Freedom from homeowners' associations
This is a note from Tracy, CA, a couple of hours east of San Francisco. The reaction of the author's daughter bespeaks a cultural shift of some sort. Years ago I interviewed Rich Louv, author of the great book "America II." He said about HOAs, "we are raising a generation of children in this country who don't know that you should be able to paint your house any color you want." I think maybe he was right. Scary?

I was tooling down the street near my home last week when I saw something odd. In the middle of this nondescript neighborhood was a pink house. This was not the sunset-tinged, faint pink of which there are a couple already in the neighborhood. No, this new hue was a riotous flamingo pink all over a house previously graced with a, well, nondescript color. My daughter, who is a designer, was not amused. How could they do that? Where do they think this is, the Riviera? What about calling the homeowners’ association? Are we going to let them get away with this? Well, yes. There is, to my knowledge, no homeowners’ association in this neighborhood.