L.A. is set to require pet sterilization - Los Angeles Times: "The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 1 Friday to approve mandatory sterilization of most dogs and cats at the age of 4 months or older, and city officials pledged low-key enforcement driven by complaints. The ordinance must get a second reading in a week, but it is expected to pass."

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It seems that there are more and more examples of state and local legislation that intrudes into areas of people's lives that were once beyond the reach of government. So now in LA you can't let your dog or cat reproduce. If you want to buy a pet, you go to a professional breeder or pet store.

But enforcement will be "driven by complaints." I wonder how that works. What do you have to see in order to complain? The mind reels.

Mississippi Pols Seek To Ban Fats - February 1, 2008
This bill would prohibit restaurants from serving obese people. This nanny-state proposal is enough to turn a Marxist into a libertarian.

U.S. 10-city home price drop a record in Nov: S&P | Reuters: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell a record 8.4 percent in the year through November, suggesting the housing slump is worsening, according to a Standard & Poor index released on Tuesday."

Midwest Conservative Journal: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called for new laws to protect religious sensibilities that would punish “thoughtless and cruel” styles of speaking."

If you think civil liberties are threatened in the US, take a look at Great Britain. They are seriously considering banning possession of knives. They have laws against blasphemy. People get prosecuted for defending themselves against robbers and burglars. And this bonehead proposal might even get taken seriously by some MP.

How toilet-to-tap programs could help preserve our water supply. - By Eilene Zimmerman - Slate Magazine: "Officials in Orange County, Calif., will attend opening ceremonies today for the world's largest water-purification project, among the first 'toilet-to-tap' systems in America. The Groundwater Replenishment System is designed to take sewage water straight from bathrooms in places like Costa Mesa, Fullerton, and Newport Beach and—after an initial cleansing treatment—send it through $490 million worth of pipes, filters, and tanks for purification. The water then flows into lakes in nearby Anaheim, where it seeps through clay, sand, and rock into aquifers in the groundwater basin. Months later, it will travel back into the homes of half a million Orange County residents, through their kitchen taps and showerheads."

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Don't the dogs of Orange County have a say in this policy? They would seem to be interested parties.

Great Britain: Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors - Telegraph: "Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives. Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone."
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Lovely. And we here in the nasty old US are supposed to get warmed up for Hillary-care redux?

US blacks see 'financial apartheid' in subprime crisis: "People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans,' concluded the organization United for a Fair Economy in a recent report which estimated that minorities have seen between 163 billion and 278 billion dollars of their equity go up in smoke since 2000.
With its weakened economy and a large black population more used to renting, Cleveland has become a poster child of the subprime crisis in a country where some 2.1 million borrowers are behind on their mortgage payments.
City officials estimate that foreclosures have swallowed some 70,000 homes and turned entire neighborhoods into ghost towns."

US mortgage crisis creates ghost town: "The streets are empty. Trash rustles down the road past rusted barbecues, abandoned furniture, sagging homes and gardens turned to weed.
This is Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a town ravaged by the subprime mortgage crisis roiling the United States.
Faded 'for sale' signs sit in front of deserted houses. The residents are gone, either in search of new jobs after the factories shut down, or in shame after being evicted for missing their mortgage payments"

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This is amazing. Shaker Heights is one of the few suburbs that has maintained stable racial integration since the 1960s. It has always been a nice middle class suburb. If this can happen in Shaker Heights...

San Jose Mercury News - Newport Beach homeowners association battling artificial lawns: "NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—There's a turf war in Newport Beach.

Artificial lawns are in the cross hairs of the Newport Hills Community Association, which is threatening steep fines and court action if residents don't rip out the pseudo grass.

Connie Hollstein and two other homeowners paid $10,000 each for fake grass, which is becoming an increasingly popular method for saving water and avoiding the upkeep of maintaining natural sod.

Water officials say synthetic turf can save a homeowner more than 20,000 gallons of water each year.

Resident Al Presnell got an association letter saying the synthetic turf 'detracts from the beauty and attractiveness of the surrounding area.'"

Unhappy home buyer, feeling misled on price, sues agent: "CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Marty Ummel believes she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing boom. What makes Ummel different is that she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault."


Maybe next somebody will sue for not telling them their HOA was dysfunctional. Hey, what happened to caveat emptor?

Goat Wandering Loose Around Condo Complex - New Hampshire News Story - WMUR Manchester
Does he pay his assessments?

Wealthy may be next in line in U.S. home crisis | Reuters: "'The next wave of problems will come from prime borrowers who bought too much house or borrowed too much against it,' said Michael van Zalingen, director of home ownership services at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. A 'prime' borrower is one with good credit. Real estate agents warn that some high-income borrowers have already been forced to sell or leave their homes and more will follow. Especially those who used their homes as ATMs, withdrawing cash via home equity loans."

The good news just keeps rolling in from the housing market. I guess this is the risk you take when your ATM is also an ARM.

Court revives lease-to-fee efforts of 36 condo owners - The Honolulu Advertiser: "A federal appellate court yesterday reinstated a lawsuit that may allow 36 current or former owner-occupants in Waikiki's Discovery Bay condominium to buy the fee in their leasehold units or collect damages from the city."

California wants to control home thermostats - International Herald Tribune: "Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages."

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I guess conversations about your home being your castle are pretty much outmoded in the Golden State. The Greater Good is what counts, and government knows best, even when it comes to setting your thermostat.

Obama, Bloomberg, and the press get stinking drunk on bipartisanship. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine: "When we devote ourselves to working together in the name of national unity rather than obsessing on our differences, injustice loves to strike. Writing slavery into the Constitution was perhaps the greatest triumph of nonpartisan compromise in U.S. history. The denial of suffrage to non-property owners and women ranks up there, as do prohibition, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and the so-called war on drugs, declared by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s and waged bipartisanly by every president—Republican and Democrat—since."

Lakota Oyate: Free and Independent Lakota Nation
The Lakota Sioux have seceded, and they don't even have their HOA set up yet. But they do have a nice map.

Advanced Russian civilization found-Health/Science-The Times of India: "MOSCOW: Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2500-year-old advanced civilization at the bottom of Lake Issyk Kul in the Kyrgyz Mountains in Russia."

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I hope they dig deep enough to find some vowels.

NPR : Nevadans Air Housing Worries in Primary Season: "The Las Vegas real estate market has turned from boom to bust in short order; Nevada now has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation."

Problem Solver helps a cancer patient avoid condo-association penalty -- chicagotribune.com
In which we read about a condo association that raised meanness and stupidity to an art form and then backed down in the glare of publicity.

Politics - Big prisoner release plan - sacbee.com: "In what may be the largest early release of inmates in U.S. history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is proposing to open the prison gates next year for some 22,000 low-risk offenders."

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It seems to me that "follow the money" should be the first instruction given to anybody who wants to understand state and local government these days. This shows the limits of political mandates, even ones that come directly from "the people." In 1978 Prop. 13 passed overwhelmingly, cutting property taxes radically. But during the 1980s and early 1990s the voters and the state legislature created all sorts of new "go to prison" mandates, which happens to be hugely expensive because it costs a good $30K per year per inmate. Then Governor Terminator came along with new and expensive educational policies, and the Democrats took over the state legislature and had some great new expensive pro-social welfare and anti-business ideas. The middle class began fleeing the state for low-tax states like Nevada, as large numbers of poor people entered the state from Central America and elsewhere.

Net result: a $14 billion budget deficit. And now it is time to release 22,000 people from prison. But the service cuts won't stop there.

Rand Corporation predicted massive fiscal consequences from the mandatory minimums a long time ago. It isn't hard to do. But for some reason, you just can't get people to listen until it is too late.

FOXNews.com - Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago -
People in gated communities are accused of secessionist views, but here is secession on a more dramatic scale.

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.

Judge clears Madison resident | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger
I've been giving talks about this bizarre ordinance. Madison, MS, has a local ordinance making it a misdemeanor--a crime--to violate your HOA's rules.

Fred Pilot sent me this link to an article about a prosecution under the ordinance.

Maryland law to deal with defunct associations
Fred Pilot sent this. Just watch. This will become a common situation in the years to come. I have been predicting it for a long time, and now the evidence is starting to make it into the press.

Apathetic homeowners' associations soon could find themselves paying court-appointed receivers to manage their affairs. A Maryland law that took effect Oct. 1 states that a group of three or more owners can ask the courts to appoint a receiver if their home-owners' or condominium association fails to recruit enough directors to meet a quorum. The receiver then would make all management decisions for the community until it assembled a large enough board. "We've had some communities in Maryland that have gone bankrupt. Some others are just hanging on by a thread and are in terrible condition" due to neglect by their boards of directors, said District 10 Sen. Delores Kelley, the sponsor of the bill.

Entire Neighborhood Faces Foreclosure Over Association Fees - Video - WFTV Orlando: "Unless They Pay, By The End Of The Month, They Could End Up Fighting A Legal Battle... Just To Keep Their Homes. More Than 70 Homeowners... Already Have Liens Against Their Properties, In The Stonebridge Landings Development, Off Goldenrod Road, Near The Airport."

Thanks to Fred Pilot for this shocker.

Reason Magazine - The Death of Main Street: "Big businesses know that a heavy regulatory burden is the best way to make sure small- and medium-sized businesses never rise up to challenge them."

Good point.

KSTP.com - Record home foreclosures cause snow removal problems

The snow brings a new problem with the high number of foreclosures in the Twin Cities. All those empty homes mean no one is around to clear the sidewalks.

Couple asked to take down American flag - Local & State News - Tampa Bay's 10 - tampabays10.com: "The flag, flies from a 16-foot tall pole. But last month the Grants were told their flagpole violated their Homeowners Association guidelines and now the Grants have been told they have 15 days to bring it down."

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: Owners can't block costly condominium assessment: "Unit owners in a condominium complex could not bar the condo's board of trustees from levying an assessment for a major renovation project, even where the project is expected to cost $75 million, a Superior Court judge has ruled."

San Mateo Daily News: Pinched by fee hikes, condominium owners call for help
Fred Pilot sent this, which is yet another example of the looming private infrastructure crisis:

Posner's plight isn't universal, according to experts. But it's becoming increasingly familiar on the Peninsula, where the first wave of condo complexes are showing their age and many homeowners associations lack the money for repairs. The problem, many say, is a failure of planning by homeowners boards, whose members are not financial experts but average residents elected by their neighbors. Soaring construction and insurance costs aren't helping.

9NEWS - Article - HOA says mother of fallen soldier has to take down flag
Mike Riordan sent this link.

AURORA - Mary Sims lives at the Strawberry I at HeatheRidge. On her front porch she flies a U.S. Flag. Her son Ryan Sims was a recruiter for the National Guard in Davenport, Iowa and was killed in a car crash two years ago and her husband is currently a civilian worker with the Department of Defense stationed in Iraq.

"That flag is for them, for everyone that came before, that there are now and will come after," said Sims.

She calls it a patriotic display. Last Friday, her homeowners' association sent her a notice telling her that the display violates the HOA's rules and regulations. The notice stated that the flag, which is placed on a "common element," is not allowed. It continued on to say that Sims could place the flag in her window or on the balcony. Sims refused.

Empty Houses Home to Crime As Loans Fail: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

We need a TV series on the mortgage meltdown. Episode One: Zombies roam the streets of abandoned subdivisions searching for interest-only loans.

"Eighty-five bungalows dot the cul-de-sac that joins West Ontario Avenue and East Ontario Avenue in Atlanta. Twenty-two are vacant, victims of mortgage fraud and foreclosure. Now house fires, prostitution, vandals and burglaries terrorize the residents left in this historic neighborhood called Westview Village."

Colorado Town Wants To Ban Red And Green Lights:
Another signpost on the road to American cities becoming exactly like HOAs:

"The town of Fort Collins, Colorado, and its Holiday Display Task Force are in the process of making their Christmas decorations more politically correct. The task force plans to recommend that the city displays only include white lights, winter symbols that aren't linked with any particular holiday and other non-secular items. Additionally, Christmas trees will no longer be permitted to be put up outside of public buildings or on public property. The city plans on voting on the recommendations on November 20th."

Income gap among black, white families up - Yahoo! News "Incomes among black men have actually declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women. Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than fivefold."

Miami condo at ground zero in mortgage fraud | Reuters
Here is a dubious distinction.

"...the 643-unit condo known as the Club at Brickell is a leader in mortgage foreclosures and it appears also to stand at ground zero in a blizzard of fraud that may lie behind many of the failed loans threatening to bury the U.S. property market."

New York mulls $1,000 fine for feeding pigeons - Yahoo! News
When Hemingway was living in Paris he used to shoot pigeons for dinner. Has anybody in NYC considered that option? Just trying to be helpful.

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City lawmaker wants to declare war on the city's pigeons and says he will not be dissuaded by the difficulties faced by London and Venice in ridding themselves of the ubiquitous birds."

Woman Asks to Keep Horse in Apartment
Good thing for the neighbors that she didn't get emotionally attached to an elephant.

Increases in new house prices slow down: "The housing-starts report showed that 79 per cent of all new Vancouver housing starts to the end of October - 13,325 of 16,787 - were multi-family condominium or townhouse projects."

Fla. Companies Forbidding Smoking In Private Lives - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando
What next? Can't ride a motorcyle? I wonder what limits there can be to privatized tyranny. After all, you agreed to this "voluntarily" by accepting the contract of employment. Say...what does that remind me of?

School board to ignore state moment-of-silence law -- chicagotribune.com
Of course they are ignoring it. Everybody knows it is impossible to get students to be silent for a minute. I'd be satisfied if I could start the class with a second of silence, let alone a whole moment.

57% - Declining Confidence in Political Wisdom of Americans - Yahoo! News
So it has finally come to this: the majority of Americans now has no confidence in the political wisdom of the majority of Americans. Maybe they would prefer having a benevolent dictator to devoting more time and energy to educating themselves about politics and government.

Newswire / Press Release: Hilton is Subject of Book Project Revealing the Other Side of Hotel-condo Ownership - Books/Publishing/Newspapers | NewswireToday

Sounds interesting:

Condo*monium tells true stories of the tumultuous life in a multi-use condominium complex, including condo hotels, and urges the reader to heed the caveat emptor warning as part of a search for a condo home of one’s dreams or a rewarding investment which also serves as a vacation retreat. The author, Dr. Heinz Dinter, explains the purpose of the book: “Someone’s first-hand experience is always a useful guide and the book’s intent is to be such a guide. It’s for your peace of mind.” As a condo dweller, Dr. Dinter shared his research with fellow condo dwellers in newsletters and other writings, uncovered the successor developer’s ironclad ever-lasting control over the unit owners and money-exacting abuses, and as a result suffered the ire of those he exposed for their wrongdoings.

Bankruptcy Reform Bites Back
The irony here is that Congress passed this law at the behest of lenders who didn't want consumers to get out of their credit card debts through bankruptcy. But the result, given the collapse of housing prices, is that people are defaulting on their mortgages, which is clobbering a different set of lenders.

Score one for the law of unintended consequences. In past periods of economic turbulence, American households were able to escape mountains of bad debt—and keep their homes—by declaring bankruptcy. During the weak growth years from 2001 to 2003, for example, nonbusiness bankruptcy petitions averaged roughly 1.5 million per year. Lenders complained bitterly that bankruptcy was too easy, but because financially stressed Americans could write off their credit card and other consumer debt, they had more money available to pay their mortgages. But today's growing problem in the housing market is different—foreclosures are soaring, while bankruptcies, though clearly on the upswing, are running roughly at half the 2001-2003 pace. The reason: A new bankruptcy law, approved by Congress in 2005 after years of debate, makes it much harder for households to get out from under their consumer debt. The result: More people being forced to walk away from their homes, leaving lenders holding the bag.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Homeowners associations hit by foreclosure fallout
No surprise here. If you can't pay the mortgage, certainly you can't pay the HOA. Put the whole picture together and it isn't pretty: mortgage defaults and foreclosures; builder bankruptcies that leave HOAs and owners stuck with no reserves and a pile of mechanics leins; HOAs needing to specially assess owners for major repairs (see below); lenders going out business; and municipalities faced with increasing demands and lacking the funds to meet them. Where will all this lead?

San Diego County's mushrooming number of foreclosures is starting to hobble homeowners associations large and small as cash-strapped owners cease paying their monthly dues.

Massive assessments for upgrading the buildings' systems have divided resident's of Boston's prestigious Harbor Towers - The Boston Globe
This is the kind of thing you hate to be right about. For years now, Ive been predicting a tsunami of massive special assessments as aging developments need major overhauls of private infrastructure. Now here is a real whopper. Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

It's the condo owners' nightmare: The building's heating and cooling system needs an overhaul, so everybody must pay a huge one-time assessment. But the 500-plus owners at Harbor Towers on Boston's waterfront are facing the mother of all bills: from $70,000 to over $400,000. And they're due by the end of this month. In full.

globeandmail.com: Fantino would back even tougher speeding law
Brought to you by our friends in Canada: The $10,000 speeding ticket. Maybe Hillary should pick up this idea, too...to go with national health care.

Maine town removes offensive name : ICT [2007/10/29]
After all the hippies and yuppies moved to Maine and Vermont, those with certain political sensitivities can get taken seriously instead of being laughed at, as they would have been in the old days. So you end up with Bernie Sanders, a Socialist, being a US Senator from Vermont, and a furor over "offensive names" in Maine.

TOCKTON SPRINGS, Maine - It took almost a year and a formal complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, but this tiny coastal town is finally free of the offensive word ''squaw'' in its place names...In 2001, Maine passed an offensive names act, introduced by Passamaquoddy legislative representative Donald Soctomah, that mandates towns abandon the word ''squaw'' in their street names and landmarks... Efforts to comply with the law were met with fierce opposition from the town's Squaw Point Home Owners Association, a private organization that owns what was formerly called Squaw Point Road and is now Defence Point Road.

Weird News: Lansing Police Chief Prepping City For Possible Zombie Attack Ahead Of Halloween - 2007-10-26
It's about time, I say.

ABC News: Florida City Tries to Ban Chinese Products
I am swinging around to the view that municipalities are prevailing over HOAs in the competition to see whether public or private local government is more repressive.

USATODAY.com: Volunteer radar gunslingers nail speeders
Privatization strikes again, and you know the HOAs have to be involved:


Speeders beware. Your neighbors might have you on their radar. That's the message police departments across the country are trying to send by loaning residents radar guns and turning them into neighborhood speed watchers...In the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Ill., residents affiliated with homeowners associations use the radar guns. "Some people seemed surprised. Some took notice and slowed down," says Bob Fischer, director of the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation. "Others were angry that we were interfering with their inherent right to get to the train station — or back home — as quickly as possible."

Flamingos Killed in German Zoo Attack
Obviously one small part of the larger CAI conspiracy...

Turkeys, once unseen in Massachusetts, are showing up in big numbers in cities and towns - The Boston Globe
Actually this is nothing new. We have turkeys running the City of Chicago.

Bloomberg.com: Countrywide to Refinance Up to $16 Billion of Loans

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, may change terms on $16 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages before the end of 2008 so borrowers won't lose their homes to foreclosure.

Bonfire event banned in Guy Fawkes' home town - Yahoo! News
Oh, the irony...

Chicago builder, Neumann Homes, closes branches, prepares bankruptcy filing -- chicagotribune.com
I won't be shedding any tears for this development firm. A few years ago there was a vast, beautiful tract of land in Antioch, just north of where I live in Lindenhurst. Neumann Homes acquired it, sued the Village of Antioch to force approval of their enormous development plans, and then did a fine job of butchering the landscape for a zillion tract homes called "The Clublands." They festooned the main road with signs saying cheesy things like "Bring your fishin' pole!" Don't you love the way developers invoke the sense of place--in this case, rural landscape--that they just destroyed? So now the Clublands will remain partially built and the enormous, ugly, bulldozed landscape that Neumann Homes created will sit there until some other developer(s) buy it.

Adios, Neumann Homes. Don't let the door hit you where the dog should have bit you.

Rural town may block Muslim site
Think this will survive a constitutional challenge?

WALKERSVILLE, Md. -- A Muslim group's plan to build a mosque and convention site on a 224-acre farm has met with resistance from many residents of this rural, overwhelmingly Christian town who fear its tranquility and security may be jeopardized. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA insists it will be a friendly neighbor, but its proposal -- including an annual national gathering of thousands of Ahmadis -- could be blocked by a measure under consideration by the town commissioners...Two days after Ahmadiyya leaders fielded questions at a public forum in August, town Commissioner Chad Weddle introduced a zoning amendment that would prohibit places of worship, schools and private clubs on land zoned for agriculture -- including the farm the Ahmadis have contracted to buy.

From Casinos to Counterterrorism
Some people think Las Vegas is the US city of the future. They have wall to wall gated communities, and also this:

LAS VEGAS -- This city, famous for being America's playground, has also become its security lab. Like nowhere else in the United States, Las Vegas has embraced the twin trends of data mining and high-tech surveillance, with arguably more cameras per square foot than any airport or sports arena in the country. Even the city's cabs and monorail have cameras. As the U.S. government ramps up its efforts to forestall terrorist attacks, some privacy advocates view the city as a harbinger of things to come.

The Great Omani
Let us take a moment to reflect on the life and times of...The Great Omani.

Ron Cunningham, who died on Monday aged 92, was an escapologist and end-of the-pier artiste specialising in feats such as eating light bulbs and removing a straitjacket while hanging upside down with his trousers on fire.

Kenneth R. Harney - Vultures Are Circling Over Distressed Properties - washingtonpost.com
I guess the housing market must be turning into a vulture's dreamland.

Call them grave dancers, vulture funds, turnaround specialists or the more euphemistic "opportunity investors." However you identify them, the deal is the same: When hyperactive real estate markets lose their sizzle, or property owners no longer can afford to hang on to their houses, well-capitalized investors smell blood and move in.

When Your Home Is Not Your Castle
The Motley Fool weighs in on HOAs and condos.

Unfortunately, it's virtually impossible to escape a homeowner's association. Most of the time, they're included in the language of your real estate deed, as a covenant that is legally attached to the land. That means that if you want to live in the neighborhood, you're stuck with the association.

Angry homeowners seek dissolution of association, board
Strange course of action considering how happy everybody is in these associations...according to the industry polls.

HUD Ends Effort To Collect Condo & HOA Fees | FHA Mortgage Guide

HOA Legi-Slate: HUD Rules on Escrowing Assessments
And decides not to require it. Maybe the disappearing escrowed property taxes around the country had something to do with this. When mortgage companies go bad...

Southern Calif. home sales plunge 30 pct in Sept | Reuters
It just keeps on going...

The Brooklyn Paper: New face of vandalism?
Another entry in the municipality-as-HOA-impersonator genre:

A 6-year-old Park Slope girl is facing a $300 fine from the city for doing what city kids have been doing for decades: drawing a pretty picture with common sidewalk chalk.

Paulson Urges Action on Housing Crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called Tuesday for an aggressive response to deal with an unfolding housing crisis that he said presents a significant risk to the economy.

The Times-Tribune - West Side woman faces jail time for swearing at toilet
I think I have been guilty of this offense myself a few times. Good thing I don't live in West Scranton, PA. I like the "potty mouth" pun, though. How often does an opportunity like that come along?

A West Scranton woman could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300 for allegedly shouting profanities at an overflowing toilet while inside her Luzerne Street home. Dawn Herb, whose potty mouth caught the attention of an off-duty police officer, was charged with disorderly conduct recently, prompting her to fire off a letter to the editor and vow to fight the charge.

d/visible » Blog Archive » The Rise of Neuro-Architecture
This is a fascinating blog post that I won't even try to summarize. Here is a snippet.


According to Olds, there are genuine neurological connections between behavior and the physical space it takes place in. He reasons that babies learn how to reason their way through the world almost entirely through visual and auditory stimuli, which are intimately connected to the surrounding environment. With new research showing that, even in adulthood, the brain remains remarkably malleable, Olds believes that a strong argument can be made that the architecture and design of a building can possess strong psychological impacts. “A space affects your eyes and it affects your sound, your hearing, and just through those two sensory modalities alone, those signals go into the brain and we can image the brain, non invasively, and see the effect of visual and auditory stimuli in the brain in living adults and we know it’s profound,” said Olds.

9NEWS - Article - School sends home obesity notices with students, parent upset
I've been teaching college students for a long time. The problem with public K-12 education in America is NOT that they need to do a better job of telling parents their kids are fat. The problem is that, on the whole, American primary and secondary schools do a horrible job of educating kids. Every year I see a new crop of freshman with pathetic reading skills, virtually no math skills at all, and a vast reservoir of ignorance about history, politics, and culture. What do they learn instead? I would say they know a lot about styles and fashions and trends; about sports; about the lives of professional entertainers; and about a certain orthdoxy of belief on the environment and some other PC values. Now, of course there is an upper crust of students, and of schools, where this is not true. But for the vast bulk of American students, school is not really about learning. And there are lots of these silly mandates from state legislatures and school boards to do things like tell parents their kids are fat, all of which turn the public schools into big failures.

Private Communities website
I guess this must be the place to do a search for your particular brand of Privatopia.

It's Official -- Belmont Bans Smoking In Some Homes - News Story - KNTV | San Francisco
Thought to be the first of its kind in California, the ordinance declares secondhand smoke a public nuisance and extends the city's current smoking ban to include multi-unit, multi-story residences. Though Belmont and some other California cities already restrict smoking in multi-unit common areas, Belmont is the first city to extend secondhand smoke regulation to the inside of individual apartment units.

Condo owners told to remove religious statues -- Newsday.com
Here is a condo association that knows how to generate bad press.

Gloria Gamarano's statue of the Virgin Mary has been with her family for more than 45 years. Until two months ago, the statue decorated the small garden that wraps around the condominium she owns at Country Pointe at Coram, a Medford gated community. Now, though, it sits behind the home, a casualty of a potentially unlawful community rule at the complex that bans religious statues in gardens and other common areas.

Chimps choose more rationally than humans - UPI.com
Science makes another great leap forward. Does this mean it is fair to sell homes in HOAs to chimps, but maybe not to people?

LEIPZIG, Germany, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- German researchers have demonstrated chimpanzees make choices that protect their self-interest more consistently than do humans.

Homebuilders use car dealer tactics on new-home lots
How delightful. What's next? Draft board tactics?

City passes camera law -- baltimoresun.com

This means public local governments will be requiring private security measures. Note that crime has been going DOWN.


Hoping to deter crime by expanding the use of surveillance cameras, Aberdeen passed a measure that empowers the city government and police to require cameras in new developments. The Police Department, the Department of Planning and Community Development, and the Department of Public Works will decide whether a new residential, commercial or industrial development must install cameras at "strategic locations" before a development permit is issued.,,Though crime is decreasing in Aberdeen, the city is seeking to prevent crime by expanding the camera program, Simmons said. The city installed cameras this year at two troubled intersections: one on Edmund and Washington streets and the other on East Bel Air and Aberdeen avenues. The cameras can zoom in, rotate 360 degrees, and are monitored from the city's police station.

Homeowners' Associations Operate As Governments. Why Shouldn't They Be So Treated? - Wide Open: Insight and Analysis from Ohio's Premier Political Bloggers - Cleveland.com
Here is a perspective from Ohio:

I'm sure there's a lot I've missed. I'm not impressed with the argument that "You agreed to it when you bought your house, now you have to live with it." My view: You agreed to be "governed" by reasonable people, not the petty tyrants and busybodies who have all too often gravitated towards HOA positions. Since the large majority of new homes and condos are governed (there's that word again) by the rules (which are for all practical purposes, laws) of HOAs, their actions and somewhat extra-legal nature deserve more scrutiny than they are receiving. I believe HOAs function as unnacountable de facto governments that need to be reined in. Though I haven't researched it, I would be not surprised to learn that their "trade group" is into big-league lobbying at the state and federal levels to protect their arbitrary interests. I would also suspect that their power to influence any potential legislation is growing. HOAs not happy with assuming the responsibilities commensurate with their power do have a choice: They can vote to disband. Many of them wouldn't be missed.

ABC News: Librarians Under New Management
It seems that privatization of municipal services has now hit one of the last bastions of municipal socialism: the local public library. Maybe now they will decide they run the library without 100 copies of the Alice Walker books.

The county will continue to own the buildings and all the books in them. But the libraries will be managed by an outside company for a profit. And the librarians will no longer be public employees and union members; they will be on the company's payroll. Library patrons might not notice much difference, but the librarians will, since the company plans to get by with a smaller staff and will have a free hand to set salaries and benefits.

Two Calif. cities to vote on banning smoking in apartments - USATODAY.com
We really are seeing a lot more intrusive governing going on at the local level, with HOAs and municipalities tag-teaming the local citizenry.

Lawmakers in two California cities are casting votes this month on unprecedented legislation that would widen a growing voluntary movement by landlords and resident associations to ban smoking inside apartments and condos. Today in Calabasas, the City Council plans to vote on expanding its anti-smoking law to bar renters from lighting up inside existing apartments. It would exempt current resident smokers until they moved but would require all new buildings with at least 15 units, including condos, to be smoke-free.

NYC Mayor: Surveillance a City Necessity -- Newsday.com
Sometimes I think that raising issues of civil liberties in CIDs, on the grounds that they are quasi-municipalities, is becoming a non sequitur. I mean, if you don't have civil liberties in cities, why should you have them in HOAs? And according to Bloomberg, people in cities don't even want civil liberties. They want security.

Residents of big cities like New York and London must accept that they are under constant watch by video cameras, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.

WSLS.com | Man Cut by Campaign Sign
People must take politics seriously in Massachusetts.

Razor blades inside a campaign sign badly cut a man who pulled up the sign.

Are you prepared to be ruled by a homeowners association? - MarketWatch
In my case, the answer, is "not unless I have no other alternative." Unfortunately, municipalities and developers are gradually creating a "no alternative" situation. So when I end up in an HOA, the industry will call me another person who "chose" an HOA.

Some in Fairfax Public Housing Make Six Figures - washingtonpost.com
The median new home price in Fairfax County is $960,000, according to this article. And of course nearly all the new housing is in CIDs.

Hundreds of families living in housing subsidized by Fairfax County taxpayers exceed income caps designed to ensure that only the neediest receive assistance, a review of county records shows. In the most extreme cases, Fairfax is underwriting rents for families making well into six figures: One household getting help makes more than $216,000 a year; another, $184,000. Dozens of others -- making $60,000, $70,000, $90,000 -- exceed eligibility caps. And they do so with the tacit approval of county housing administrators, who do little to encourage occupants to move on when their fortunes improve.

Why have municipal Wi-Fi networks been such a flop? - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine
Municipal corporations trying to compete with business corporations and not doing so hot? Here's a case study. Are HOAs more like the munis or the businesses when it comes to providing wi-fi?

The Sun Online - News: Jail ship to ease overcrowding
There's nothing like a great big prison ship to bring out the best in people, don't you think?

Las Vegas Business Press :: News : Web site ranks Las Vegas as nation's most overbuilt city
Most of this (overbuilt) housing supply is in HOAs, townhome associations, and condo associations. And it turns out that the units that are hardest to sell are...condos and townhomes. Single family homes sell much faster. Of course, those are in HOAs for the most part.

NuWireInvestor.com, a real estate investor Web site, recently ranked Las Vegas as the nation's most overbuilt city due to the 2005-'06 housing construction boom. There were 72,965 permits issued for residential construction during the last two years, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet the inventory of homes available for sale on the Multiple Listing Service hit a record 24,341 in August, which is 19.4 percent more than last year, reports the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Roughly 40 percent of those homes are reportedly unoccupied. New home sales through August are also down 37.2 percent from a year ago, GLVAR adds.

Additionally Las Vegas has overbuilt its condominium and townhome sector. Condos and townhomes are spending 335 days on the market, says the National Association of Residential Real Estate Investment Advisors. The average single family home is spending 115 days on the market as of May 2007, according to Zip Realty.

Tom Cruise building '£5m bunker to protect against alien attack'| Showbiz | This is London
I hope he went through the Architectural Review Committee.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is planning to build a bunker at his Colorado home to protect his family in the event of an intergalactic alien attack, according to new reports. The Mission Impossible actor, who is a dedicated follower of Scientology, is reportedly fearful that deposed galactic ruler 'Xenu' is plotting an evil revenge attack on Earth.

NPR : Town Weighs Ban on Leaf Blowers
One of these days I'm going to put together two lists of unusual prohibitions one list for HOAs, and the other for municipalities, and compare them.

Victorville Daily Press : board member settles for seat
Challenged 2006 election, now must pay some of association’s legal fees

In Harford Co., residents pay their own way for safe streets -- baltimoresun.com

Frustrated with the police response, the residents in this southeastern Harford County community have hired security guards who conduct foot patrols each night. The neighborhood association has paid nearly $75,000 this summer for the patrols, while complaining that county government has ignored the residents' plight.

Homeowners Association Sells Disabled Couple's Home | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News
But ask anybody who works in this industry and they will tell you that things like this don't really happen. I guess this must have occurred in one of those alternate universes they have in science fiction novels.

Homeowner associations: Friend or foe? | Clayton.Talk
Is this a trick question?

Bacteria sent to space come back more infectious
Great. Just great. Science marches on. Why not send up some plague while you're at it and see how virulent you can make that? To think that we are paying for this.

S&P: US Home Price Decline Accelerates: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Every article I read with this or a similar headline says that this must be the bottom. But the next week there is another slide.

EW YORK (AP) -- The decline in U.S. home prices accelerated nationwide in July, posting the steepest drop in 16 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday. Home prices have fallen by more every month since the beginning of the year.

Apes blamed for crime spres |Sky News|World News
There is a photo of one of the perps.

Hot property: a spacious missile base as your new home
I wonder if there are any old Cold-War Russian missiles sitting in silos with this address as their target.

The Old "Scientific Consensus" about climate change
Ah, the good old days of the early 1970's, when NASA scientists predicted that burning fossil fuels would lead to global cooling.

On July 9, 1971, the Post published a story headlined "U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming." It told of a prediction by NASA and Columbia University scientist S.I. Rasool. The culprit: man's use of fossil fuels. The Post reported that Rasool, writing in Science, argued that in "the next 50 years" fine dust that humans discharge into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel will screen out so much of the sun's rays that the Earth's average temperature could fall by six degrees. Sustained emissions over five to 10 years, Rasool claimed, "could be sufficient to trigger an ice age."

Smog and Mirrors: China's Plan for a Green Olympics
Here is a fascinating article sent by Mystery Reader about how China's government has implemented a massive plan to "green" Beijing for the Olympics, but the massive growth of the private economy is placing those efforts in jeopardy. This is quite a test for the Chinese experiment with keeping Communist Party control of what is by now the world's fastest growing capitalist economy. Well, Marx was a believer in dialectical materialism, which means you have to love contradictions.

West Boca Raton condo association sues resident over loud TV -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
I think when you can hear somebody's TV five condos away, it is time to complain. But do you put an 80 year old in jail over it? Stay tuned. But be careful about the volume.

Capitol Hill Watch | U.S. Faces 'Fiscal Hurricane' Because of Entitlement Programs, Gregg Says - Kaisernetwork.org
Fred Pilot sent the link to this news of impending doom

Problems with the long-term financial stability of Medicare and other entitlement programs are "going to be a massive fiscal hurricane" as baby boomers begin to retire next year, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said on Tuesday in an interview with Foster's Daily Democrat. According to Gregg, the U.S. has $162 trillion in unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs for baby boomers, and Medicare, which accounts for $45 trillion of that amount, is "by far the biggest issue.

Ways You Can Lose Your Property: Realty Times - Real Estate News and Advice
Care to guess what Way Number Five is?

Homeowner says 'no' to taking down American flag | Local News | News for Charlotte, North Carolina | WCNC.com | South Carolina News
Year after Congress and numerous state legislatures tried to stop HOA flag-banning, here we go again. Another anti-flagpole association. Why?

YORK, S.C. -- Driving through the Bethelfields neighborhood in York, you can see it's a very patriotic community as American flags are flying outside many homes. But there's one flag that the homeowners association has a problem with. The flag flies on a 20-foot pole in the Bob Tremper’s front yard.