnews.com | Naples Daily News
Note the HOA directors involvement in, or at least support for, trying to get a law passed that will keep sex offenders from living within 2500 feet of day care centers, parks, and schools.

A Ticket On a Taurus Grows Into Much More - washingtonpost.com
It seems private property still counts for something:

A three-judge panel in Alexandria went even further than Eberth had imagined, ruling that Prince William had no authority to ticket vehicles with expired inspection stickers parked on private -- or public -- property. The ruling by Judge Robert J. Humphreys said state law prohibits only the operation of a vehicle with an expired inspection sticker, casting doubt on whether police anywhere in Virginia can ticket parked vehicles with expired stickers. Because Prince William's code dates to at least 1965, the ruling suggests that the county has been erroneously citing drivers for more than four decades. Since 2000 alone -- the year Eberth got his first of three tickets -- Prince William has written 29,871 citations under Code 13-322, for fines totaling more than $1 million.

Dissolving a Homeowners Association III > Politics > Stories > Golden > YourHub.com
Here we are on part three, and the author still hasn't given much detail. Here's how it ends, with a request that we "stay tuned."

His attorney told him that if he could bring him in-depth details concerning what the homeowner had just recited to him (details about possible HOA wrongdoings that appeared to the attorney to be the worst of which he had made notes about), such as HOA documents, audio and/or video tape recordings, etc (what is commonly known as "hard evidence"), the attorney would "go to court" with it. That is, file a lawsuit against the homeowner's HOA which might eventually lead to dissolving it (no, intelligent and rational readers, it is not easy to dissolve HOAs in a state that has legislatively mandated them - as the state of Colorado's legislators and Governor did in 1992, and then made worse in 2005 and 2006 by adding amendments to, and deleting portions of, those laws). In fact, it might be easier for HOA homeowner advocates and HOA homeowners to just gather signatures on petitions to repeal all HOA laws for your state. But that's another "story" for another time. As the HOA homeowner left his attorney's office, he was already planning how he he would get the "hard evidence" his attorney needed to start the ball rolling towards the goal of dissolving his HOA.

Stay tuned.....

Curb your renters | Daily Press: Victorville, California
The Spring Valley Lake Association is hoping to change the codes, covenants and restrictions to keep better track of renters — bringing them out of an anonymous state and informing them of the rules. Based on a request by several members, the association formed a committee to amend the CC&Rs, said Chuck Jackson, chairman of the committee. “They asked the board to see if they could do something about better security and better enforcement of the rules and regulations,” Jackson said.If passed, the CC&Rs would require, for the first time, that landlords provide the homeowner’s association with a list of all tenants and residents of the home, and at the same time require renters to read and sign a copy of the rules and regulations.

The Seattle Times: Local News: Smoking foes bring the fight to apartment buildings
Obviously this will include condos. I guess the idea is to work throught the state legislatures and city councils, and also through the condo boards.

A year after a statewide smoking ban took effect at workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public places, a new battlefield over secondhand smoke is emerging: apartment buildings. Spurred on by nonsmoking tenants and public-health leaders, more private landlords are considering restricting smoking inside their rental units. And local public-housing agencies are also looking at banning smoking in the units of some buildings.

State Farm loses $2.5 million Katrina decision--Mississippi couple who lost home awarded punitive damages
Despite all the speculation, I don't think one jury trial in a single federal District Court is going to be the end of this coverage issue. State Farm and other insurers have gazillions at stake here. Still, it is good news for a lot of homeowners:

GULFPORT, Miss. - A jury on Thursday awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to a couple who sued Bloomington-based State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. for denying their claim after Hurricane Katrina, a decision that could benefit hundreds of other homeowners challenging insurers for refusing to cover billions of dollars in storm damage.

Jean Jacques Couturier, 79; Union Organizer, Professor - washingtonpost.com
Shu Bartholomew informed me that Jean Couturier had passed away in early December. I am very sorry to see him go. He was a great man, they don’t make many people like him anymore. I met him at Borders book signing in Silver Spring, MD. He was interested in HOA reform and had some practical ideas about it. I gave a talk and mentioned Charles Ascher, who designed the model private government for Radburn, and he sent up a note that said, “I knew Charles Asher.” That was quite a shock, because all the events I described had occurred in 1928! Then we hooked up again in Oak Park. One of his chidren lived there. He was exploring the feasibility of a national HOA owners groups and told me he had decided it was going to be difficult, but he came up with a model for doing it. He was very smart, knew a whole lot about how to run organizations and governments, and was dedicated to the public good. It is really a great loss. My condolences to his family and friends. Here is part of the obituary from the Washington Post:
----------------------

Jean Jacques Couturier, 79, a union organizer, civil service reformer and university professor before retiring as executive director of the Senior Executives Association in Washington, died Dec. 7 at Lancaster Regional Medical Center in Lititz, Pa. A former resident of Chevy Chase, he had lived in Lancaster, Pa., since 2004. He spent the last two years of his career advocating for senior-level government workers. Before retiring in 1983, he took issue with reports that aides to former EPA administrator Anne Burford had compiled a hit list of career employees that they wanted fired or reassigned. He urged the Office of the Special Counsel of the Merit Systems Protection Board to investigate the alleged harassment.Throughout his career, Mr. Couturier worked on behalf of federal, state and local employees at all levels. He also spoke and wrote on topics such as civil service reform, collective bargaining in government, federal encroachment on state and local governments and careers in public management. In the academic arena for several years, he was director of research and sponsored programs at American University's College of Public and International Affairs in the early 1980s, as well as being an adjunct professor in residence in the School of Government and Public Administration, now called the School of Public Affairs. From 1974 to 1980, he was professor of public management and director of graduate studies in public management at Northwestern University. He was co-author of the book "The Public Interest in Government Labor Relations" (1977). One of Mr. Couturier's biggest achievements, said his son, Andy Couturier of Oakland, Calif., was his development of the National Civil Service Reform League's Model Public Personnel Administration Law of 1970, which has been adopted by numerous local governments.

Blair wants 'super-Asbos' for violent thugs - Sunday Times - Times Online
An ASBO is an "Anti-Social Behaviour Order," a legal device used in Great Britain to target "anti-social" people and order them not to do things that might be otherwise legal but in their case are likely threatening or otherwise disruptive to public peace and order. Now the idea is to expand this and target violent people with even more restrictive court orders. Would this approach be acceptable to the public in the US?

These new “super-Asbos” will be aimed not only at people who have a history of violent behaviour or who have just left prison but also those who may not yet have committed an offence. According to a Home Office document outlining the plan, to be published next month, the measures will ban potential trouble-makers from certain areas or mixing with certain people, alert police when they move house and possibly force them to live in a named hostel, give details of vehicles they own and impose a curfew on them.

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Online - CONDO CONTROVERSY: Municipalities grapple with condo assessments
This story is from New York state. I didn't know about this strange law giving tax breaks to condos:

Under a state law with roots in New York City, homes under a condominium association are assessed as though they were apartments, leaving them with tax bills 1/3 less or more than other homeowners receive. Earlier this month, the Pendleton Town Board had a stalemate vote of 2-2 to change the zoning of the land near the Pettit Castles. The owner wanted to build condominiums there to make money to maintain the structures, but residents expressed their displeasure with having more residents in the town get a tax break.

BREITBART.COM - Gated communities in Iraq? Well, sort of...
I heard about this from two Freds. Fred Pilot, who sent me the link, and economist Fred Foldvary, who is very intrigued by the use of "gated" (in this case, "bermed" would be a better description) neighborhoods as a solution to a whole lot of problems...as long as they are private communities:

Adapting ideas tracing back from ancient history to modern Israel, US Marines have sealed off flashpoint towns with sand walls in a new counter-insurgency tactic to quell the wilds of western Iraq. Driving across the desert to Haditha, one of the war's deadliest and most infamous battlefields, the grey plain suddenly collapses into a ditch and rises into an intimidating 12-foot (around four-metre) bank of bulldozed sand...Colonel W. Blake Crowe, the overall US commander for western Al-Anbar, calls them gated communities and likens them to the walls around Biblical Jericho. Tracy compares them to Neolithic barricades built to keep out nomadic invaders.

Bad omen in Twin Rivers oral argument?
Fred Pilot sent this link. Looks like there was some rough questioning for Frank Askin by a couple of justices:
RENTON -- Some members of the state Supreme Court on Thursday grilled a Rutgers law professor who argued that condominium dwellers have a guaranteed right to display signs, no matter the rules of their homeowners associations.Justice Roberto A. Rivera-Soto paraphrased the plaintiffs' wishes: to post as many signs as they want, to use the community room subject to their own terms and to dictate the placement of their letters in the community newsletter.

Fred Fischer's thoughts on HOAs and the Virginia Charter

What follows was sent to me by Fred Fischer, and I present it without any editing. At the end, I have added some passages from the First Virginia Charter that seemed pertinent to his argument. You can go read the whole Charter by following the link at the end of the post. It is an interesting perspective, and entirely Fred's opinion, except for the first paragraph, that he cut and pasted from a page called From Revolution to Reconstruction. So, Fred's thoughts begin with "Sound familiar," and end with "Gilbert, AZ"
_________________________

The First Charter of Virginia: April 10, 1606

...From the outset the Virginia Company was granted the authority to govern its own colony. A ruling council in England, composed of members of the joint-stock company (today's corporation) who were usually merchants of great distinction, was formed immediately after King James I granted the charter of 1606. The councilors (Board members) were appointed ostensibly by the king, but in reality were nominated by the membership, or more often, by the inner executive group of the company. The council in England issued instructions to the first settlers appointing a colonial council to make daily decisions. This group proved ineffective, and a governor, Lord Delaware, was eventually appointed. Acting under the council in England, the governor had absolute power. The authority to establish or alter a government in Virginia was based upon the charter granted by the king; in this sense, the king (today's municipalities) delegated some of his power to others (today's HOAs). From First Landing, CBN /Regent University.

Sound familiar, in the early 1960's municipalities started mandating HOAs to privatize many services to eliminate maintenance and infrastructure costs and to generate new revenue (State of CA). Then to accomplish this municipalities mandated the creation of and delegated governmental powers onto a corporate entity like the 1606 Charter of Virginia Company (a corporate colony) effectively eliminating members Constitutional inalienable private property rights in the process. Consequently HOAs have evolved since into a fourth level of private government essentially acting as governmental corporations created exclusively by developers in collaboration with HOA industry attorneys and service providers. Except HOAs "have no public concern towards the welfare of its members" since they are created without the participation or support of their ultimate shareholders or the community even though members will be bound in perpetuity to its authority.

Let their be no misunderstandings, when people loose their private property rights they automatically loose all other civil liberties as Americas founders well understood. Consequently HOAs have little to do with protecting property values or making better neighborhoods but instead are primarily about control over private property for profit. By those who economically benefit, exclusively create and support the HOAs in part or in whole and depend on them for their livelihood. Unfortunately when people buy into an HOA what is not disclosed by realtors, the local municipality or in the HOA declaration. Is the indisputable fact that buyers are only buying the right to live there. Because buyers have unknowingly forfeited through the HOA contract their Constitutional private property rights and other rights and protections. Effectively making HOA members once again second class citizens as the colonists once were and subject to the same injustices and tyranny.

Government by contract eliminates citizens Constitutional private property rights and is a Pandora's Box that is a breading ground for endless conflict as Americas founders clearly understood & tried to end !

Thanks, Fred Fischer

Gilbert, AZ.

__________________________________

From the First Virginia Charter:

And wee doe alsoe ordaine, establishe and agree for [us], our heires and successors, that eache of the saide Colonies shall have a Counsell which shall governe and order all matters and causes which shall arise, growe, or happen to or within the same severall Colonies, according to such lawes, ordinannces and instructions as shalbe in that behalfe, given and signed with our hande or signe manuell and passe under the Privie Seale of our realme of Englande; eache of which Counsells shall consist of thirteene parsons and to be ordained, made and removed from time to time according as shalbe directed and comprised in the same instructions… And that alsoe ther shalbe a Counsell established here in Englande which shall in like manner consist of thirteen parsons to be, for that purpose, appointed by us, our heires and successors, which shalbe called our Counsell of Virginia; and shall from time to time have the superior managing and direction onelie of and for all matters that shall or may concerne the govermente, as well of the said severall Colonies as of and for anie other parte or place within the aforesaide precinctes of fower and thirtie and five and fortie degrees abovementioned;

Link to First Virginia Charter, April 10, 1606

Condo association opposes bay (boat) speed zones | naplesnews.com | Naples Daily News
More political activity by organized CID residents, this time over boat speed limits:

A neighborhood association board representing 5,000 condominium residents on Gulf Shore Boulevard North sent its president to Wednesday’s Naples City Council meeting to relay the group’s opposition to keeping up the legal defense of the speed zones. The board’s position is that “enough is enough and no further taxpayer funds should be spent on this matter,” Gulf Shore Association of Condominiums President Murray Hendel told the City Council.

Dissolving a Homeowners Association II > Politics > Stories > Golden > YourHub.com
Actually this article doesn't answer the question it asks, but promises to in future installments. In this piece the author just explains why a person might want to dissolve his or her HOA.

Buying a Condo? Asking Five Questions Makes All The Difference
This is a press release, but it has some good questions.

Mentally Retarded Sue, Charging Condo Discriminated - January 11, 2007 - The New York Sun
People keep asking me why I think there need to be limits on the powers of HOAs and deed restrictions. Offered for your consideration, as Rod Serling used to say:

The condominium board of a Washington Heights building is facing a discrimination lawsuit on behalf of five mentally retarded adults who want to move in. The lawsuit, filed recently in federal court in Manhattan, is the latest chapter in Margaret Puddington's effort to find a suitable home for her son and four of his friends.

Dead birds rain down on towns half a world apart | the Daily Mail
I understand why the birds are falling out of the sky in Texas, but what's wrong with the air in Australia?

The Mercury - Homeowner says association trying to deflate Eagles spirit
Here is an assault on the use of inflatables, which are sprouting all over America these days. In our neighborhood we have folks whose front yards look like blimp airfields. I wonder why kids with bb guns don't use them for target practice? Not that I'm suggesting they should...

LIMERICK -- After the heart-stopping win over the Giants on Sunday, Eagles fans are flying high. But one local homeowners association is trying to take the wind out from under their wings.Nick Vance, a resident of the Golf Ridge neighborhood, and a member of the 150-member plus homeowners association there, has been an Eagles fan his whole life. Vance was told recently by the homeowners association president, Keith Daywalt, that he has to take down an inflatable lawn decoration that Vance calls his good luck charm.

The Sun Online - News: 'Odour nuisance' probe stinks!
Shu Bartholomew agrees, asking where this sort of thing will end. Will people be jailed for not using deodorant while watching football games in their living room? OK, this is Great Britain, but is it coming soon to a city near you, as munis compete with HOAs to have rinky dink little quality-of-life ordinances they can brag about? Council chiefs have told the couple they face a health investigation after a neighbour claimed fumes from their ciggies were invading her living room.

CALL Lobbies Tallahassee to Let Community Associations Form 'Self-Insurance Funds' to Spread Risk, Stem Rate Hikes: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link. "CALL" is the Community Association Leadership Lobby. If my memory is correct, it was set up by the industry, mainly the law firm of Becker and Poliakoff, to counter the lobbying influence of grass-roots homeowner organizations like Cyber Citizens for Justice.

U.S. home prices unaffordable for many workers: study - Yahoo! News
Fred Pilot sent this article about a new study from the Center for Housing Policy. That organization is focused largely on promoting "affordable housing."

Inventor of instant noodles dies at 96
A moment of silence, please. And don't tell my daughter. She loves Ramen Noodles.

Mesa senior community residents angered by club fees
Pat Haruff sent this item. I know developers need to get creative with names, but "Dreamland Villa"? Please. How about "Hallucination Acres"? "Coma Corners"?

Since 2003, neighbor-against neighbor confrontations and lawsuits have become the norm in the sprawling Dreamland Villa, which draws retirees to the unincorporated area. Last month, 39 court summonses filed by Dreamland attorney Charles Maxwell were delivered to residents for not paying annual dues — which could lead to liens on homes in default, and even foreclosure. Joe Kuka, 78, who lives on Evergreen Street, recently received court documents stating he owed $769.30 in dues, legal fees, monthly penalties and interest for a club he said he doesn’t want. “I pity the poor (person) who would come up and put a for-sale sign in front of my house,” Kuka said. “I worked hard for this house.” The summonses were the latest in an ongoing legal feud that centers on changes three years ago to the 45-year-old neighborhood’s rules and restrictions. Those rules now require around 1,400 homeowners to pay annual dues and will eventually include nearly all of the 3,000 homes in Dreamland Villa, which would generate hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for the Dreamland Villa Community Club.

AP Wire | 01/05/2007 | City bans tossing candy during parades
See? More evidence that cities are acting like HOAs.

Bradenton Herald | 01/05/2007 | Heritage Harbour forbids signage
Shu Bartholomew sent this report of anti-sign activity. Wouldn't it be nice if the Twin Rivers case was the beginning of the end for this sort of thing?

EAST MANATEE - When a job opportunity led Heritage Harbour homeowner Richard Brody to move across the country, he knew selling his house would be rough. "By the time I listed my home, the market had already gone sour," Brody said. Now, a new regulation is further challenging how long it will take for Brody to sell his home. The Heritage Harbour Master Association sent a letter to Brody last month telling him the small For Sale sign he had in his yard is no longer allowed.

Medford Central Record - Judge orders the proceeds of home sale held in escrow
Thanks to Shu Bartholomew for sending this report of suburban trench warfare:

MOUNT HOLLY-A Superior Court Judge has ordered that some proceeds of a house sale of the former president of a Kings Grant neighborhood homeowner's association be put in an escrow account that will be subject to court control.
A class action lawsuit is pending between residents of the Oak Hollow section of Kings Grant and the former president of the Oak Hollow Condominium Association, Inc., which alleges that the board unlawfully used money collected from homeowners.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Mexico > Tijuana & The Border -- Tijuana police force ordered to turns in guns
I think this qualifies for the "Municipal Government Failure of the Year Award," even though it is still only January 5. Nominations will be accepted until December 31, though.

NPR : Storm-Door Case Tests Property Rights for Millions
NPR's Day to Day did a piece on the Twin Rivers case because the arguments before the New Jersey Supreme Court were held yesterday. Here's the link to the audio. There is a bit from me in there. I like the part where the CAI/Twin Rivers HOA attorney says that we have city, county, state and federal government, and "that's enough." True. So very, very, true. But he says this in support of his argument that the law should not treat HOAs like government. This is a "let's pretend" argument. Let's pretend they aren't behaving like governments, so then we don't have to act as if they were doing what they are really doing. In truth, his point supports the ACLU's position. Since we already have enough government, maybe HOA regulation is more than we need. So of course it needs to be regarded with some judicial skepticism and oversight, doesn't it?

"The Association"...the movie!
Hollywood producer Andrew Wahlquist has a feature film in development about life in a homeowner association. You can follow the link above to his website for the film, which includes a trailer and a teaser. Don't miss it! I read the script and offered a few suggestions a while back. This is a funny and insightful film. The plot involves Dave Miller, an independently minded person who moves to a gated community with his wife and children. He soon begins to have problems with an over-controlling HOA. He falls in with the local rebel group, and the conflict unfolds. I won't give away the plot twists, because it is a good story. Enjoy!

High court to hear dispute over homeowners association rules - Newsday.com
More press coverage of the upcoming Twin Rivers argument before the New Jersey Supreme Court on January 4. If the court rules that the New Jersey state constitution limits the activities of HOA boards, it will be one of the biggest events in common interest housing...ever.

Neighborhoodtimes: County admits fault in auction of condo
Oops. Make that double oops.

Pinellas county officials have conceded they were acting unlawfully when they neglected to contact more than 900 time-share owners of a Pass-a-Grille condominium before they auctioned it off in a tax deed sale in November, according to court documents...The county sent several notices to the condo board but did not receive a response.

Florida's overbuilt condo market starts to fizzle
Like I said, I am holding off on pronouncing the housing bust over.

Developers have pulled the plug on some of Miami's most anticipated condominium developments, a sign the city's sizzling, speculator-driven condo market -- where prices of many apartments doubled or tripled in a few brief years -- has finally chilled.

BREITBART.COM - Sales of New Homes Post Gain in November
That's a bit of good news, but after all the evidence of a slump in the housing market I'm holding off on believing that things have turned around.

New Jersey Real Estate Report » Free speech or HOA rules?
Here's a weblog post on the Twin Rivers case, which is scheduled to be argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court on January 4, 2007. Thanks' to Fred Pilot for the link.

And for those who want to keep track of the case, here's the info on the case from the court website:

A-118/122-05 Comm. For a Better Twin Rivers v. Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Assoc. et al. (59,230)
Do the State Constitution’s Speech and Assembly clauses apply to limit the authority of a homeowners’ association, and if so, under what circumstances?
Certification granted 4/28/06
Argued: Scheduled for 1/4/07
Decided:

'Mistake' costs family its home at The Springs - Orlando Sentinel :
Here is a heartwarming story of judicial compassion, link forwarded by Fred Pilot via the HOAs Yahoo group:

SANFORD -- Because of someone else's mistake, Sharon Rousey lost her Longwood home at a courthouse auction two weeks ago over $1,200 in unpaid homeowners association dues. On Wednesday, she tried to persuade a judge to give it back. He refused. That means Rousey, 48, a single mom who is raising two disabled teenagers on a fixed income, must now pack up her belongings and get out...Rousey bought the 2,400-square-foot town house in The Springs, a gated community near Wekiwa Springs State Park, in May 2005. The home, though, came with a surprise: She would belong to two homeowners associations and, thus, had to pay two sets of dues, one for The Springs and another for Glenwood Village, the town-house neighborhood. She fell behind on both, according to court records...In November, Rousey thought she had solved her problems: Goodbye Foreclosure Inc., a Winter Park company that buys distressed properties, agreed to buy her house before the auction. It would pay off her homeowners association dues as well as her mortgage and leave her with about $115,000 in cash. But company Vice President Aaron Herschberg sent a check to an association -- the wrong one, it turned out -- and assumed the auction would be called off. It wasn't. On Dec. 5, an Apopka company that buys foreclosed property agreed to pay $113,500. Mark Lippman, Rousey's attorney, estimated the market value of her town house at $275,000 to $300,000.

Birth of Jesus Christ
Just a reminder about the religious significance of Christmas. Merry Christmas, and enjoy the presents, family and friends, football games, egg nog, and whatever else makes the day special. I hope we can also spend a few moments pondering the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ over two thousand years ago.

What is it about Obama? - Los Angeles Times
Fred Pilot found this nugget.

Early this month, at the invitation of Rick Warren, Obama spoke to a hall full of conservative Christian evangelical activists gathered at Saddleback Church in Orange County. Warren, author of the bestseller "The Purpose Driven Life," is among the most successful and popular preachers in the world. Saddleback is his city on a hill, a sprawling campus set above the smooth, clean boulevards of the most suburban of places. His is the kind of congregation where Warren's joke about the authoritarian rule of suburban homeowners associations brings a knowing laugh.

Merry Bizaromas - Frederick Meekins
Nancy Levy sent this link to an essay that compares Christmas in an HOA to Bizarro world from the Superman comics, where everything is dysfunctional. That's an analogy I hadn't thought of before, but now that he mentions it...

HOMEOWNERS KEEP FILING – AND WINNING – STATE AND FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUITS

The following was sent to me by Marjorie Murray of the Center for California Homeowner Association Law, which is where the link above will take you. This is a piece from their newsletter, which you can subscribe to by going to their web site and following the "Press Room/Newsletter" link on the left side of the page. I do not have any independent knowledge of the case described below, so if you have any inquiries direct them to Marjorie or the attorneys involved in the case.

-------------------
SACRAMENTO -- Working through Fair Housing agencies, legal aid groups and private attorneys, homeowners keep filing civil rights lawsuits against their associations – and winning.
In June, the estate of David Donnell settled with Snowshoe Springs Association (Calaveras County) for an undisclosed amount approved by the U.S. District Court Eastern District in Sacramento [Case # CIV S-01-1953 MCE KJM.].
Disabled by lifelong health problems, including epilepsy, Donnell sued Snowshoe in federal court after it tried to foreclose on his home in order to collect about $1200 in late assessments. [Sacramento Bee, Jan 14, 2001.] The board refused his offer – made publicly – to pay his debt in installments.
With the help of Sentinel Fair Housing, Donnell later petitioned the board formally under Fair Housing laws to be allowed to pay in installments. Still the board refused. The board later claimed foreclosure was the only way to force him to pay. The association had no foreclosure policy in place, when it tried to seize his cabin, built by his parents 40 years ago. The Donnell foreclosure would have been Snowshoe’s first.
The Bee article generated the pro bono services of Roseville attorney, Michael L. Johnson, who stopped the foreclosure. Donnell later sued the Association, several board members as individuals, one homeowner not on the board, association attorney, Curtis Sproul, and his law firm Genshlea Chediak & Sproul for trying to seize his home in a nonjudicial foreclosure. KGS Community Services, the debt collection firm hired by Snowshoe and owned by Sproul’s ex-wife, was not named in the suit.
A chief cause of action in the suit was that the defendants violated civil rights statutes by refusing to grant Donnell’s request to pay in installments and then moving to foreclose when it had no policy to foreclose. After the suit was filed, the SSA board adopted a foreclosure policy.
But before his case could come to trial, Donnell died from his disabilities in September 2005 in a Calaveras County hospital. Snowshoe attorneys moved quickly to get the case dismissed. However, Federal Judge Morrison England granted the petition of Donnell’s sisters to let the suit against Snowshoe forward on behalf of his estate.
On the eve of trial, Snowshoe settled out of court in a confidential agreement approved by Judge England. At Snowshoe’s annual meeting in July, property manager Mark Redding said, “The settlement didn’t cost us anything.” However, sources close to the case estimate that, in addition to the settlement money paid to Donnell’s estate, the insurance company alone paid an estimated $250,000 in legal fees to litigate the case. Whether the costs result is higher insurance premiums to Snowshoe – and higher assessments to homeowners -- is unclear. – end --

Taco Bell uses self-serving polls, too

About 1 in 3 frequent fast-food customers say they plan to eat less often at Taco Bell — or not at all — as a result of the chain's recent E. coli outbreak, according to a national poll done for USA TODAY...Taco Bell President Greg Creed declined in a phone interview to comment on Sandelman's findings. He said Taco Bell has been doing its own polling since the outbreak and that 94% of people who describe themselves as Taco Bell eaters have a "positive" view of the brand; 82% believe the food is "safe."
________________________
What does this have to do with common interest housing? I am often asked about the significance of the Zogby and Gallup polls commissioned by the Community Associations Institute that report general satisfaction with HOAs. I think there are polls, and there are polls. If you work hard enough to get data supporting a particular position, and you ask the questions carefully enough, you can get the data you are looking for. But that isn't social science in my book.

I drove past the local Taco Bell at lunchtime, and there were four cars in the lot. What's my point? Commissioned polls be damned. Taco Bell customers have a choice and they are voting with their feet. It would nice if new home buyers weren't forced into HOAs and condos so we could see what they really want.

Ho, ho, ho.

Suzette Kelo's holiday greeting card to the City of New London
NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) -- The woman at the center of a national battle over property rights has sent some not-so-joyous tidings to people involved in taking her house to make way for private development. Susette Kelo's holiday cards feature a snowy image of her pink house and a message that reads, in part, "Your houses, your homes, your family, your friends. May they live in misery that never ends. I curse you all. May you rot in hell. To each of you I send this spell." The cards were conceived and produced by a friend of Kelo's and sent to city officials and members of New London's development agency. Kelo said she also considered sending the cards to five U.S. Supreme Court justices who ruled in June 2005 that New London had the right to take homes in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood to make way for a riverfront project slated to include condominiums, a hotel and office space.

2005 Tar Heel of the Year - Self-Help's Martin Eakes
Here's a story about the man who started Self Help Credit Union, which in turn created the Center for Responsible Lending. And CRL did the study referenced below. Sounds like quite a fellow.

Report Reveals 2.2 Million Borrowers Face Foreclosure on Subprime Home Loans: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

You can download the pdf of this report at the CRL website, linked in this snippet. It makes for some scary reading, especially when you look the tables. The West will be hit very hard if the data and analysis are correct, and my quick review of the study tells me it appears to be a solid piece of work.

A new Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) study reveals that 2.2 million American households will lose their homes and as much as $164 billion due to foreclosures in the subprime mortgage market. Titled, "Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners," the CRL study is the first comprehensive, nationwide review of millions of subprime mortgages originated from 1998 through the third quarter of 2006. CRL's research suggests that risky lending practices have triggered the worst foreclosure crisis in the modern mortgage market, projecting that one out of five (19.4%) subprime loans issued during 2005-2006 will fail...Trouble in the overall subprime market spells trouble for African American and Latino families across the country. Although white families receive more subprime loans overall, African Americans and Latinos receive a higher proportion of high-cost loans than any other group, a fact consistently verified annually by data lenders submit under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). "Losing Ground" estimates that 8 to 10 percent of all African American and Latino families who received a home loan in 2005 will be affected by subprime foreclosures.

Suburban sprawl may create heavier kids - Yahoo! News

Using data from a national health survey, researchers found that teenagers living in sprawling suburbs were more than twice as likely to be overweight as teens in more compact urban areas. The findings echo those of a 2003 study by the same researchers that focused on U.S. adults. The researchers believe the same factors may be driving the link between suburban living and teenagers' weight -- the major one being reliance on cars. "In a sprawling suburb, you can do very little on foot," said lead study author Dr. Reid Ewing of the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Education and Research.


-------------
Fred Pilot wants to create a new planned community where you have to walk to work and school. How to enforce it, I wonder? Maybe the CC&Rs?

Fighting for oversight - baltimoresun.com
Thanks to Fred Pilot for this:

Seeking to address complaints about abuses in Maryland's growing number of homeowners and condominium associations, a state task force is calling for greater local oversight of these quasi-governmental bodies, which essentially tax their residents to take care of swimming pools, playgrounds, trash pickup and other community services...But the panel balked at calling for greater state enforcement of existing condo and homeowners association laws, for making the laws uniform across housing types or for establishing a "bill of rights" for residents of such communities. "It's a start, but it falls way short of where advocates for residents wanted to go," said Alexander Hekimian, a task force member. The president of a townhouse association in Columbia, he said he has long advocated for greater accountability in associations, including the Columbia Association, which essentially governs a community of nearly 100,000 people in Howard County. Hekimian contended that the task force was stacked with association representatives and "passed the buck" on addressing abuses by leaving enforcement largely up to local governments. He had drafted a two-page "bill of rights" for residents similar to one backed nationally by AARP. But he said the task force was unwilling even to endorse the concept, much less his language.

Developers target niche home buyers | Chicago Tribune
If you look hard enough, you can find some comments by this McKenzie guy.

From American Homeowners Resource Center: JUDGE PUBLICLY ADMONISHED FOR COMMENTS
This is quite a story and I'd recommend reading the whole thing, but here's a sample:

James M. Brooks is a superior court judge in Santa Ana, Orange County, California. He started as a municipal court judge in 1987, and was moved to the superior court in 1998.On November 29, 2006, the Commission on Judicial Performance issued a Public Admonishment - one of the Commission's highest sanctions. In deciding to make the Admonishment public, the Commission noted that he had been disciplined for similar conduct before. This was in response to a complaint filed by Arnold McMahon against Brooks...In the other case, Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association v McMahon, the Commission found that Brooks made statements to the McMahons that were "sarcastic, demeaning and intimidating." Arnold McMahon was explaining to Brooks that he had not been able to attend a deposition because at 3.30a.m. in the morning, he experienced intense pressure in his chest. After his doctor discovered an abnormality in his EKG, the doctor sent him to hospital, where he was admitted to the cardiac unit with a suspected heart attack. Brook's response was: "Gee. I wonder what's going to happen when we put you in jail, Mr. McMahon. Your little ticker might stop, you think?" To Elizabeth McMahon, Brooks stated that if she did not show up for her deposition, "it will be [$]10,000 payable to the court. I'd mention jail but it might give her heart attack."

Just got back from the National League of Cities conference
Tracy Gordon of PPIC and I did a presentation on CIDs and cities, mderated by Kevin Frazell. It was fascinating to hear the audience questions, because they confirmed a number of things that I had said in my presentation. First, many people confirmed that cities are mandating CIDs in new housing. We heard this from delegates from several states. Second, many confirmed that as the developments age and need major fixes that they can't afford, the HOAs come to the cities for help that may not be forthcoming. Third, a number of attendees also confirmed that there are plenty of defunct CIDs around, where the BOD is nonexistent, no dues are being collected, and problems are being created for local government.

Tracy's work is really excellent, and you can get it from the PPIC website. She has the best data on California CIDs available, and she is a very even-handed and responsible researcher. She envisions HOAs and cities gradually working out a functional relationship. I tend to be more pessimistic, because there are so many problems with HOA finances and leadership, but I think she has a point. It is important to keep in mind that in the long run most of the time people find a way to muddle through. But on the other hand, remember the Savings and Loan industry?

MercuryNews.com | 12/10/2006 | Droves say goodbye to Golden State
Fred Pilot sent this along. I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago. I saw nothing but yuppies, homeless people, tourists, and dogs (the residents of San Francisco have an average of 6.3 dogs, if my sampling is accurate). There are no kids in the city, except the ones the tourists bring. It costs a bazillion dollars to rent or buy anything you can live in. And now, forget about San Francisco--it costs a fortune to live even in San Bernardino. So for the first time in memory, people are getting out of California.

Between 2004 and 2005, the migration flow into California from the other 49 states started flowing the other way. Data from the state Department of Finance shows that, for the first time this decade, more people left California in 2005 for another state than the number who moved in. Mary Heim, a finance department demographer, says this particular kind of outflow will continue for the foreseeable future. Unlike the tens of thousands who left Silicon Valley following the tech bust earlier this decade, the new migration is about the quest for something besides a job: a better quality of life at a lower cost of living.

12 million suburbanites live in poverty - Yahoo! News
Fred Pilot sent this link to a story that is buried in the newspapers as well. I have a couple of reactions. First, can we finally have an end to the leftist academics and politicians insisting that cities are full of poor people and suburbs are places of affluence and whiteness? It turns out that now a majority of the nation's poor live in the suburbs, which happen to be place of enormous economic and racial diversity. Second, as Fred notes, what does this suggest about the future of CIDs? I have been arguing for years (and will be arguing at the National League of Cities conference in Reno, where I'm headed today) that we need to watch out for a fiscal crisis in CIDs, as buildings and infrastructure wear out and the reserves are not there, nor is the insurance coverage, nor the construction defect litigation, and therefore not even the bank loan, to pay for repairing and replacing it. Now, add this story to the mix. There are the poor, and also the house-poor. Most of the new housing in suburbs is in CIDs, including loads of former cheesy apartment buildings that are now slightly less cheesy condominiums. Many programs have pushed a lot of relatively low income people into these buildings as first time owners. They, especially, may not have the revenue to do the upkeep and major repairs on these older condo conversion buildings. Tick, tick, tick...

The suburban poor outnumbered their inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas released Thursday. "Economies are regional now," said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty."

Article - News - Leisure World must open its records
This is an interesting turn of events to which I was alerted by the ever-alert Fred Pilot. Leisure World, which is a giant common interest community, is run by Golden Rain Foundation, a non-profit corporation. Residents ask to see corporate records under the David-Stirling Act that regulates CIDs. The corporation says it is not a CID, is not governed by the Act, and doesn't have to release the records. Lawsuit happens. Judge says: oh, yes, you are a CID.

Nice try at avoiding accountability under the law, but no cigar.

...residents argued that Golden Rain was a homeowners association, a type of common interest development. Golden Rain argued that it was a nonprofit corporation and not a common interest development. Consequently, officials said they were not legally obligated to release records to residents. Although Golden Rain voluntarily made public many of its financial records, the residents who sued said they wanted a legal right to access the documents.

Flag-raising raises a fuss at Lino Lakes condo
Fred Pilot sent this along. The flagpole seems to be in the common area, which creates some fairly obvious problems.

World War II veteran Robert Goergen knows he's breaking the rules at his home in Lino Lakes, yet he vows to fight for his right to fly his beloved United States flag as it was meant to be flown -- high and free in the wind. At issue is the placement of a 15-foot flagpole that Goegen planted outside his condominium. Condo managers say the flag is flying on land that belongs to the association, not to him, and they're demanding that he remove the pole and fly the flag according to regulations.

Texas House of Representatives: Member Burt Solomons
Here's the legislator who introduced HR 222, referenced below. This is the ban on municipal mandating of CID construction.

TLO - 80(R) History for HB 222
This is the bill I referred to a few days ago that would do away with municipal mandates for HOAs, at least in Texas.

Judge rewards flagpole lawyer
Fred Pilot sent another account of the work of Attorney Barry Silver, who was awarded twice his usual fees for winning the appeal on behalf of Georg Andres. I think nothing could change the situation of CID owners faster than making the association pay the owner's attorney. As Silver puts it:

Silver got a temporary injunction that kept Andres' American flag flying and then won an appeal that reversed the rulings against Andres. As Silver made the case, he said, he saw a way to argue that the homeowners association should pick up the tab for his services. "In Florida, homeowners associations are used to running roughshod over the rights of their clients. And the reason they can do that is once they decide to go after one of their own homeowners, it's virtually impossible for a homeowner to find an attorney to represent them," Silver said, explaining the crux of his argument.Circuit Court Judge Edward Fine bought it, and as part of the decision awarded Silver twice his regular hourly fee, because of the risk involved in taking such a labor-intensive case without guarantee of payment.

TCPalm: Judge awards legal fees to Jupiter man involved in flag flap

Latest events in the Georg Andres case, sent by Shu Bartholomew:

A Jupiter man fighting to fly the American flag on a pole on his property is claiming victory in a judge's decision to award his attorney legal fees. But the win for Boca Raton attorney Barry Silver's success in a foreclosure action appeal is part of a larger war between George Andres and his homeowner's association that isn't yet over.

The Peace Wreath
Look what just came in over the transom. Thanks, Jim, for a fine piece of Peacemas poetry.

Every Loma at Lindaville liked Peace a lot
But the Grinch and his Cronies certainly DID NOT!
This Grinch hated Peace!
The whole Peacetime season!
Now please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason!
It could be perhaps he just liked to fight, or
Maybe his head was screwed on to the Right.
But we think the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

No matter the reason.
His heart or his head,
He felt really bad, and troubled instead.
The more the Grinch dwelled on the Peace Sign thing
the more he ached to stop the whole thing!
"I must stop this Peace Wreath from being,...but how!
"I know what I'll do, I won't stand this abuse"
He thunked to himself "All I need's an excuse"

He looked for an excuse to take the Wreath down.
But, since excuses are scarce there were none to be found.
Did that stop this ol' Grinch...?
NO! The Grinch simply said
"If I can't find an excuse I'll make one instead!"
He did better than that, he made a Big List,
and Right here they are, and some we have missed.



The Wreath may offend, or it might not be nice,
it might be for Pagans, who drink wine with ice!
Maybe it's code, all secret and sneaky,
Maybe these Loma's are just being cheeky!
Then he fired his cronies (who weren’t so uptight),
They said it’s not bad, but the Lights kept him up nights!
He puzzled and twisted and puzzled some more,
He listed excuses, till his Puzzler was sore.

Then finally his Puzzler hit on the Thing!
Maybe really this Wreath’s not such a bad Zing!
Maybe Peace to the World isn’t so bad,
Maybe Peace to the World, shouldn’t make him so Mad!
Imagine; a world where folks spoke up for Peace!
Like Lisa, the Loma, with her Peace Wreath!

And what happened then...?
In Lindaville they say
That the Grinch's small heart
Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight
He could answer his phone and not hide all the night!
He stopped all his Trickzies, and called off his goons
...and he hung back the Wreath, by the light of the moon!

Jim Fuge
Southwest Colorado Peace and Justice Coalition
refuge@frontier.net
jimfuge@webtv.net

DenverPost.com - HOA surrenders on peace wreath
Thanks to Jim Bowers for pointing me to this. He also suggests a parallel to the big issue in the Twin Rivers case pending before the New Jersey Supreme Court: restriction of basic liberties by a private government. In the Colorado situation, the board members had the decency to resign. That's a good example for others, in my book.

A Pagosa Springs subdivision may have some peace again after a homeowners' association threatened to fine a resident for putting up a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign. But the Loma Linda subdivision is now scrambling to assemble a new association board after the three members resigned today. The directors of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association apologized Monday to Lisa Jensen and Bill Trimarco for threatening to fine the couple $25 a day if they didn't remove their lighted wreath. The wreath had been characterized as a divisive symbol that violated the subdivision rules against displaying signs or advertisements.

American Chronicle: Pretty Fascist Communism
Thanks to Nancy Levy for sending the link to this amazing piece of writing by Nancy Levant, who links HOA living to a transformation of American society, as we become a society "prettified" by elites:

It seems that America the nation has undergone a facelift. It’s out with the old - the tried and true – and in with all that is new, licensed, inspected, controlled, manipulated, and mandated by “renewal” projects, environmental “sustainability,” “associations,” and by the “appointments” of “regional” intellectuals. It is amazing how America has transformed – and all at the insistence of American elites who are, themselves, led by international/financial governors...Just look at all the new and pretty homeowner association communities. Nice walkways, landscaping, uniform paint, brick, and stone jobs, and all the rules to keep things “nice” from the propensity of the human being to individualize his living quarters. Please! The rich know far better how to decorate and maintain quality living. We need not concern ourselves with yards, exterior maintenance, or controlling our behaviors and choices. “They” know far better how to manage our lives, and they provide us with beautifully printed rule books (not booklets, mind you, but books) on how to be proper “community” dwellers. And they also maintain our “common” areas and even plant and maintain our flowers and bushes – the one’s they select to beautify our “community.” All very pretty and nice – and all across America we see that uniformity is best for “the people,” and this uniformity must be maintained.

Read the whole thing.

Freshly Baked Handouts Forbidden in Fairfax - washingtonpost.com
I have this feeling that local governments are starting to emulate HOAs. Here's an example. Fairfax County is wall to wall HOAs. And now this exercise in stupidity:

The casserole has been canned. Under a tough new Fairfax County policy, residents can no longer donate food prepared in their homes or a church kitchen -- be it a tuna casserole, sandwiches or even a batch of cookies -- unless the kitchen is approved by the county, health officials said yesterday. They said the crackdown on home-cooked meals is aimed at preventing food poisoning among homeless people...."We're very aware that a number of homeless people eat out of dumpsters, and mom's pot roast has got to be healthier than that," said Jim Brigl, chief executive of Fairfax Area Christian Emergency & Transitional Services. "But that doesn't meet the code."

Article - News - It's good to be a supervisor
Fred Pilot sent this amazing story from the Orange County Register about the lavish pay and perks bestowed on Orange County Board of Supervisors. And all the HOA residents get to chip in for this extravagance, along with paying through the nose to their HOA for private infrastructure and services that the County and municipalities don't provide for them. How long before the double taxation initiative movement gets going?

Imagine a job where you earn about $200,000 a year – a package that includes $59,000 in benefits, a $600 monthly car allowance and all the free gas you can guzzle.

You get a staff of at least six people, an annual operating budget of about $800,000, 12 paid holidays and a BlackBerry.

This same job offers you two free parking spots in a covered, secure garage. You also get a semi-private elevator – used by just you and four other people – to whisk you up and drop you at the back door of your large, fifth-floor office.

Oh, and you can take on a few other side jobs that will pay you stipends of several thousand more a year. And you don't have to pay Social Security taxes.

Inca justice system eyed by Morales may use whipping - World - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
I wonder how long it will take for some HOAs to adopt this approach?

THE HAGUE -- Bolivian President Evo Morales, on a state visit to the Netherlands, said he is searching for a new model of democracy that could include reviving the ancient tradition of whipping petty criminals as an alternative to jail.
"When I was a kid I was punished several times, being whipped and lashed," the leftist president said Monday in a speech to an audience of businessmen and government officials from both Bolivia and the Netherlands.

On Architecture: The suburbs don't have to be boring
Nancy Levy forwarded this piece about how to make suburbs good places to live and raise families, and also "interesting," like big cities. Here's one of the suggestions:

"Encourage eccentricity. The single most positive thing suburban neighborhoods could do for themselves is to throw out every one of the CC&Rs (conditions, covenants and restrictions in legalese) that relate to architecture and landscaping. Residents have a legitimate interest in protecting property values by insisting on reasonable maintenance standards -- fences shouldn't rot, paint shouldn't decay and junk cars shouldn't be left to decompose in driveways. But the rules that restrict colors, alterations and additions keep suburban neighborhoods from reflecting the increasing diversity and individuality of the people who live in them."

BREITBART.COM - Existing Home Sales Rise, Prices Fall
Sales of existing homes posted a tiny increase in October, the first gain in eight months, but the median price of homes sold last month fell by a record amount. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that existing home sales edged up 0.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.24 million. It marked the first sales increase since February. However, the median, or midpoint, price for a home sold dropped to $221,000 in October, a decline of 3.5 percent from a year ago. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline on record. It marked the third straight month that home prices have fallen compared to the same period a year ago, the longest stretch of such declines on record.

Homeowner associations can be very good or very bad
That is the philosophical headline of the recent story about HOAs. I'm quoted if you read down far enough.

Now, here's a law to reckon with...
Here's some language from Texas' HB222, called to my attention by the ever alert Fred Pilot and circulating around the newsgroups. It's nice to see this acknowledgement of the fact that municipalities in many states are mandating the creation of HOAs as a condition of allowing construction.

"Sec. 212.002. RULES
...A municipality may not adopt a rule that requires the creation of a property owners' association as a condition of approving a plat."

Colo. subdivision bans wreath peace sign - Yahoo! News
Thanks to Fred Pilot for this sample of holiday spirit, HOA style. There is a photo of the offending wreath. Anti-Iraq protest, symbol of Satan, or just a Hippie Holiday? You be the judge.

DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

trialog zeitschrift für stadtplanung frameset-datei
From Elisabeth Peyroux comes the announcement of this new issue of the journal Trialog, which is about "Controlling Urban Space. The Rise of New Actors." That includes all the friendly little neighborhood HOAs and other "new actors."

Don't try defending your home against an intruder in Canada
The basic rule seems to be: beat up a burglar and you go to jail.

Died: H. Donald Wilson, 82; Developed LexisNexis - washingtonpost.com
Three guesses where he died:
a) At a football game
b) Climbing Mount Everest
c) In front of his computer

Nov. 23, 2006- City panel OKs preferred plant list...
...in order to become more like an HOA?
Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link. By "plant," they mean the vegetation sort, not the nuclear kind. Actually, some of this is common sense as they are trying to keep out invasive species. Kudzu, anybody?

Beth Grimm doesn't like the AARP Homeowner Bill of Rights
Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link to this piece by California attorney Beth Grimm.

HOAs Gone Wild - Part 2 | HOA Nut House
Here is part two of the broadcast linked below.

HOAs Gone Wild - Part 1 | HOA Nut House
Check out this local news broadcast from Texas, linked from HOA News Network and sent to me by a bunch of people (thanks to Shu, Fred, and Beanie). When the local newscast is onto your game, you aren't fooling a whole lot of people.

CALIFORNIA / Internet providers win libel ruling in high courtThis is good news...

Home Sales Fall in 38 States, Data Shows The feeble U.S. housing market showed more frailty in October when home sales plummeted in 38 states, hitting Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California particularly hard, government data showed on Monday.

-------------
And by a strange coincidence, these are four states where the new housing stock is almost entirely common interest housing.

Appearance on "On the Commons"
It was fun talking with Shu Bartholomew Saturday afternoon on her radio program, , "On the Commons." That follows on the heels of speaking at the inaugural conference of Marjorie Murray's new organization,Center for California Homeowner Association Law, which I think is performing a great service to the CID owners in California. But all this generated the predictable round of outrage from the HOA abolitionists. Anybody who proposes any realistic reform to make life a little better in HOAs gets attacked by the same cadre of abolitionists, who claim to hate everything about HOA living but apparently choose to live in them anyway. I suggest that measures should be taken to make sure that HOAs remain solvent, and the usual folks vent their spleen. They want to de-fund all the HOAs so they collapse. But as I was explaining, that just leads to court-appointed receivers, court-ordered special assessments, and owners who have to pay up anyway. The question these "let them go belly-up" folks should be made to answer is this: "Which causes more unhappiness in a homeowners life: (a) being told to paint their door a different color; or (b) being ordered to pay $20,000 within 30 days, because their HOA has debts but no money?" If you really care about the millions of people who live in HOAs (versus just having an issue to self-righteously pontificate about), you want those owners to be protected against massive financial liability. That would mean supporting measures that keep these associations from becoming insolvent. Unlike the savings and loan crisis, where the billions of dollars in depositor losses were protected by federal depository insurance, CID owners are on their own.

'Lockdown' rules keep immigrants' kids from playing outside - Los Angeles Times
In case you think HOAs are repressive, how about these apartment owners?

The weary mother of three, wearing hand-me-down sweatpants and a faded T-shirt, nearly dropped the basket of clothes when she saw the notice on the aging apartment complex laundry door in Santa Ana. The thick capital letters seemed to speak directly to her: "ALL CHILDREN WILL NO LONGER BE ALLOWED TO PLAY OUTSIDE … " Maria Gomez, 33, scurried back to her two-bedroom apartment and her three children, ages 7, 9 and 13, with the news. Her mind flashed back to when her last landlord evicted the family for breaking similar rules. Gomez, like thousands of others across Southern California, lives in an apartment complex that caters to large immigrant families and bans children from playing on apartment grounds. Landlords impose fines and even evict tenants whose children play outside. Even though such punishments often violate housing laws, tenants say they feel powerless to complain for fear of losing their apartment or — in some cases — having their illegal immigration status exposed.

US town bars foreign flags in swipe at immigrants | US News | Reuters.com
The town is Pahrump, Nevada, home of Art Bell, the radio talk show host who emobied the conspiracy theory/paranormal fad of the 1990s. I wonder what Art thinks of this.

Radburn residents sue homeowners association
Got a link to this from Fred Pilot but it wouldn't work, so I found my own. Hope this one is good. Seems the model for American planned communities, Radburn, is undergoing some political strife. The Progressive Era political scientists who set it up are probably turning over in their graves, because they gave it what they believed was the ultimate form of quasi-municipal government. Here's a bit of the story:

FAIR LAWN -- A group of residents in the Radburn section of the borough are suing their homeowners association, seeking to change the way elections in the neighborhood are handled.

The lawsuit, filed this week in state Superior Court in Hackensack, stems from an ongoing dispute among Radburn residents over appointments to the nine-member board of trustees that governs the historic neighborhood of 650 homes.

San Mateo Daily JournalBelmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else.
The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone.


---------------
So I guess the plan is for cities to ban smoking in public and apartment buildings, and then the condo associations ban smoking in condos, and the HOAs ban smoking in all the planned developments, and all the nicotine addicts will be competing for the remaining housing stock built before the 1970s. Is that about the size of it? Maybe the path to riches in real estate is buying up old single family homes and selling them to smokers.

cbs4denver.com - HOA Bans Couple From Smoking In Their Home
Fred Pilot sent this link. This parallels the smoking bans that are popping up in cities.

Click2Houston.com - Local 2 Investigates - Homeowner's Association Uses Chopper To Find Violations
Here's a bit from the story:
How far can a homeowner's association go in Texas? One expert says she's never seen tactics like this. When I met this family two years ago, they said they moved out here to Magnolia because the billboards said they could enjoy their horses. Now they could lose it all and they blame a vendetta and an HOA willing to spy on them from above.

Did you know there was an International Maintenance Code?
Shu Bartholomew alerted me to this. This is scary. Can you envision UN inspectors measuring your front lawn? I see Hans Blix searching my garage for shotgun shells (but not finding them because they were on top of the refrigerator).