Congressman Ernest J. Istook, Jr. (OK05) :: Press Release :: Istook Introduces National Marriage Law

This is completely off-topic, but I had to point it out. Here is a great example of legislative devolution. Once upon a time, we are told, people elected the best and brightest among them to Congress. Now, at least in the 5th District of Oklahoma and 35 (!) other districts, they send nincompoops like Ernest Istook (R) who have never heard of Marbury v. Madison, the United States Supreme Court's 1803 ruling that established judicial review. Regardless of what you think of gay marriage, this bill is the dumbest, most ignorant piece of legislative grandstanding in recent memory.

Istook, who is rabidly opposed to gay marriage, has just introduced what is called a "court-stripping" bill (named the "Marriage Unity Law") that would take away the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act. The point is this. First, a gay couple who got married under Massachusetts law will move to another state, say, Pennsylvania. They will ask to have their marriage recognized there under the Full Faith and Credit clause of the US Constitution. Pennsylvania will say, sorry, we don't have gay marriage here, and under the Defense of Marriage Act we don't have to recognize your Massachusetts marriage. The gay couple will then sue in federal district court in Pennsylvania to have the Defense of Marriage Act (a 1996 law signed by Bill Clinton) declared unconstitutional.

Enter the Marriage Unity Law. The bill repeats the main point of the Defense of Marriage Act: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman." Then it goes on to take away the jurisdiction of the federal district and circuit courts to hear challenges to that principle: "Except as provided in paragraph (1), no Federal or state court shall have jurisdiction to hear or determine a claim arising under this section."

Now, here comes the monumental ignorance. What is in paragraph (1), the exception to the "no jurisdiction" rule? Here it is: "The Supreme Court of the United States shall have original jurisdiction to hear and determine a claim arising under this section."

Every lawyer, every first-year law student, and every undergraduate student with a course in Constitutional Law under his or her belt knows that in Marbury v. Madison the Supreme Court used the power of judicial review for the first time to pronounce a law passed by Congress unconstitutional because it changed the original jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court, something that can only be done by amending the Constitution.

Now, we have 36 people in the House of Representatives who know less about the most basic principle of constitutional law than the average political science undergraduate student. How can this be possible, when so many members of the House are attorneys? How can such a bill be introduced at all, and more to the point, how can 35 other people put their NAMES on it?

ABC13.com: Girl Scouts won't have to break the law anymore
And you thought HOAs were bad...


By The Associated Press
(7/29/04 - SPRINGDALE, AR) — Girl Scouts in Springdale, Arkansas, don't have to worry about breaking the law. This week, a new city ordinance takes effect, legalizing door-to-door sales. Local Girl Scout leaders say they never realized their annual cookie drive had been illegal. The city council legalized solicitations, with a few strings attached. Homeowners may post signs requesting not to be disturbed or sign up for a "do-not-knock" roster. One local Girl Scout leader is pleased with the council's actions. She says people look forward to buying their Thin Mints and other cookies from neighborhood scouts.

Thoughts on the Pennsylvania slot machine bill

I've been off the air while taking the Illinois bar exam, so I have a lot to catch up on now that I'm back.  First, I think the PA slot machine thing is very significant.  It is a great example of the gap between what state and local government are providing and what taxpayers are willing to pay for.  The fact is that probably 25% of what state and local governments do, the middle class suburban taxpayer--the people paying the bills for goverment--would cut in a heartbeat.  People want basic services at low cost, nothing more.  Politicians want to deliver all sorts of stuff--goodies to their cronies, payoffs to organized interests that support their campaigns, social welfare services, life sentences for stealing cookies with two prior felonies,  massive new government office buildings named after politicians, and on and on. 

I don't buy the Democratic party's mantra that we all really want all this stuff but just need to be educated into understanding that we have to pay more taxes for it.  Once upon a time, I did.  But the evidence is piling up that the contrary is true.  Most obviously,  most taxpayers don't want to pay for urban dysfunction any longer, and that's where a lot of the money is going.  For example, a ton of dough is going directly into the pockets of unionized public school teachers and administrators who are grotesquely overpaid, given how awful urban public schools are.   Take a look at the performance of the Philadelphia city school system, for example.

If PA (along with Illinois, and other states) has to resort to disguising taxation as gambling, it's time to cut services. 

How does this relate to HOAs and privatization?  Very directly.  Nobody likes taxes or assessments, but the HOA/special district model--paying fees for direct local services--probably has more support than paying general purpose state and local taxes.  The problem is that the HOAs are run so badly.  If they worked like they are supposed to, stopped the petty over-regulation, and confined themselves to providing good services at the lowest possible cost, they wouldn't have much opposition in principle because it's better than shoveling money down the governmental rat hole.  Exhibit A is California.  Sure, there's some anti-HOA sentiment.  But compare it to the rage at state government that swept Gray Davis out and the Governator in, and of course the property tax revolt of 1978-1983. 

I'm not talking about what's right and wrong here.  I'm talking about what people want and are willing to pay for, and how they want to pay for it. 

 

CNN.com - Slot machines may soon be legal in Pennsylvania - Jul 4, 2004
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The state House of Representatives passed and sent to the governor a bill to legalize as many as 61,000 slot machines in Pennsylvania.

As the Legislature's marathon election-year session continued early Sunday, the House also appeared likely to approve a companion measure that would eventually funnel $1 billion a year of the new gambling tax revenue into property tax cuts for homeowners.


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What does it say about the relationship between PA state government and the people of the Commonwealth that they need to fund services by licensing and taxing gambling? Seems to me there was a time when people wanted certain services from state and local governments, so they elected people who figured out how much all that would cost and set tax rates accordingly. The money came in, the books were balanced, and the next year they did it again. Now we have a situation where state and local government cannot persuade people to pay taxes for all the services government wants to provide. Either cut the services or raise taxes--but don't make up the difference between what people are willing to pay for and what government wants to do, by licensing a money-wasting, family-destroying, parasitic venture like this.

Judge broadens class-action suit against law firm
Article Courtesy of the Sun Sentinel
By Joe Kollin
Posted Saturday, July 24, 2004
Some 1,176 owners of condos and homes in South Florida will be eligible to join a lawsuit seeking damages from a law firm that threatened them with foreclosure for not paying assessments to their associations.

California Pays Dearly for All That Borrowing
California has paid $230.7 million in fees to Wall Street investment firms over the last year — a largely hidden cost to taxpayers of the huge borrowings needed to keep state government afloat.

An examination of how officials managed the heaviest borrowing in state history shows that the fees and commissions California has paid were in some cases higher than those charged to other state governments.

On one massive loan, officials agreed to fees that were 42% higher per bond than Illinois had paid last year for a similarly large borrowing.

On another, California paid fees at a rate about 25% higher than Washington had paid in the mid-1980s while that state was being penalized for the costliest municipal bond default in U.S. history.

In all, California took on $27.4 billion in debt to cover past and present budget shortfalls. While about half of that amount has been repaid, the ultimate price for the financing could include as much as $8.9 billion in interest. And the state budget now awaiting action in Sacramento contemplates nearly $1 billion more borrowing later this year.


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In case you were feeling guilty about your credit card statement, this should put it in perspective. $27.4 billion borrowed. $8.9 billion in interest...a mere 32.48% of the principal. What a bargain. Think about that the next time you see one of these grinning California legislators on the tube. Tar and feathers, anyone?

Bookkeeper pleads guilty to $230,000 theft

Susan Spencer-Wendel
Friday, July 23, 2004



WEST PALM BEACH -- The bookkeeper was such a nice young man -- clean-cut, polite, all yes-sir-yes-ma'am, so likable -- the retirees invited him to Easter dinner.

Meanwhile, Todd Demartine, 32, was raiding their homeowner association accounts, withdrawing thousands of dollars, buying things such as a WaveRunner and a Tiffany diamond ring.

Thursday, Demartine pleaded guilty to stealing more than $230,000 from his employer, Hawk-Eye Management, and accounts it handled. He worked almost two years for the Boca Raton company, which employs 15 and handles finances for condo homeowner associations in southern Palm Beach County.
...............

Think of the possibilities. Here are the HOAs, run by volunteers who may or may not have any accounting or business background. Here's their money. Here sits the enterprising and perhaps dishonest bookkeeper or property manager. Who will notice if he or she takes a little off the top? There have been many reports of this sort of thing.

Las Vegas SUN: Redevelopment area could be expanded
Monica Caruso passed this along from Las Vegas. I wrote a paper that mentioned among other things the City of Las Vegas' use of a downtown redevelopment district to compete with the County for tax dollars. The new mega-casinos are on the Strip, which is outside the city limits in county jurisdiction, so that's where the tax dollars go. The redevelopment district is an effort to recapture some of that by using various mechanisms to attract money and rebuild the downtown casinos. Anyway, here's an article about what's underway--expanding the district.
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The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday will consider a resolution to expand the Downtown Redevelopment District to include three large parcels near downtown.

The move would allow projects improving those areas to tap into redevelopment incentives through 2031 and, if necessary, seek the use of eminent domain to take property from the current owners at fair market value.

Here's something scary....
 
Deadly Fairfax Fire Shows Growing Peril
By Eric M. WeissWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, July 19, 2004; Page B01

A tiny flame from a candle touched papers that melted vinyl siding and set off a fire that raced unnoticed up three floors. The blaze torched 18 condominiums, left three people dead and forced a man on fire to leap from a third-floor balcony.
Beyond the devastating personal tragedy, the fire in Fairfax County last weekend also highlighted a little-known danger in the Washington region and across the county, fire safety officials say: Houses are built too close together. Radiant heat from the fire in the Kingstowne section of the county nearly set ablaze another building 34 feet away.
"It was about ready to go over there, very close," said Fairfax fire and rescue's Peter J. Michel, lead investigator in the fatal blaze. "I'm surprised we only lost the three the other day."
Michel and other fire officials fear that entire blocks of houses could erupt in flames in a serious fire. National building codes allow single-family houses to be built just six feet apart. Increasing development pressure and the scarcity of land in metropolitan areas are resulting in more -- and larger -- houses built to minimum spacing standards.
Building suburban-style houses at an urban density could cause conflagrations that could devastate whole neighborhoods, fire officials warn.
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I don't have a link to the whole story, but with the trend toward massive density (small lots) and the insistence on building as much house as possible in those little lots, the prospect for major fires is fairly obvious... 

Homebuilder goes deep into density - 2004-07-19 - Sacramento Business Journal
More evidence (see below) that builders go with condos and other CID housing because it allows higher density. And more evidence that the whole California housing market is so nuts that soon people will be paying a million bucks to live in a cardboard box.

John Laing Homes plans to increase its production by 52 percent next year by building most of its housing in projects that pack eight to 14 homes per acre.

Laing is Sacramento's No. 16 homebuilder, according to The Gregory Group, a company that studies the new-home market. The builder's move to erect 80 percent of its homes in such close-packed projects would make it among the first to commit so heavily to higher-density development, although Beazer Homes and KB Homes are also buying into the game.

The idea behind the move is to focus on those who want home ownership but can't afford today's price tags for a house on a big lot.

Laing's strategy is more evidence the market is changing in Sacramento. The region's days of ample and cheap land for building affordable homes with big yards are gone. Faced with a dwindling supply of land suitable for development, sold at skyrocketing prices, more builders will likely use Laing's approach.

Officials at Laing estimate they can slice as much as $50,000 from the price of a typical home by building in high-density projects that use less land. With revised home plans, most homes in the denser communities would sell for roughly $150,000 less than the average new-home price, pegged by The Gregory Group at $439,135 in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Yuba and Sutter counties.

Laing aims to increase its sales to 550 units next year from this year's estimated 360, said Kevin Carson, president of the company's Sacramento division.

The cost of elbow room: Traditionally, new homes in this region have been built at a density of five to six houses per acre. The average density in the four-county area is 5.7 lots per acre, about what it was in 2000, according to The Gregory Group.

But the price of land has doubled since 2000, noted Tom DeLucca, Laing's vice president of land development. That makes the old densities more expensive for builder and buyer alike.

Builders set to build record number of condos North County Times - North San Diego and Southwest Riverside County News
Fred Pilot sent this along. It is from north San Diego County, known locally as "north county." I lived there for quite a while, including a few years in Leucadia (now part of the city of Encinitas) and then my wife and I lived for three years in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, also now part of Encinitas. Anyway, it's one of the fastest growing parts of California, and that is saying something. Check out the condo construction in north county. It is a vast expanse of land, and there is room for lots and lots of new construction. The questions are, how on earth are these people going to be able to drive to work, given the traffic congestion that is looming? And where will their kids go to school? Little details like that...
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With prices for new houses rocketing far out of reach for most first-time buyers in North County, local builders have abruptly shifted into the condominium market, setting off a construction boom that's poised to dwarf the condo craze of the mid-1980s.

After several years of focusing on high-end, detached houses, builders are finding strong demand and record sales for attached homes, which can be packed onto lots at 30 homes per acre.

The average price of a new condo reached $473,000 countywide in the second quarter, up 21 percent from the previous three months, according to a report Monday by MarketPointe Realty Advisors, a research firm based in San Diego. Along the Highway 78 corridor from Oceanside to Fallbrook, new condos sold for an average $395,000, up 18 percent from the first quarter.


What's more, sales are likely to set a record this year, with 4,904 attached homes sold in the first half. As recently as 2002, builders were selling fewer than 300 condos in a three-month period. The industry is considered certain to build 9,000 or more this year, easily surpassing peak production of 6,164 units set in 1985.

"We're really seeing an explosion in the attached housing market," said Russ Valone, president of MarketPointe. The firm calculates a weighted average of new-home prices to reduce the statistical effects of a few very expensive or low-priced homes sold each quarter.

Valone also had sobering news for buyers of new houses. The countywide average price for single-family, detached homes was a record $713,000 in the quarter ended June 30, up nearly 10 percent in a single quarter. The average size was 2,739 square feet.

In the north coastal region, which extends in the MarketPointe report from La Jolla through Carlsbad, the weighted average price for a new house was $975,000, up just 1 percent. In the Highway 78 corridor, the average was $662,000, up 13 percent from the first quarter.

Although prices shot higher, sales of new houses declined amid extremely tight supplies to 1,643 homes in the second quarter, or 37 percent of total home sales in the county.

Some builders say the prospect of rising mortgage rates prompted them a year or two ago to find ways to build more houses at lower costs to hedge against the possibility of crumbling demand for the high-end homes that have dominated the industry in recent years.

"I think that people are going to be buying less expensive housing and not more expensive housing if interest rates go up," said Greg Gallagher, vice president of land acquisition for Greystone Homes, the Carlsbad-based unit of industry giant Lennar Corp.



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There's more--read the whole thing.

West Valley View:A sign of another time: ‘For Whites Only’

Just to remind people that this sort of thing still happens every now and then...

An official with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office said her department hadn’t encountered such a sight in 50 years.

The director of the federal Housing and Urban Development’s Phoenix field office said, “We’ve never seen anything like it. I’m amazed, just amazed.”

Both were reacting to a pair of signs placed in front of an upscale Waddell home.

The first reads: “For sale by owner.”

The second reads: “4 whites only.”

KPHO Phoenix - Glassel Convicted in Homeowners' Shooting Trial
Here is a report of the murder trial of Richard Glassel, who killed two people and wounded three more at a homeowner association meeting in Gilbert, Arizona, on April 19, 2000. 

There is something about HOA living that sends some people right off the deep end.  Shootings are the worst manifestation of that, but the crazy lawsuits and bitter personal feuds are all part of the same syndrome--condo rage.

From the past:  Another condo rage killing
The tragedy in Franklin Park was not the first condo rage killing.  Back in 1991, a man in Queens did something similar.  This is pre-internet, so there's nothing to link to, but here's the text courtesy of Lexis/Nexis:
 

The New York Times, May 16, 1991
SECTION: Section B; Page 3; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk
 
BYLINE: By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.BODY:Mehmet Lijkovic was under a lot of pressure.He had been working seven days a week as a building porter on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to make up some of the money he lost in the strike that had left him without a paycheck for two weeks. At his home in Queens, neighbors were complaining that his children were too noisy. The condominium board was threatening legal action.On Tuesday night, the police said, Mr. Lijkovic finally broke. He went to the apartment of the board member he thought was behind the complaints about his children, the police said, and shot the 40-year-old furrier dead in front of the man's wife.The police gave the following account of how Mr. Lijkovic, 40, ended up charged with murder:When Mr. Lijkovic arrived home at Village Park Gardens at 64-17 72d Street in the middle-class neighborhood of Middle Village shortly before 7:30 P.M., he found a letter from the board that said he would "be held liable" for the noise being caused by his two children. Some residents also complained that the children had been unruly in the building and about graffiti linked to them. Shot 8 TimesMr. Lijkovic stormed upstairs to confront Warner Vanderhooft, the board member he thought was behind the letter. He took a 9-millimeter pistol with him. At first the two men began shoving each other in the hallway, each accusing the other of making trouble, said Sgt. George Zaroogian of the 104th Precinct detective squad.Mr. Lijkovic pulled the gun from his waistband, and, in a fury, shot the taller, stronger man eight times, killing him instantly, according to the police.Yesterday, neighbors in the five-year-old three-story apartment building and along the quiet residential street were trying to fathom how such a killing could have happened.Mr. Vanderhooft, who owned TNW Furs, at 307 Seventh Avenue, near 27th Street, in Manhattan, lived with his wife, Margaret Bussfeld, in Apartment 3A. The police said he had apparently complained several times in the past about noise the children were making.Mr. Lijkovic, who was raised in Yugoslavia, came to America about 20 years and worked for a long time as cook at a restaurant in New Jersey before taking a job as a porter seven years ago, friends and relatives said.Five years ago, he and his wife, Serveta, bought a two-bedroom apartment, one of 12 apartments in Village Park Gardens, for $170,000 when it was under construction. The couple have a daughter, 12, and a son, 11.Mr. Lijkovic was described by relatives and friends as a quiet, gentle person whom they would not expect to get into a fight. One relative, who did not want to be identified, said: "He was a good person staying out of trouble. I have known him for over 17 years and I was shocked when I came home from work and heard he had done this." She added, "It's unbelievable."Kola Cacaj, the superintendent of the apartment building at 340 East 74th Street in Manhattan, where Mr. Lijkovic was a porter for seven years, also described him as someone who kept to himself and rarely spoke. But Mr. Cacaj observed, "He had a hot temper."Mr. Cacaj said the suspect had been working seven days a week over the last two weeks since the building workers' strike ended. He described the porter as "very nervous from working too much" and angry that the building's owner had not hired another porter to help him. As a result, Mr. Lijkovic was threatening to quit, he said.Mr. Cacaj said that Mr. Lijkovic claimed to have a pistol permit and was very proud of it and that he often went to shoot at a pistol range. 'To Pay Him Back'Mr. Cacaj, who, like Mr. Lijkovic, is of Albanian descent, said that in Albania, "soon as a boy hits 14, you buy him a gun and tell him to protect himself -- when someone attacks you or hits you, you're supposed to pay him back."The police were unable to determine yesterday whether the handgun used in the killing was licensed. Mr. Lijkovic was arrested outside the building shortly after the shooting with the pistol in his hand.Some residents of the building said Mr. Lijkovic's two children had repeatedly caused problems, writing on people's doors, ringing doorbells and allowing other children into the building.But other residents said the children's behavior was not out of the ordinary for children of that age.Anthony Sorisi, who moved out of the building in February after living there for three years, said: "It was just kid stuff. The kids were just playing. Every once in a while they'd let other kids into the building. Nothing to shoot somebody over, you know what I mean?"

Chicago Tribune | Bond denied in condo rage shooting death
This tragic event took place in a Chicago suburb, not far from where we lived until recently. The man was evicted by his condo board for non-payment of assessments, according to press reports. Here in Illinois condo boards use forcible detainer proceedings to collect past due assessments. That means owners are treated like delinquent tenants, subject to eviction proceedings. This is faster than foreclosure (and we don't have non-judicial foreclosure at all here). From what I read, that's what they did here, and it's standard operating procedure in this state. But he came home and found his belongings on the street, confronted the association secretary, and flipped out.

Horrible as it is to say this, I expect more of this sort of thing. It is getting harder to live outside CIDs because of the tremendous market dominance of common interest housing in new construction. Of course, nothing a condo board does would ever justify or excuse this sort of violence, but they often do things--rightly or wrongly--that send people into a flat spin. With millions of people getting conscripted into a style of life they don't understand and accept, the law of averages says that conflict, and often serious conflict, will result. Most of the time it is just cold stares and lawsuits. Occasionally something like this happens.

Bond was denied today for a Franklin Park man charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his condominium association's secretary and the wounding of her roommate.

Zdzislaw "Wally" Kuchlewski, 67, who also has been charged with attempted murder, appeared this afternoon for a bond hearing in the Maywood branch of Cook County Circuit Court. He was ordered to be returned there Friday for a preliminary hearing in the Tuesday evening shootings.

The man had come home Tuesday to find his belongings on the front lawn of the building, in the 9100 block of West Grand Avenue, CLTV reported.

Kuchlewski's condominium association board had gone to court and obtained an eviction order against him because he had fallen nearly $4,000 behind on his association fees, police said.

Enraged, Kuchlewski waited in the building's parking lot for the first condominium board member to come home, police said. When the association's secretary, Rita A. Hohmeier, 75, drove up about 6:15 p.m., he confronted her.

"When she exited her car with another woman, a verbal fight ensued," said Franklin Park Police Chief Randy Peterson. "We got a call of people arguing. A short time later, we got a call of shots being fired, at which time the evictee had shot both women."

The man surrendered to police as soon as officers approached, witnesses said.

Hohmeier died from her wounds. The other woman sustained injuries to her mouth and liver and was taken in critical condition to Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood.

Residents, township, builder at odds over repairs (phillyBurbs.com)
Here's one Fred Pilot passed along. This is a real slice of life.
Northampton - The Ivygreene Community Association and Northampton officials have tried for a year to resolve two maintenance issues within the Ivygreene development.

Neither party believes it's responsible to repair and maintain deteriorating sidewalks and a detention basin that fills with debris after rain. Bond money from the developer is available until November but might not be enough to fix both problems, a township official said.

Metropolis IL Chamber of Commerce
Now, here's a city with pride and some entrepreneurial spirit. Bet they don't have to rely on new construction to make ends meet.

CNN.com - Eight more gored by Pamplona bulls - Jul 12, 2004

Just look at the photo. That's all I ask.

Great American beers - Jul. 2, 2004
Off topic? You be the judge.

Great American beers

The nation's small brewers prove that the revolutionary spirit is alive and well.
July 2, 2004: 4:45 PM EDT
By Gordon T. Anderson, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - As America toasts its founding, pause to consider beer's role in the history of the Republic. The Pilgrims, for example, chose to land at Plymouth Rock in part because they were out of beer, as John Alden noted in his log of the Mayflower. William Penn, George Washington and James Madison all brewed at home. Samuel Adams, famously, did it for a living. The Boston Tea Party was planned over beer at the Green Dragon tavern, and Thomas Jefferson composed the major parts of the Declaration of Independence at the Indian Queen tavern. And when the Constitution was being written in Philadelphia, the conventioneers adjourned nightly at the City Tavern, mindful of Benjamin Franklin's observation that "beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." If the Founders saw that beer could forge a revolution, modern Minutemen are forging a revolution in the beer itself. These days, small U.S. brewers are battling foreign and domestic foes -- with surprising success.

As BAD As It Gets
VIEW FROM THE RIGHT

Adam Sparks, Special to SF Gate


Imagine waking up to a science-fiction world in which voting involves no secret ballots -- the government knows how you voted -- no opposition statements are permitted, multiple votes can be legally cast by the same voter, only property owners vote, nongovernmental friends of the political power structure literally run the elections and voters can change their votes as many times as they like before election day. Is this a scenario for the next century, the voting pattern in Saudi Arabia or Saddam's Iraq or what? No, it's what voters are now facing in Contra Costa County, with mail-in ballots due July 27.

It all sounds nightmarish and hellishly bad, and it is. BAD is in this case both an acronym and an apt description. Benefit-assessment districts, or BADs, permitted under the California Constitution, are formed by groups of property owners who vote among themselves to create a special assessment district to finance local improvements to sidewalks, streets, landscaping and lighting and so on. BADs, however, need only be authorized by a local government and then validated by a vote among a small percentage of the population -- property owners -- to provide a very localized, finite and tangible capital improvement.

Historically, this system has worked well; it's been going on quietly for about 50 years now. But, in recent years, some cash-strapped governments have been looking to BADs to do an end run around Proposition 13, which requires that all bond measures for general improvements, such as school construction and park development, be approved by a two-thirds majority of the electorate. Proposition 13 concluded that bonds are essentially de facto property-tax increases and that it's reasonable they should have the overwhelming support of all those who will pay them.


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This is the same basic reason that cities across the country are mandating CID construction. They are getting around the need to raise money the old-fashioned way--by raising taxes or cutting existing services. Instead we have these pay-as-you-go arrangements with various kinds of special districts that impose specific tax burdens on this or that group of residents. With CIDs, it's the new owners.

HOA rules still dog homeowners
A "nightmare" that began almost two years ago has East Valley resident Rob Zaruba wondering who’s in charge of homeowners associations.

His homeowners association and Gilbert gave him written permission to build a $20,000 detached garage — only to have a neighbor complain that the structure violated association rules.

He called the mayor.

He contacted East Valley legislators. He talked to board members, property managers and attorneys connected to his home owners association.

Earlier this year, a mediator decided the garage did violate home owners association rules, must be removed and Zaruba should be com pensated for his trouble.

Zaruba’s ordeal illus trates the web of confu sion over the power, structure and oversight of homeowners associa- tions, which are mandated by some municipalities, created by developers and ruled by homeowners. There’s no oversight on the local or state level, and it’s often easier to change homeowners association rules by passing a state law rather than what’s needed to revise individual homeowners association covenants, conditions and restrictions.

"There’s confusion of who is in control, absolutely," said Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, RGilbert, who supported a number of homeowners association reform bills during this year’s legislative session. "People call cities and legislators. They aren’t sure what to do once a HOA board says it isn’t going to listen to you or go after you."


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And you also get an exchange of quotes between arch-enemies Pat Haruff and Scott Carpenter, to wit:
"It’s a failed experiment, totally failed," said Pat Haruff, a Mesa homeowner activist.

Not so, says homeowners association attorney Scott Carpenter, a member of the top homeowners association lobbying and education group, Community Associations Institute.

"The existence of use restrictions (in the covenants, conditions and restrictions) is market-driven," he said. "The homebuyer wants them."

Monterey County Herald | 07/06/2004 | Las Palmas couple fight homeowners group
Amid rolling, golden hills and curving, rock-walled roads bordered by freshly mown grass, life in a spacious, five-bedroom home in the upper reaches of the Las Palmas subdivision near Salinas would appear to be comfortable if not idyllic.

That's what attracted Angie and Loyde Inlow, a health consultant and doctor who bought their 3,700-square foot home about three years ago on a canyon hillside in the Prestancia Ranch section of Las Palmas. But the past few months have been anything but stress-free for the Inlows. They've butted heads with the development's homeowners association over planting a strip of fresh sod behind their fence and, since March, over plans to add a second, two-car garage and second-floor game room to their two-story home. "People on the board are very controlling. They believe what they say goes, period," Loyde Inlow said, sitting in the living room while his wife held their 6-month old daughter, Sierra. "Not everyone has been following the rules. It's very hypocritical." They tell stories of aerial photos being taken of the offending strip of sod, of keeping an eye on neighbors with binoculars, of rules being changed arbitrarily, of hard feelings among neighbors on the block overlooking the Salinas Valley. They've hired a lawyer...

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Who hasn't?
But here we go again. The story continues...

Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition: Israeli Security Fence battle moves to United Nations

With the US promising to veto possible sanctions against Israel and the Palestinians vowing to fight for them, the international battle over Israel's security fence moves to the United Nations, which could debate the matter as early as this week. Arab nations plan to ask the UN General Assembly to condemn Israel and force the destruction of its fence based on the advisory opinion issued Friday by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which said that its construction in the territories and in east Jerusalem is illegal and must be stopped.


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This promises to be a high-stakes conflict over the ultimate in gated communities. The wall seems to have contributed to a reduction in suicide bombings, according to some knowledgeable observers. But with the Hague weighing in on the side of the Palestinians, and the US promising to veto anything that condemns Israel, the scope of the conflict has been greatly enlarged.

L.A. Daily News - Priced out of a house? Affordability index hits lowest level since 1989

With prices and interest rates trending higher, only 19 percent of California households could afford the median-price home in May -- the lowest affordability rate since the previous housing boom, near its peak in 1989, a real estate group reported Thursday.


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It just gets worse and worse. In Los Angeles County, "It would take an income of about $110,000 to afford a median-price home costing about $465,000," according to the article. Ouch.

www.newszap.com: Older HOAs face problems with contradictory CC&Rs


Residents of Devonshire Estates are at odds over whether a neighbor should have been allowed to build a 950-square-foot RV garage in his backyard. The HOA board approved the project and the resident got the proper permit from the city. However, when Fannie Jones woke up to the sounds of construction on her birthday in April, she did not like the unexpected gift. "It's a barn in my backyard," said the 60-year-old Ms. Jones, who was one of the neighborhood's first residents when she bought her home in 1989. The RV garage, owned by Charles Baker, is about 18 feet tall and blocks his neighbor, Ms. Jones', eastern view.While some homeowners' associations vigorously enforce community laws, other neighborhoods are a bit more relaxed. Problems can develop as board members and policies change without updating the covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs). When HOA members attempt to enforce what they think is in their CC&Rs, they may discover the documents have outdated or contradictory language...



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This sort of thing is fairly common and it poses quite a problem. There aren't many lawyers who understand the law on CIDs, and even when they do the interaction between the language of governing documents and state law is often difficult to figure out. The CC&Rs may have been written 25 years ago, and since then a lot of things have changed.

CBC News:Condo owners win Supreme Court case over religious structures
The only problem is that this is the Supreme Court of Canada.

OTTAWA - A group of Jewish condo owners in Montreal have won a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada allowing them to put up temporary, religious structures on their balconies. The case goes back four years, when four Orthodox Jews were told by their condominium association they weren't allowed to put up Sukkot huts, also known as sukkahs, on their balconies. Condo rules had prohibited any construction on balconies or patios.
But in a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that religious freedoms take precedence over co-ownership contracts. It said the association's arguments about aesthetics and safety were questionable and that the Jews' religious rights should be upheld.

The University of Montana School of Law: Robert G. Natelson
I was right. Here's his web page. Check out his publications list and tell me he shouldn't be allowed to teach constitutional law. Good grief.

Natelson seeks regents' help in clash with UM Law School

HELENA - University of Montana professor Rob Natelson, accusing the Law School of discriminating against him for years because of his conservative political views, has asked the state Board of Regents to overturn a decision denying him the opportunity to teach constitutional law. Natelson, who has twice run as a Republican for governor and led several ballot-issue campaigns to limit taxes, filed a formal appeal this week with Regents Chairman John Mercer of Polson. He asked that the regents consider his request or assign it to Higher Education Commissioner Sheila Stearns rather than allow it to be heard on the UM campus. He asked the regents to reverse the Law School decision and order him to be transferred to the constitutional law teaching vacancy. Natelson urged the regents to admonish the Law School "to reassess its policies and practices to assure that faculty members of all viewpoints receive equal opportunity and treatment in hiring, promotion, work practices, merit pay and faculty awards, and that there is greater viewpoint diversity among faculty." In addition, he asked the regents to order the Law School to file "a plan of affirmative action (but not preferential hiring) to assure that the goals of equality opportunity, equal treatment and intellectual diversity are met." This may include, he said, "reassessment of intellectual political bias, faculty sensitivity training and basic education in federal and state provisions against illegal discrimination."


The article goes on at considerable length from there. Unless I am badly mistaken, Prof. Natelson is the author of a fascinating law review article that I have cited numerous times. It is: Robert G. Natelson, "Comments on the Historiography of Condominium: The Myth of Roman Origin," 12 Oklahoma City University Law Review 17 (1987). He debunks the industry-promoted false history of condominiums that says they date back to "the hills of ancient Rome." Instead, he shows, the origins of condominium property lie in medieval German law. He traces the idea through history, until he shows that condominiums arrived in the US in the early 1960s by way of Puerto Rico. If you want more, you can read about German "story property" in Rudolph Huebner's A History of Germanic Privat Law, published back in 1918 and re-issued by Augustus M. Kelley in 1968.
Anyway, I think Prof. Natelson is quite a capable scholar, and if he is being denied the opportunity to teach constitutional law because of his political beliefs it would be a sad state of affairs.

USATODAY.com - Housing crunch revives old cities
USA Today produces yet another excellent piece on housing trends. This one is co-authored by Haya El Nasser, who is as knowledgeable about housing trends as any journalist in America, and it includes analysis by Bob Lang of Virginia Tech, who is on my short list of A Number One urbanists.
-------------
The quest for affordable housing is fueling the explosive growth of suburban cities in the Sun Belt and even reviving some old industrial cities in the Northeast, according to population estimates out Thursday.Census numbers for 2003 show that cities grow when jobs are plentiful and housing costs are relatively low compared with the rest of their regions. (Related story: Rejuvenated cities capitalize on location) "It's the scramble for value," says Robert Lang, urban expert at Virginia Tech and author of Boomburbs, an upcoming book on large, fast-growing suburbs. "People are finding back doors into the hot places." The hottest places are still concentrated in the Sun Belt. Since 2000, eight of the 10 fastest-growing cities with more than 100,000 people are suburbs of Phoenix, Los Angeles and Las Vegas: Gilbert, Chandler and Peoria, Ariz.; Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana and Irvine, Calif.; and Henderson and North Las Vegas, Nev. The other two are Port St. Lucie and Cape Coral, Fla. The hunt for affordable housing also has helped reverse declines in older cities within commuting range of strong job centers. Cities in New Jersey and Connecticut are enjoying some of the spillover from New York's prosperity. Immigrants who are first-time homebuyers often gravitate toward older areas that offer comparatively cheap housing and good transportation to major job markets.



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This is a good story, and so is the related one about smaller "micrometropolitan" areas taking advantage of these trends. I suggest following the link to the story and reading the whole thing. Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending me this link.

Catching a Wave Out of Pricey California
By Stephanie Simon and Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writers
AUSTIN, Texas — Soaring property values in California have made many homeowners there rich — and many real estate agents here delighted. In an exodus that some demographers say could reshape the American landscape, young professional families are increasingly fleeing the exorbitant coast for Austin, Dallas or San Antonio, for Atlanta, Denver or Phoenix, for Charlotte, N.C. They're selling their cramped "starter homes" in California, some worth $500,000 or more, and buying luxury homes, for cash, in the nation's interior.


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Folks like this have been leaving California for fifteen or twenty years, and there is much more than home price differentials driving them out (although that is obviously a major incentive). There are other negatives, such as crime, high taxes, an anti-business political climate, massive illegal immigration that is swamping local government with social service burdens, failed public schol systems, and nightmarish traffic problems. On top of it all, the state's political leadership has been a complete disgrace for a long time, proving itself incapable of solving any major problem except self-perpetuation, which is why Der Governator was swept into office. I lived in California for almost thirty years before my wife and I left in 1990, and it is sad to see what has happened to it since. But California's loss is some other state's gain, so all these young professional types will presumably make Arizona, Nevada, Utah, or some other state a better place to live.

Bush signs bills to protect owners from boards: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
That would be Jeb, not George. This is a big year for HOA owner's rights activists in Florida as well as California, and (see below) now Texas.
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Beginning Oct. 1, homeowners and condo owners will have greater protection from abusive boards. In the first major reform in a decade, Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday signed two bills that would create the job of ombudsman to hear condo complaints and ban homeowner associations from foreclosing if owners don't pay fines. Homeowners will have the right to fly flags in front of their homes and associations won't be able to sue members for speaking out.Condo boards will not be able to change rules on rentals for existing owners. Homeowners and their associations will face mandatory mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution to prevent them from battling in expensive lawsuits.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
????????????
No. 02-0492
????????????
Geneva Brooks, et al, Petitioners,
v.
Northglen Association, Respondent

Here's a Texas Supreme Court victory for attorney David Kahne, who represented famous activist Geneva Brooks, who passed away about two years ago. The main issues were increases in assessments without approval of the members and board-imposed late fees (for non-payment of assessments) when the CC&Rs authorized only interest.
Excellent legal work by David, with whom I have had a number of interesting conversations over the last few years. Congratulations!

New U.S. Home Sales Leap to Record High

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. homes surged well past expectations in May to a record high, as generally rising mortgage interest rates did little to restrain home buying, a government report showed on Thursday.

Sales of new homes jumped 14.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.369 million units from an upwardly revised 1.192 million in April, the Commerce Department said. It was the biggest monthly climb since April 1993.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting sales to rise more modestly to 1.12 million units from the originally reported 1.093 million pace on the strength of mortgage applications.

Sales of new homes reached a record high 663,000 annual rate in the South, the region with the greatest volume of activity. They rose to a 121,000 rate in the Northeast, the highest level since January 1989.


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Those common interest housing units are just jumping off the shelves, no matter how many stories there are in the press about taking away people's pets and tearing down their flags. Go figure.

KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Condo Ban on Pets Is Upheld
The homeowner victory in the legislature over foreclosure reform is tempered by the loss in the California Supreme Court last week. The Terifaj case, that I have posted about earlier, went against the homeowner. She even has to pay the association's attorney fees:

The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Palm Springs condominium ban on pets over the objection of a dog lover who bought in before the exclusion was put in writing.

The Villa De Las Palmas Homeowners Assn. had repeatedly warned Paula Terifaj that she was violating the rules, according to the opinion. The court upheld the association's power to exclude pets and ordered Terifaj to pay $15,000 to cover the association's legal fees.

Terifaj, a Brea veterinarian, argued on behalf of the 6.7 million California households with pets that owning them benefited human health and well-being.

In the unanimous opinion written by Justice Carlos Moreno, the court ruled that "all homeowners are subject to use restrictions contained in amended [association rules] irrespective of when the amendment was passed."

The homeowners association argued that there had been a long-standing, though unrecorded, rule banning pets since 1962, and that Terifaj was aware of it.

Terifaj bought a condo in 1995 and moved in with her dog, Lucy. After Lucy died in 1998, Terifaj brought another dog onto the property.

The association had repeatedly told Terifaj to remove each dog from the premises. In 2000, the association approved a recorded rule banning "animals of any kind, including, without limitation, dogs, cats, birds, livestock, reptiles or poultry."

State law that took effect in 2001 gives residents in "common interest developments" the right to keep a single pet. Those developments include condominiums, planned housing developments and cooperatives.

The court ruled Monday that the benefits of pet ownership were irrelevant. Instead, the issue was whether "subsequently enacted and recorded use restrictions may be enforced against a current homeowner."

In upholding the 4th District Court of Appeals in Riverside, the high court also concluded that Terifaj must pay the homeowners association $15,000 in attorney fees.

SB 1682 Senate Bill - AMENDED
Here's the version of SB 1682 that passed committee.

SB 1682 Assembly Bill - Status
The Ducheny bill that would eliminate foreclosure for assessment collection under $2500 has passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee 8-3. I haven't looked this up, but I'm told that it was a party line vote, with Democrats for and Republicans against. Now the bill has passed the Senate and is headed for the Assembly floor, I would assume.

Las Vegas SUN: 1st Private, Manned Rocket Set for Launch
MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) -

Aviation enthusiasts began gathering Sunday in the high desert in hopes of seeing the first flight into space by a privately developed, manned rocket. Thousands of people were expected to be watching early Monday when an exotic jet-engined airplane named White Knight was set to take off from Mojave Airport carrying the rocket-propelled SpaceShipOne. If SpaceShipOne is successful, designer Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites development company will use the craft to make a run at the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a formal competition intended to spur commercial development of spaceflight.


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The privatization of space travel proceeds apace. This reminds me of the film "Alien," where "The Company" is mining in outer space and, of course, has an evil ulterior (profit) motive to exploit the Alien's hardy predatory nature for "the Weapons Division." Call me if White Night comes back with a xenomorph.

The Outer Banks Sentinel: Archaeologists plan search for lost Roanoke Settlement

This goes on my cool list. I've wondered about the lost Roanoke colony since I first heard about it in the sixth grade.

The search for the settlement site of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colonies of the 1580's, including the mysterious "Lost Colony," will resume later this year if plans now being made by archaeologists and historians are realized.

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Perhaps you recall this as well. The colonists landed at Roanoke Island in 1587, founded the Cittie of Raleigh, and in 1590, when ships returned, they found the place deserted and the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. Nobody has ever been able to figure out what happened to them. X-files material, but real.
Here's the story in more detail--From a cool site called "Packet."

NEWS.com.au | Public must keep clear of Madonna (June 19, 2004)
MADONNA has won her bid to stop walkers from traipsing over large parts of her £9 million ($24 million) country estate in England.

The singer's lawyers had argued before a public inquiry that a demand from the Countryside Agency to let ramblers onto areas regarded as open countryside would bring strangers close to her home at Ashcombe House, compromising both her privacy and her security.

The inquiry ruled today that the public had no right of access to 15 of 17 contested segments of land on the 548-hectare estate on the border of Wiltshire and Dorset.

But the Countryside Agency claimed a partial victory, saying the two parcels of land where walkers must be allowed accounted for 54 hectares of the 142 hectares under dispute.

"Almost half of the land contested at the public inquiry has been classed as open count," the agency said.


-------------------
Where to begin? But isn't her name Esther or Divinity or Abstinthe or something now? Anyway, now that she has clearly established her right to keep the stinky public off her land, what does she think we should do about Iraq? I, for one, don't feel comfortable voting until she tells me what to do. Do you?

Many back dog owner as condo chief quits
A battle over an elderly woman's Chihuahua has roused legions of supporters for the widow and forced the resignation of a condominium board president who fears for his safety after enforcing a no-pets rule. The uproar comes after 85-year-old Bernadette Casale was ordered to give up her pooch, Cha Cha. As news of her plight spread, scores of supporters have inundated the Bridgeview condominium in suburban Delray Beach with angry phone calls and e-mails. "It's getting pretty scary," Casale said. So scary that board president Chris Termini has resigned after serving 12 years on the board. Termini declined to comment Thursday to avoid stirring more controversy. "One letter said to the effect, 'If Ms. Casale loses her dog, my face will be the last face you see,' " said Joe Conigliaro, board vice president. Conigliaro said exempting Cha Cha would be unfair to other residents who must follow the no-pets rule, which was first implemented about a decade ago after a community vote.

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One neighbor has already announced that if Ms. Casale gets to keep her dog, "I'm going out tomorrow and buying me one." This whole episode would make sense if it were on The Sopranos, but it's real life.

ABC13.com: Officials order woman living in two-room home to give up 130 pets


By The Associated Press
(6/15/04 - HOUSTON) — A Liberty County woman found with more than 130 animals in her two-room house and on her half-acre lot has been ordered to surrender the pets to an animal rights organization. Patsy Boucher, 58, lived on her property with 121 dogs, eight birds, a cat and several pigs and guinea pigs. A justice of the peace told her to turn over the animals because of concerns for their well-being.


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See what happens when you live in a neighborhood without an HOA? On the other hand, Ms. Boucher blames the County for this situation because she says they don't have an animal shelter. I guess you could call this a form of privatization after all...

Arizona Capitol Times: George Starapoli assesses the legislative accomplishments of this session
George is the honcho of Citizens Against Private Government, and was heavily involved in the AZ legislative goings-on this year, and moderator of the HOAs group on Yahoo. Here's his opinion on the various things that did and did not pass:

Legislature Responds With HOA Reforms – Or Did It?

There were some 16 homeowner association “reform” bills submitted in this year’s legislative session after only two last year and one two years before. Many, including some advocates, are shouting “Fantastic! Arizona has seen the light.”

Is this a step forward?

The answer is yes. Progress has been made because the Legislature realized that it could no longer ignore advocates’ demands for reform after years of industry-backed bills that only purported to aid homeowners.

But, what was asked of the legislators? More association/industry-favored bills or HOA reform bills? What was the mix, or quality, of these bills? Were only good bills passed and harmful bills killed? Of the 16 bills, nine were passed (56 per cent). Was that good or bad?

Some examples of bad bills:

• H2402 was watered down to permit the loss of homestead exemption and draconian foreclosure methods.

• H2377 was a “due process” bill that would have required a justice of the peace’s ruling on the legitimacy of HOA violations.

• H2381 allows the director to vote after declaring a conflict his interest.

Some examples of better bills:

• S1137 did away with the need for a quorum of homeowners to sue the board.

• S1125 requires registration of HOAs.

• H2380 requires “truth in home buying” with written disclosure to the buyer.

The main failing with most of these bills remains the lack of enforcement by rogue boards who, today, ignore the laws, and we believe will continue to ignore the laws because there is no “motivation” in terms of penalties.

In general, advocates are pleased with the results of this year’s legislative session. After three years of failing to enact any HOA reform legislation we now have the beginnings of reform activity.

Still, many feel that more needs to be done to bring justice and the equal protection of the laws to homeowners living in HOAs.

We will be back next year, and the next year until there is justice and the equal treatment of homeowners living in HOAs.

(by George K. Staropoli, Citizens Against Private Government, HOAs Scottsdale)

San Bernardino County Sun: Rialto watches condo cleanup--Decaying complexes might be targeted for potential legal action
By BRAD A. GREENBERG, Staff Writer

RIALTO - The city has 12 troubled multiple-family residences, where walls crumble, ceilings sag, trash piles up and safety wanes. A run-down Eucalyptus Avenue condo complex is being used as a testing ground by city housing officials for a more authoritative method of achieving building rehabilitation. If Foothill Terrace continues to improve, the city might take legal action on some of the other troubled complexes, officials said.
....................
"It looks like a third-world country,' said John Walton, a building inspector with Rialto's Economic Redevelopment Agency.
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People keep asking me for specifics when I say that there is an increasing risk of many more failed HOAs in the near future. Here's one example-12 complexes in one city.

Yahoo! News - Gasoline Price Drops Below $2 a Gallon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The average price U.S. drivers pay for gasoline dropped below $2 a gallon for the first time in five weeks, with costs in some cities falling more than 10 cents, the government said on Monday. The national price for regular unleaded gasoline fell 4.9 cents over the last week to $1.985 a gallon, according to a weekly survey of gasoline stations by the Energy Information Administration


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Still more good news.

Yahoo! News - Mortgage Delinquencies Lowest in 4 Years
By Richard Leong

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage delinquencies slipped in the first quarter of 2004 to their lowest level in nearly four years, helped by a robust housing market and improving job conditions, a U.S. mortgage industry group said on Monday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its measure of outstanding mortgages that were delinquent fell to 4.33 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the first quarter from 4.49 percent in the fourth quarter and 4.85 percent a year ago. The first-quarter delinquency reading is lowest since 4.11 percent for the second quarter 2000, according to a spokesman for the group.

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There's some good news. Now how will Kerry, et al., spin this into the worst economy since Herbert Hoover?

Yahoo! News - Holy Condominiums, Batman!

Churches Selling As Luxury Condominiums
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - When St. Peter and Paul's Church was sold to a developer, there was a lot of resistance in South Boston. Not only was the beloved church closing, it was being turned into something that was an anathema to the working-class neighborhood: luxury condominiums.
As the Boston Archdiocese prepares to put 60 churches up for sale, developers and real estate brokers predict they will be scooped up and converted into condos because the market is hot for trendy, distinctive real estate.

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This is a fascinating story. It seems that all the publicity about priestly dalliances with young parishioners has cut into church attendance and funds, which has led to church closures. What to do with empty churches? Sell them to developers. This should lead to some interesting community dynamics. The area residents are used to thinking of the place as their church. The yuppies who now live there think of it as, let's say hypothetically, Priestly Acres, with the coolest hot tub in the neighborhood. Hard to reconcile those two perceptions, don't you think?

REALTOR: Calif.: Illegal Condo Conversions Brings Headaches, Lawsuits

Fred Pilot sent me this link to the latest developments in a story I posted on some time ago:
The City of Huntington Beach, Calif., has started a criminal probe to find the reason for up to 120 illegal condominium conversions in the Orange County city. Among the latest victims of an allegedly fraudulent conversion are Scott and Renee Tarnow, who learned earlier this year that their condominium hadn't been legally converted after spending $80,000 in improvements to the unit, according to The Los Angeles Times.

TheDenverChannel.com - News - Here's why people move to gated communities...
Accused Arsonist Mugs For Camera
DA: Dinsmore Wandered Neighborhood Setting Cars On Fire

POSTED: 1:23 pm MDT June 11, 2004

DENVER -- A 21-year-old Denver man was formally charged with arson Friday after police said he wandered around a Denver neighborhood, setting fire to cars.
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By all means, follow the link and take a look at the mug shot.

California Supreme Court ruling in Terifaj case coming on Monday
VILLA v. TERIFAJ
S109123 (E029449; Riverside County Superior Court No. 1NC13318)
Argued in Los Angeles 4-06-04
This case includes the following issues: (1) Is a restriction on the keeping of
pets that is adopted by a homeowners association and is recorded after the purchase of
a unit in a common interest development enforceable against the owner of the unit as
an equitable servitude under Civil Code section 1354? (2) What is the proper
standard that governs the validity of such a restriction, and is the restriction at issue
here valid?
Opinion(s) in the above case(s) will be filed on:
Monday, June 14, 2004 at 10:00 a.m.

Financial Times:Greenspan says Fed ready to act on inflation
Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, on Tuesday indicated that interest rates might have to rise faster than expected to keep inflationary pressures under control. Speaking from Washington via satellite link to a conference in London, Mr Greenspan said he remained confident that the Fed could afford to remove monetary stimulus from the US economy gradually but that he was ready to take stronger action if necessary. Although the reaction in financial markets was muted, economists said the comments marked a significant shift in Fed rhetoric, with inflation starting to take centre stage.


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So, those of you with adjustable rate mortgages might wish to sprint for the nearest finance company without stopping Go or paying 9% interest.

WFTV.com - News - Beekeepers Remove 700,000 Bees From Man's Home
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Lake Worth resident Norm Gitzen didn't mind the more than half-million bees living in the roof of his house until recently.Rather, he said, they were "kind of mesmerizing," and he often sweetened his morning coffee with honey dripping from the hives. But when the bees started coming into the house, stinging him and his nephew, his love of that cohabitation changed. Local beekeepers started removing at least 700,000 bees from a tower above his breakfast nook on Tuesday, filling four buckets with honey weighing close to 65 pounds...
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See why people need HOAs? And you thought it was just so your neighbor couldn't rebuild his 1960 Rambler on the front lawn over a two-year period.

baltimoresun.com - 24-hour camera surveillance in city is part of bigger plan
This is cute:
Financed by homeland security grants, new network aimed at fighting terrorists as much as drug dealers
By Doug Donovan
Sun Staff
Originally published June 10, 2004
From the Inner Harbor to the Bay Bridge, local and state homeland security authorities are beginning to build a regional network of 24-hour surveillance cameras that will first go live this summer in Baltimore.

The closed-circuit video surveillance system of public spaces will begin in the Inner Harbor by summer's end, and a $2 million federal grant accepted by the city yesterday will expand the cameras into downtown's west side by early November.

"We're trying to build a regional network of cameras," said Dennis R. Schrader, director of homeland security for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

What of privacy concerns raised by groups opposed to cameras constantly monitored by retired police officers or college students?

"We're at war," Schrader said.

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There's more, so by all means read it all. But I bolded that last little bit to show how cavalier government officials are about privacy these days. Gated community leaders will have to get busy if they are going to even keep pace with the security measures now in place in many major cities. The old days when the GC types had the edge are long gone. Soon you will be under more surveillance walking in downtown Chicago or Baltimore than when you enter Security Pointe Villas.

CAI Seeks Extension of Terrorism Insurance Support

(this is a press release from CAI that I am passing along)

ALEXANDRIA, VA, June 10, 2004 – Community Associations Institute (CAI) is urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to extend and expand provisions of a law that enable community associations to obtain reasonably priced insurance coverage for acts of terrorism.

CAI wrote treasury officials June 4 urging an extension of the "make-available" requirements of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) of 2002. Passed by Congress in response to the September 11 attacks, the act ensures that the federal government will partner with insurers to cover losses resulting from a catastrophic terrorist attack. The make-available provision is scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2004.

TRIA stipulates that federal government resources will be used to protect insurance companies from ruinous financial losses as a result of catastrophic terrorist attacks. With that backing, insurance providers are able to provide affordable and comprehensive terrorism coverage. Without it, few if any insurance providers would be willing to offer terrorism insurance.

TRIA limits insurance industry liability to the deductible, which is established by law, and 10 percent of further losses up to the capped limit.

CAI told treasury officials that a lack of adequate insurance coverage diminishes the ability of community associations to obtain loans and comply with the insurance requirements on existing loans. That’s because many financial institutions require terrorism coverage as a hedge against default and massive losses.

"Thousands of community associations – and millions of Americans who live in them – will be put in a tenuous situation if TRIA isn't extended," says Thomas M. Skiba, CAI's chief executive officer. "The federal government needs to fill this void until these complicated issues can be resolved by the insurance industry."

The underlying problem is the inability of anyone to assess the true risk of a terrorist attack. According to CAI and the insurance industry, this has hindered the ability of insurance providers to develop accurate risk assessments and to price terrorism insurance accordingly. In fact, TRIA was created in part to give the insurance industry a transitional period to create, price and provide terrorism coverage.

CAI cited the dilemma faced by insurance carriers: "If the federal government cannot predict the probability and scope of terrorist events, the insurance company should not be expected to pull out the proverbial crystal ball to gather the same information."

The cost of property and liability coverage for community and condominium associations has as much as tripled in many regions of the country, according to CAI. These costs could "skyrocket" in high-risk areas without the make-available provision and without federal government backing, CAI said, "adding to the already-monumental costs of property and liability coverage."

CAI and the insurance industry are also urging treasury officials to recommend that TRIA be expanded to cover losses resulting from nuclear, biological and chemical terrorist attacks. TRIA does not require that reasonably priced terrorism be made available to cover these particular forms of terrorism.

In testimony before a Congressional subcommittee in April 2004, the General Accounting Office (GAO) warned of insurance industry reluctance to offer terrorism insurance. Without the TRIA caps, GAO said insurance providers likely would be "unwilling to sell terrorism coverage because they have not found a reliable way to price their exposure to terrorist losses." GAO told the panel that current risk models "do not have enough historical data to dependably estimate the frequency or severity of terrorist events, and therefore cannot be relied upon for pricing terrorism insurance."

CAI is the only national membership organization dedicated to fostering vibrant, responsive, competent community associations. The 16,000-member organization and its 55 chapters represent managers, community association volunteer leaders, management companies and professionals who provide products and services to association-governed communities.

For members and general inquiries, contact the CAI Direct customer service team:
Community Associations Institute
225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 300
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-548-8600
Fax: 703-684-1581
Email: CAIdirect@caionline.org


MEDIA CONTACT: Frank Rathbun
Phone: 703-548-8600, ext. 261
Fax: 703-684-1581
Email: FRathbun@caionline.org

------------------------------
My comments: Federal subsidies to make sure HOAs have insurance against terrorism? Is that privatization in action? Or has somebody just figured out another handy use for big government?

Peter Levine's blog: June 06, 2004 Archives
Peter Levine, who is an economist at the University of Maryland and is not a libertarian, was one of the participants at the Liberty Fund conference in Montreal on "Private Neighborhood Associations and Liberty." He has posted some of his thoughts on his own weblog at the link above. The discussion he started is continuing at the web log Crooked Timber. I'd suggest first following the link to Peter's comments on his blog, and then going to the ensuing discussion on Crooked Timber.

AB 2598 Assembly Bill - Status
The foreclosure reform bill that passed the Assembly and is now in the Senate has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tick, tick, tick...

AB 1836 Assembly Bill - Vote Information
SB 1836 (see below for explanation) has passed unanimously in the Senate Housing and Community Development Committee and has now been referred to the Judiciary Committee. This is the ADR bill that incorporates the recommendations of the California Law Revision Commission.

AB 1836 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis
This is the alternative dispute resolution bill that passed the Assembly and is now in the Senate Housing and Community Development Committee. This particular bill would enact the recommendations of the California Law Revision Commission on ADR. Thanks to Fred Pilot for flagging this as I somehow managed to forget to subscribe to the automatic notification service for this bill.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Satellite images 'show Atlantis'
How cool is this? And it's sort of a gated community, to boot:

A scientist says he may have found remains of the lost city of Atlantis.
Satellite photos of southern Spain reveal features on the ground appearing to match descriptions made by Greek scholar Plato of the fabled utopia.
(read the whole thing--it even has a photo)

Why I have been off the air since Thursday.
I just got back from Montreal after a truly excellent conference titled "Private Neighborhood Associations and Liberty." It was sponsored by The Liberty Fund, an organization that puts on many conferences dealing with liberty. This one was proposed and put together by Robert Nelson, the University of Maryland economist who has written a great deal about the use of HOAs as a replacement for municipal governments. There were 15 people at the conference, and a very distinguised group it was (not counting me), including law professors, economists, and a few from other backgrounds, such as Linc Cummings, one of the founders of CAI. Some of the attendees are libertarians or so inclined, but others were coming from quite different perspectives. We had two full days of lengthy and intense conversations. All told, it was the best meeting I have ever attended on this subject. I will talk more about this, but for now I have to get some rest as it has been a long four days.

The News-Press: Local & State - Some Island Club residents set to sue
Builder misled them about decks, they say

By DENISE L. SCOTT, dscott@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on June 6, 2004

Some residents of the Island Club in Estero plan to sue the builder they claim misled them into thinking it was legal to build lanais, decks and concrete pads on property they don’t own.

About 150 homeowners attended the informational meeting Friday night, which was meant to raise a legal fund against builder Ronald L. Davis, owner of RLD Homes.

Resident Michael Towns, who organized the meeting, said 207 of the 250 homes have either concrete pads, lanais or decks — all in violation of county code for extending onto common property. The lanais and decks also were built without permits.

“I’m no builder, but somebody knew you don’t build lanais on property you don’t own. It says it in (county) code,” Towns said.

The county had been negotiating with the community for two years to bring the structures into compliance. However, Commissioner Ray Judah recently ordered that the structures be torn down because of safety and flooding concerns.

Towns said his group, which is separate from the homeowners association board, hasn’t yet determined whether it will include any government agencies in the lawsuit.

“There’s also culpability with the county,” Towns said. “There were inspectors crawling all over the community, but people weren’t paying attention. They weren’t insisting the rules be followed.”


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When you get an HOA, a municipality, a homeowner's organization, and a few lawyers in the mix, I'd say major litigation may not be far behind. What do you think?

Buying into a community group

For many, homeownership means abiding by HOA regulations
BY MICHAEL GARTLAND
Of The Post and Courier Staff

(This story includes some quotes from me and also from Shu Bartholomew. It is interesting because the reporter went into the issue of municipal dependence on HOAs. Here's the whole story because the link requires registration.)

Ben Allen didn't worry much about the rules he and his neighbors would have to follow when he moved into his Snee Farm home in Mount Pleasant five years ago.
"We picked the house first and read the covenant last," he recalled.

The letter of the development's law became more important to him last summer, though, when a neighbor decided to install a pre-fabricated garage.

"We wanted construction to stop," he said. Allen lobbied against it, saying it wasn't permissible under Snee Farm's covenant, but the Snee Farm Community Foundation, his homeowners association, had already approved the project.

The neighbor building the garage happened to be a member of the association's board of directors.

"We felt because he sat on the board they showed him more leeway, so we challenged it" in court, he said.

His story is not uncommon. In Charleston County, homeowners association disputes often wind up in small claims court. Last year, the county's small claims magistrate heard about two cases every week.

There are about 500 homeowners associations in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties; across the country, about 250,000. Most act as small governments, handling responsibilities such as landscaping, zoning enforcement and road and drainage repairs. They have the power to exact fines on residents, put liens on homes, and some can foreclose if all other discipline fails. Some even sue the cities within which they're situated.

In Snee Farm, the homeowners association sued the town for installing speed humps, a traffic calming device that some residents opposed.

Often people who buy a new home--and into an HOA--aren't aware of the powers such organizations wield. Some don't allow flags to fly or satellite dishes to be visible. Others forbid open garage doors and cars propped up on cinder blocks. Problems also can arise when the people running the associations, which have budgets that often reach into the millions, don't have the training or staff to handle the financial responsibilities.

Evan McKenzie, a political science professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, has been tracking and studying homeowners associations for 20 years and has written a book about it titled "Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government."

Part of the reason HOAs have increased from 500 in 1960 to a quarter million today is because cash-strapped municipal governments can't always afford to build roads and other necessities that new developments require, McKenzie said.

HOAs often pay for landscaping and roads previously financed by cities and towns.

"It's like a subsidy for local governments," McKenzie said. "Governments actively promote it."

Not only do municipalities save money on costs absorbed by HOA fees, but some charge developers fees for the impact on infrastructure that development brings.

Mount Pleasant Planning Director Joel Ford said homeowners associations have benefited the town over the years.

"We would have needed more in tax dollars to support (that) development," Ford said.

Typically, local governments don't exert much control over homeowners associations. North Charleston Planning Director Bill Gore said the city formally recognizes HOAs but has no say over how contractual disputes are resolved within them. Such disputes could involve zoning and infrastructure matters, issues typically seen as the purview of government.

"They have to attend to those agreements on their own," Gore said.

Developers benefit from the relative independence their communities have from local government. Paying for their own infrastructure enables developers to have more control over scale.

"It's very lucrative for builders to build this way because they can get much higher densities," McKenzie said. "Streets are a large expense. If you can make streets 5 or 6 feet narrower than the town allows, then that's all profit."

In the long run, though, these benefits can translate into problems for residents. Shoddy infrastructure often comes back to haunt residents who pay for repairs out of increased homeowners fees. Problems also can arise because some HOA directors have no experience handling the money or problems that accompany a planned development.

"They don't get any training, they don't know what they're doing, and they've got a lot of responsibility," McKenzie said.

Complaints about how property is managed have been common at Snee Farm. Some residents and members of the HOA's board of directors said decisions are made without voting, and that Michael Hart, the board's head, has taken on responsibilities that are not his to assume.

Hart said he does not manage the property, but enforces covenants and restrictions. He added that the community has never looked better.

"Nobody is claiming fraud or any other crime, but we are concerned with mismanagement," said Emilie Carey, who is on the board of directors and has lived in Snee Farm for 10 years.

The lawsuit filed against the town of Mount Pleasant over speed humps is central to the issue, and is yet to be resolved. Carey claimed the board never voted to sue or to hire a lawyer, but Hart denied this. "Everything is voted on by the board," he said.

Not all associations are as contentious as Snee Farm's.

Jim Trusso, president of the Little Oak Island Condominium Association at Folly Beach, said the biggest issue the group faces is homeowner ignorance of community living.

"People don't know or have a good grasp of what condominium or community living is all about," he said.

Michael Parades is trying to change that. He's a local property manager and the South Carolina chapter president of the Community Associations Institute. Educating homeowners and the 3,500 HOAs in the state, he said, is key to making them work smoothly.

"We're trying to get more homeowner participation," he said. "Most homeowners don't understand what they've bought into when they buy into a homeowner association."

Reaching out to untrained HOA managers is also key to making sure the communities are run more efficiently.

"Community managers need to know a lot of things. They need to know legal (matters), they need to know about insurance, they need to know about maintenance," he said. "In South Carolina, there's nothing that says you can't get into community management."

Many HOAs hire property managers to handle chores such as maintenance and tracking down residents who are overdue on fees.

At Bayview Farms on James Island, the homeowners association only gets involved if legal action seems imminent.

Karen Rapchick has served on the homeowners board at Bayview for three years and said that usually a small claims court notice is enough to get residents to cough up fees. Sometimes, though, they have to go to court.

"We just started using the smalls claims court two years ago for dues issues," she said.

Other associations will foreclose on homes.

Michael Michalak is vice president of the Autumn Chase and Lakes Homeowners Association and said that while this West Ashley community hasn't taken anyone to court, it has forced one resident to move.

"We foreclosed on two places," he said. "They paid. One stayed, and one moved."

Nationwide, there are few laws governing HOAs. Local governments typically take a hands-off position, McKenzie said. Over-regulation is certainly a consideration, but McKenzie fears under-regulation could lead to trouble for the associations and the people who depend on them.

Since HOAs are private, they don't have the safety net that relatively small municipal governments have. Town, city and county governments can be bailed out in case of a financial emergency.

"Who's going to bail out a homeowners association?" McKenzie asked. "They have no institutional friends."

Shu Bartholomew started a radio show devoted solely to homeowners association issues after serving on one. Her show, On the Commons, is broadcast in northern Virginia on Saturdays and on the Internet. The show allows people from all over the country to have discussions about problems that arise in home ownership and in homeowners associations.

"We've been able to put a lot of issues on the table," Bartholomew said.

Five years after moving into Snee Farm, Ben Allen hopes he can resolve some issues of his own. The case regarding his neighbor's garage, a case he brought last October, is still being heard in Charleston County Court of Common Pleas. He hopes it will be resolved soon through mediation.

"We got a better understanding, basically by digging a little bit," Allen said.


Michael Gartland covers East Cooper. Contact him at 937-5902 or mgartland@postandcourier.com.




Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/051104/loc_11hoa.shtml

PLANETIZEN: Is Suburbia Killing Us?


As national and North Carolina overweight and obesity rates climbed to 59 percent in 2002, and runaway health-care costs hit the economy, writes University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Endeavors magazine writer Neil Caudle, many researchers looked beyond the usual suspects of ''fast food and too much television'' and began to implicate ''the 'built environment,' much of which was built around cars'' and gradually morphed into the ever-farther suburbs. ''We grow up with the understanding that the only way to travel is by car, and the only way for communities to develop is with a separation of uses,'' but the time has come for governments and businesses to grasp the value of mixed uses and ''the economic advantage of having people out and about without cars,'' stresses UNC School of Public Health's Department of Health Behavior and Health Education Associate Professor Rich Killingsworth.


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So...suburbanites drive too much, and that leads to obesity, and that leads to death? I'd have to read the study to be sure, but I'm starting out with a good deal of scepticism. Are suburbanites really fatter than people who live in central cities?

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Private Rocket to Try Reaching Space
MOJAVE, Calif. — A privately developed manned rocket will attempt to reach space this month, its builders said Wednesday. It would be the first non-governmental flight to leave Earth's atmosphere. SpaceShipOne (search), created by aviation designer Burt Rutan and funded by billionaire Paul Allen (search), will attempt to reach an altitude of 62 miles on a suborbital flight over the Mojave Desert (search) on June 21. The rocket plane reached an altitude of about 40 miles during a test flight May 13. Suborbital flights are essentially up and down. The craft does not reach speeds fast enough go into orbit around the Earth. If the attempt is successful, SpaceShipOne will compete for the Ansari X Prize, a competition in which $10 million goes to the first reusable rocket able to carry three people into space on a suborbital flight, return them safely to Earth, and repeat the feat within two weeks with the same vehicle. A number of other private organizations are also developing contenders for the prize.


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I think SpaceShipOne is a weak name. How about....Moonraker?

Update from California Law Revision Commission
Here's some updated information from the CLRC on two of the bills they proposed, both of which are in the legislature at present. One is AB 1836, dealing with alternative dispute resolution, and the other is AB 2376, that would implement the CLRC's recommendations on architectural review and rulemaking.

The CLRC, by the way, is in the Governator's sights. He wants to abolish it as a money-saving measure.

Darwin Award Nominee?
A Lee's Summit man nearly drowned Monday morning while trying to recover his keys at Longview Lake. The Missouri Water Patrol gave the following account: The man, 54, used a garden hose as a breathing tube and jumped into the lake with a rope and a 20-pound anchor tied to his waist. He went underwater once and came up without the keys. He went down a second time, lost the garden hose and ran out of breath. A person on the surface realized something was wrong and pulled the man out with the rope. The victim was unresponsive for a short time but began breathing on his own. He refused medical treatment.


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Some details are missing from this account. First, did he refuse treatment for anoxia or no-brain syndrome? Second, has he filed his lawsuit yet? The garden hose company, the manufacturer of the "anchor," whatever that was, the HOA if a private lake or municipality if public, the rescuer...did I leave anybody out?