Malfunctioning elevators and association inaction equal financial disaster

A condo association has had malfunctioning elevators for six years and hasn't fixed them properly because they say they can't afford it. Now they are facing $5 million in fines. I wonder if they can afford that.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/north-miami/article4925946.html

Orange County Threatens Big Fines For Excessive Christmas Decorations

Looks like the grinch came early to Ladera Ranch this year:

"LADERA RANCH (CBSLA.com) — Orange County is threatening substantial fines to one neighborhood over their extreme Christmas decorations. Twenty-one residents in Baudin Circle in Ladera Ranch say they received letters from the Orange County Public Works department, stating that their lights are safety hazards.  Some homeowners at Baudin circle have taken pride in putting together an impressive Christmas lights show for ten years....“This was, I think, our second notice today, and basically it says we have twenty-four hours to take (the lights) down, before we get fined five-hundred dollarsa day,” resident Cynthia Mellow said."

The bad kind of unionism?

Police unions have come to stand above all for the principles that (1) individual cops should be above the law,  and (2) police forces should operate independently of political control. Now that this situation has generated protest and media coverage, with institutional racism being exposed for teh whole world to see, police union bosses are dropping the mask of civility and going straight to authoritarian rage.  Very instructive for those who are paying attention.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/23/police-unions_n_6373380.html

"They’ve bitterly opposed civilian review boards (and, if established, have sought to undermine them). They’ve fought the placement of names and badge numbers on officer uniforms. They’ve resisted rooting out police misconduct. “The modern police union movement,” criminologist Samuel Walker argues, “originated largely in reaction to the civil rights movement and its criticisms of police conduct during the 1960s…. Any local unions originated or at least became more militant in response to specific police-community relations initiatives in the 1960s.”

Ohio town threatens legal action against zombie baby Jesus

I can never understand why people do things that are intended to annoy their neighbors, but here's the latest  outrage.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/ohio-town-threatens-legal-action-against-zombie-baby-jesus-nativity-scene-on-mans-lawn/

Why the controversy over police shootings is so ugly.

Joseph Wambaugh, a best-selling novelist and former LAPD officer, said that policing isn't a physically dangerous job if you look at the statistics. Being a cab driver, a construction worker, a farm laborer, and many other occupations have higher fatality rates.  But being a police officer is one of the most psychologically dangerous occupations by far.  More police officers die by their own hand than die in the line of duty.  Most of them start out as idealistic people who want to help others and the job is fun.  But they spend 8 hours per day seeing people at their worst and this gradually makes them cynical and pessimistic.  The cop subculture is their resource for dealing with these feelings because they all feel this way.  As time goes by cops develop an us versus them mentality. They get absorbed into the cop subculture where they come to believe that they are the thin blue line between naive sheep who don't understand how bad things are, and vicious predators. There is a lot of alcohol abuse and relationship problems are the norm. Over the years they come to surround themselves entirely with other cops.  They literally don't associate with anybody who isn't a police officer.  This leads to a profound sense of isolation from society, but they reinforce each other in these distorted perceptions.   Eventually they don't trust anybody who isn't a cop.  They become quick to get paranoid and angry and confrontational--and violent.  And they know that prosecutors and judges are terrified of their unions.  

This is why they cover for each other, even in the most inexcusable situations. It is why police unions relentlessly defend cops who killed unarmed civilians in situations that would lead to murder convictions for anybody else.

And if you look at the other side of the controversy, you see millions of people who are horrified at the thought that anybody with a badge and a gun can beat them senseless or shoot them full  of holes on the slightest pretext and face no legal consequences at all.  In African-American and Latino neighborhoods the rage, the sense that the time has come to say no more of this, is intense.  They have had over twenty years of "broken window" policing in their neighborhoods, where they get rousted for the most trivial reasons on the theory that this is how to haul in the people with warrants and weapons.  But think of all the bogus stops, the harrassment, the reality-based sense of being persecuted, that has built up in low income neighborhoods. It is intense. Read Matt Taibbi's take on that.  He says law enforcement is becoming illegitimate, because the poor are ground to hamburger by the law, but the rich can steal millions and face no consequences at all. It's like something out of Dickens.

And this is why the current controversy over police shootings and beatings has the potential to be so profoundly ugly. It will be hard to  find any middle ground, because maybe there isn't any.  

Most hostile "holiday" display ever

"Ansell, an electrician, has a display on his yard that features a beheaded choir, a hanging Mickey Mouse and even a urinating Santa Claus that lights up at night".

And that's not all. It's enough to make you wish you had an HOA.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-terrorizing-neighbors-hostile-holiday-decoration-display/story?id=27671282

Prosecute John Yoo, says Erwin Chemerinsky

http://m.thenation.com/blog/192809-prosecute-john-yoo-says-law-school-dean-erwin-chemerinsky

I've never heard of a law school dean calling for the prosecution of a law professor, but in this case, why not? He provided legal cover for the Bush/Cheney administration's torture program. Torture is a   crime under US law, as is conspiracy to torture.

Homeowners angry with HOA over rumble strips

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/27636264/homeowners-hoa-to-rumble-over-street-strips

The strips are noisy, say residents.   As with many such disputes the association says it was settled by a vote but residents say they didn't know anything about it.  Internal communication in HOAs is often bad, with BODs saying the residents aren't paying attention and residents  claiming the BOD operates in secret. The other typical feature is putting social control over other priorities.  People have been asking for 30 years why so many HOA and condo boards obsess about controlling people.
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"We could have slides, nice playground equipment. We could have barbecues fixed – some are toppled over. We could have landscaping. We could have community events, but we have rumble strips," Karen Frantel said.
The Frantels said they were told the HOA board and residents voted on the strips, but they weren't aware of a vote.


Read more: http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/27636264/homeowners-hoa-to-rumble-over-street-strips#ixzz3M46CMQz1

City says 'forged or altered' document let to $2 million tax break for condos

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-tax-credits-20141212-story.html#page=1


"Baltimore's planning department was tricked into awarding $2.1 million in historic tax credits to a Little Italy condominium project based on a "forged or altered" document, a city review panel says in a new report."
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And that means 25 condo owners will see their property tax bills go up by $10,000 per year.

How Las Vegas gambled on the housing boom--and lost

http://m.thenation.com/article/191777-how-las-vegas-gambled-housing-boom-and-lost

The Las Vegas area has no water and a mono-economy that depends entirely on gambling.  Here's a great idea:  let's start a huge housing boom and grow like crazy.  What could possibly go wrong?

Homeowner association boots residents' cars on city streets!

http://krqe.com/2014/12/10/homeowners-association-boots-residents-on-city-streets/

And the city sent them a cease and desist letter that could lead to criminal prosecution if the HOA continues to defy the law.

A handful of lawyers have the Supreme Court's ear

Does this sound familiar? A small group of attorneys specializes in appearing before the USSC. But they are very reluctant to represent ordinary people because that would interfere with the flow of money from their elite corporate clients. It isn't that lawyers are bad people, as many people seem to think. It is that the economic incentives are structured so that representing human being doesn't pay off.

http://m.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/a_handful_of_corporate_lawyers_have_the_supreme_courts_ear_20141212

Bill would force HOAs to allow fake grass | UTSanDiego.com

Bill would force HOAs to allow fake grass | UTSanDiego.com: SACRAMENTO — California homeowner associations would be required to allow artificial turf in front yards under a bill recently proposed by the San Diego County Water Authority.

The bill, or a version of it, is likely to be championed by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego.

Only a fraction of the state’s 47,000 HOAs permit synthetic grass on front lawns, with many saying its out-of-place look is a threat to property values.

Luxury building fences off rent stabilized tenants' terraces

http://nypost.com/2014/12/07/luxury-bulding-fences-off-rent-stabilized-tenants-terraces/

"First there was the Poor Door. Now there’s the Poor Porch. A Queens luxury tower that was bailed out by the city is blocking the large terraces of a few affordable units so tenants above with tiny balconies don’t get jealous, one resident claims."

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Ever since the Reaganization of both parties, the rich have been hoovering up virtually all the increase in national wealth while the rest of us stagnate or lose ground. In the process, the rich have become so irresponsible and arrogant that they don't even want to pretend we are all part of the same society. And here's the best part. The project was bailed out at public expense.

"Once a stalled condo project, the 17-story building was revived by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Housing Asset Renewal Program. The city doled out $7.6 million in subsidies and, with Bank of America, provided $28 million in low-interest construction loans to Queensboro."

(PS:  http://crooksandliars.com/2014/12/rj-eskow-jeffrey-sachs-pathological
The pathological culture of the rich.)

Another HOA embezzlement case

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/14114410-113/polich-association-money-affidavit

"Robert Dwight Polich, 62, the longtime financial administrator for a Keystone homeowners association, was arrested on Dec. 2 and charged with embezzling about $160,000 from the HOA."
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Here we go again.

Can condo bylaws bans on "noxious or offensive activities" be used to stifle free speech?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/ct-mre-1207-condo-living-20141201-column.html

Yes, according to attorney Howard Dakoff.  So how do you like that?

"A bylaws provision that prohibits noxious or offensive activities that are an annoyance or nuisance to other unit owners or occupants is a common provision. Such provisions are routinely board-enforced and upheld by courts. Unit owners have the right to free speech, but boards have the right to fine unit owners for exercising such speech if it harasses or becomes a nuisance to other owners."

Golden's trash program decreases waste, upsets homeowners associations

http://www.denverpost.com/golden/ci_27052742/goldens-trash-program-decreases-waste-upsets-homeowners-associations

"Golden's expansion of its pay-as-you-throw trash collection has left some homeowners associations and apartment managers unsure how they will work it into their current contracts.Pay-as-you-throw offers trash customers volume-based pricing so that they can choose to pay less for a small trash can or more for a larger one. A recycling bin is included, so the idea is that customers will recycle in order to avoid going over their chosen volume.That incentive, however, is not the same at apartment complexes where everyone puts their trash in the same container and it is hard to track who throws away more. "Our problem is that it really becomes the landlord educating the tenant," on why they should recycle, said Nancy Burke, vice president of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver. A representative of the association spoke against the program expansion at a Nov. 13 public hearing. Residents of homeowners associations are often on the same contract, so splitting them up means added administrative work. Jim Cringler, who manages the Village at Mountain Ridge homeowners association in Golden, said that will lead to an increase in cost."

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Interesting problem for HOAs.  Do they to "educate" their unit owners about the need to reduce common expenses by changing their habits and recycling more, and expect voluntary compliance? Or  will property managers and boards use the usual command-and-control model to do this, and just order people to do it, or pay a fine?

Clueless Las Vegas HOA defense attorney can't figure out how public records became public

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/hoa-defense-lawyer-probing-how-review-journal-got-now-secret-documents

Ace reporter Jeff German made it clear how he got the not-so-secret-anymore documents in the Las Vegas HOA takeover fraud case.  But now a defense attorney is making noises about getting to the bottom of this non-mystery.

Illinois: What to expect for condo owners in 2015

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/ct-mre-1207-condo-forecast-2015-20141201-story.html#page=1

Pamela McKuen expains changes in law and policy for the state of Illinois.

Israeli high court upholds residential screening that would enable Jewish villages to keep Arabs out

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.616391

"The law, which was passed in March 2011, allows small communities to set up admissions committees to screen potential new members based on criteria laid down in the community’s bylaws. Such committees have been standard practice in small communities for decades, but until this law was passed, they had no legal basis. Several human rights organizations, including Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, argued that the law would allow these communities to reject homosexuals, people with disabilities, Arabs or anyone else who differed from the community’s social norm. ..Though the law explicitly prohibits discrimination against members of other social groups, it permits the admissions committees to reject candidates on such vague grounds as “unsuitability to the community’s social life” or its “social-cultural fabric” or to “unique characteristics of the community as defined in its bylaws.” 

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So now they can say, we aren't discriminating against Arabs. We are just rejecting people who are "unsuitable to the community's social life or socio-cultural fabric, or the the unique characteristics of the community as defined in its bylaws."  

In the US HOAs enforced race restrictive covenants for decades. Then when civil rights statutes made that illegal, more sophisticated ways of creating one-race, one-class communities were devised.  These days, the increasing inequality of wealth and income does most of the work.

There's more on this policy here.