SB 186 Senate Bill - Bill Analysis
Fred Pilot sent this link to a California legislative bill analysis dealing with use of association funds for campaign purposes in association elections. There is some interesting language in the analysis, quoting the bill's author, which ai assume is Senator Battin:

Common interest developments (CIDs) . . . are powerful
contractual institutions that help maintain their
residents' property values by enforcing local regulations .
. . When operating as intended, they maintain order as well
as afford relief to local municipalities by providing
homeowners with necessities such as paved roads, water, and
street lights. They may also offer benefits, such as
recreational centers.

Governed by elected boards, CIDs act much like
quasi-governments by levying fees, or "assessments," to
gain the revenues needed for the association to fulfill its
obligations. This authority places a large amount of power
into the hands of the elected board members.
Unfortunately, California law is not specific concerning
the oversight of elections held within CIDs, opening the
possibility for serious abuses of power.

One such instance is when a sitting board or individual
board member uses association funds to pay for
"informational" newsletters that are just thinly veiled
campaign pieces. This is not the purpose for which
assessments are levied, and it gives an unfair advantage to
the incumbents. This is akin to a city council member
using city funds to finance their own campaign, or a
legislator running for office using his or her block grant
. . .

Though many associations have already adopted stringent
guidelines in their articles of incorporation and/or
bylaws, the lack of statutory direction leaves gaping
loopholes open to exploitation. SB 186 addresses this
problem, and in conjunction with SB 61 will serve to
guarantee the sanctity of the ballot box in common interest
developments.

Daily Herald | Kane County, Illinois--Batavia: Subdivision residents may be taxed for maintenance
I've been hamstrung in blogging recently because of my office being renovated...v-e-r-r-r-r-y s-l-o-o-o-ow-l-y--and only today, I am told, will my new office computer be hooked up and ready to use.

Here's an Illinois story sent by Fred Pilot. An HOA is not functioning like it should, so the city says--fine, we'll create a special service area and tax you HOA residents for it. As I keep saying, HOAs are rapidly becoming an extension of local government.

For years, Batavia officials have complained no one has taken full responsibility for mowing the grass around the wetlands, keeping the algae out of the ponds and maintaining the entryways at the Davey Farm subdivision. If no one pledges in the next few months to keep up those areas, as well as the half-acre park and other pockets of green space, city officials say residents will pay the price. The city is ready to invoke a special service area drawn up in the 1997 annexation agreement and levy a tax against the homeowners. “The association hasn’t quite gotten its act together,” Alderman Jim Volk said. “They are not keeping up with maintenance.”

Press release on status of Las Vegas Grand lawsuit
Nancy Levy forwarded this update on the mega-suit against the developer and other "entities" responsible for constructing the Grand--now removed to federal court. But sometimes the federal judge doesn't buy the diversity of citizenship argument, and back she comes. We'll see.

LAS VEGAS, NV, (NAMC) - On June 8, 2005, defendant Vegas Grand filed a motion to transfer the case to the U.S. District Court, for the District of Nevada. The filing immediately removed the case from the Nevada state courts to the federal courts. The case is now pending in the federal court in Nevada and has been assigned to U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan.

NBC5.com - News - Chicago Housing Authority To Install Additional Cameras At Developments
Thanks to Nancy Levy for this one. I thought Cabrini Green was supposed to be knocked down and replaced by condos and townhomes by now. Nice to know they can focus in real close on those gunshots. Things sure are under control in Chicago public housing, don't you think?

The Chicago Housing Authority will install police surveillance cameras at additional developments, officials said Wednesday.At a news conference at the Near North District police station, 1160 N. Larrabee St., Mayor Richard M. Daley said the CHA has purchased 24 new bulletproof cameras identical to those used under the 2-year-old "Operation Disruption" and monitored by the city's 911 Center. Ten cameras already are in place at various CHA complexes, including Cabrini-Green, and 14 more will be installed by the end of the year, according to Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management and Communications...Daley said the cameras will also be equipped with the same acoustic sensors used to triangulate the position of nearby gunfire. When gunshots are detected by the cameras, an alarm is sent to the 911 Center and the camera's lens focuses on the area where the gunshot went off..

Possible Declaration of Independence copy found in Alabama...

...Nicholas Cage being sought for questioning...

This much is certain: Janice Burks has a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which her late husband said he found in a hidden compartment in a box he bought in Philadelphia decades ago. Past that, the truths are not exactly self-evident...

Man arrested after he rescues swimmer
Today's tale of local government employees run amuck has to be read to be believed. There is little doubt that had this man not done what he did, the fellow he rescued would hve died.

When Dave Newman waded out of the San Marcos River on Sunday afternoon, he was exhausted. He had just pulled Abed Duamni of Houston out of the swirling waters below Joe's Crab Shack and deposited him, safe and sound, on the far shoreline. Then Newman, of San Marcos, was handcuffed, put in a Texas State University police squad car and taken to jail, where he was charged with interfering with public duties.

Harold Berliner: Don't let your taxes pay for private developments
From Nancy Levy comes this link to this remarkable piece by a former elected District Attorney of Nevada County, California, who lays out in detail the dynamics of real estate development that lead to privatization. It even has 25 footnotes. Local governments, he says, are strapped for cash and thus approve residential development projects where the developer promises to build the infrastructure. This is a must-read, especially for people who still doubt that it is land economics that is driving the rise of common interest housing, and who claim that it is all about consumers demanding private governments and deed restrictions.

Local government does not have enough cash on hand to invest in anything but it's most essential, depleted public infrastructure – some of which is 100 years old, and vitally needed to improve present traffic conditions. The present Board and Councils are well aware of these priorities, and hesitate to depend on "iffy" money in the future to finance projects that benefit single developments; especially ones that are trying to off-load their full infrastructure responsibilities and are not significantly helping the present population.

Supreme Court job approval drops
The Kelo decision was announced on June 23. This poll was taken from June 24 to June 26. The switch in approval/disapproval is striking: from 51/39 to 42/48. And that followed on a drop from around 60% approval that had held for several years. From 60% to 42%--it's time for some new blood on this court. O'Connor's replacement can't be put in place too soon for me. (I found this link on Polipundit).

House Votes To Undercut High Court On Property
The Kelo decision has caused such massive public outcry that politicians are seizing on the opportunity to portray themselves as friends of the ordinary property owner. Bills aimed at preventing the use of eminent domain for economic development are moving through several state legislatures, including here in Illinois. And now Congress is getting into the act:

The House voted yesterday to use the spending power of Congress to undermine a Supreme Court ruling allowing local governments to force the sale of private property for economic development purposes. Key members of the House and Senate vowed to take even broader steps soon. Last week's 5 to 4 decision has drawn a swift and visceral backlash from an unusual coalition of conservatives concerned about property rights and liberals worried about the effect on poor people, whose property is often vulnerable to condemnation because it does not generate a lot of revenue. The House measure, which passed 231 to 189, would deny federal funds to any city or state project that used eminent domain to force people to sell their property to make way for a profit-making project such as a hotel or mall. Historically, eminent domain has been used mainly for public purposes such as highways or airports. The measure, an amendment to an appropriations bill, would apply to funds administered by the departments of Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said they will push for a more inclusive measure that would apply to all federal funds.

The Volokh Conspiracy - - Eugene Volokh on Takings, Kelo, and privatization

The funny thing is that, in Kelo v. City of New London, it is the (mostly liberal) majority's test that would give the government flexibility to serve public goals by taking property and selling it to private parties, when the government thinks the private parties will be better positioned to provide the public benefit. And it is the conservative dissenters' test that would give the government a strong incentive to own and operate various enterprises itself, or insist that whoever owns and operates them labor under the burdens of being a "common carrier."

civilrights.org -- New Reality Show to Exploit Stereotypes for Suburban Dream Home
Here's a press release found by Nancy Levy that ocmes from a civil rights website. They are upset over a new ABC reality show:

A new ABC reality TV series has sparked outrage from fair housing advocates, who say the show could give homeowners the idea they can engage in housing discrimination and stereotyping without any consequences. According to ABC's web site, in "Welcome to the Neighborhood," seven diverse couples will compete to win a beautiful dream home on a "perfect" suburban cul-de-sac in Austin, Texas. Each week of the six-week series, the competing families will participate in a "challenge" given by three neighborhood families who will serve as "judges." ABC's web site states that "the three neighborhood families who will be judging the competing families all love their quiet, picturesque community and are used to a certain kind of neighbor--one who looks and thinks just like them." The families who will be choosing their neighbors are white. The competing families include an African American family, a Latino family, an Asian American family, and a white gay couple who has adopted an African American baby boy.

Drought in Chicago - Parts of Midwest Bake in Summer Heat
In case anybody was wondering, we are experiencing drought conditions here. It hasn't rained more than a few drops in many weeks. Lawns are brown, plants are dying, trees are in danger, the wells most communities in Lake County get water from are drying up and having to be drilled deeper...oh, and developers are dumping a bazillion gallons of water on their new subdivisions to get the lawns and artificial lakes jump-started.

The Advocate - Proposal: Replace Souter's home with 'Lost Liberty Hotel'
Time for the Great Karmic Wheel to make a great big U-turn in Justice Souter's direction?

Institute for Justice $3 Million National Campaign Tells Lawmakers: “Hands Off My Home”
Campaign Seeks to Protect Homeowners & Small Businesses After U.S. Supreme Court Eminent Domain Ruling
Fred Pilot called my attention to this:
Through IJ’s Castle Coalition—a nationwide network of citizen activists determined to stop the abuse of eminent domain in their communities—the Institute for Justice today announced the “Hands Off My Home” campaign to give ordinary citizens the means to protect their homes from government-forced takings for private development. The Institute also made an initial commitment of $3 million to fund the national effort to combat eminent domain at the state and local level. IJ made the announcement less than one week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Kelo decision allowing governments to take property from the rightful owner only to hand it over to another private party for his or her private gain.

My Way News: Chinese riots
As China transforms its economy major civil disturbances are becoming common. The scale of this privatization, much of it dealing with land ownership rights, probably dwarfs even what happened in Eastern Europe. The social dislocation is beyond anything the West has experienced. Just keeping things in perspective...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl, set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in an outburst likely to worry communist leaders in Beijing desperate to cling on to power. The official Xinhua news agency, in a rare report on a local disturbance, blamed Sunday's riot in Chizhou in dirt-poor eastern Anhui province on a few criminals who led the "unwitting masses" astray. The violence was the latest in a series of protests which the Communist Party, in power since 1949, fears could spin out of control and become a channel for anger over corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor...Protests have become increasingly common in China, fueled by corruption and the widening wealth gap, but authorities are keen to quickly quash dissent and preserve stability...There were more than 58,000 protests, many of them over land rights disputes, across the country in 2003, a Communist Party-backed magazine, Outlook, has reported. This month, villagers in northern Hebei province protesting to keep their land were attacked by a group of armed hired toughs. Six farmers were killed and 48 injured in the ensuing battle.

AB 1098 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis
The ever-alert Fred Pilot noticed this intriguing paragraph in a bill introduced in California to improve member access to HOA and condo association records. The passage is from the arguments against the bill contained in this bill analysis:


The public policy concepts adopted by the California legislature in 1985 established CIDs to relieve the tax burden from local government. The ability to collect assessments to sustain the infrastructure was afforded as well as establishing equitable servitudes via a contract (the CC&Rs) with the owners. In doing so it (the Legislature) did not envision these volunteer driven communities to mirror government. Therefore, CIDs were not given the protection and insulation afforded to government and elected officials.
-------------
Let's unpack this. It seems to reflect the following view: state government "established" residential private governments in 1985 so that local governments wouldn't need to raise property taxes. (Keep in mind that in 1978 Proposition 13 made it impossible for them to do so.) So, CIDs are a way for government to circumvent limits on taxation that were put in place through direct democracy. And CIDs are intentionally illiberal. You are going to get more local government whether you want it or not, and if you won't pay for it, you will get it on the cheap.

Now, keep in mind that what the voters wanted in passing Prop. 13 was a cut in property taxes through reduction in government spending. What they got was an additional level of government that is now costing them a fortune in assessments, along with a ton of headaches. Add up the property tax bill and the assessments, and then you see the real cost of local government in the post-Prop. 13 era.

And how can people continue to view HOAs as always being purely private institutions, when you read something like this? It is becoming obvious that HOAs are, in some places, an extension of the local state. They clearly have the potential to be used by government to extent it's taxing and service delivery capacity and its power--even if the voters have said, "no, thank you."

Comment?

BostonHerald.com: Housing bubble trouble - Mass. home sales plunge 11.1 percent
Did you hear something go "pop"?

The bubble hasn't burst, but the air may be leaking out. Massachusetts may be finally entering a buyer's market for homes, experts said yesterday after new data showed the volume of single-family house sales plunged in May by the largest amount in nearly three years. About 4,142 single-family homes sold last month, down 11.1 percent compared to the same period last year. It was the second straight month in which the number of year-over-year home sales declined in the Bay State, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported.

BBC: 160k price for laundry 'house'
Coming soon to California...laundry houses.
A former laundry room and kitchen could be turned into an 8ft wide one- bedroomed townhouse worth £160,000 if its owner gets the go-ahead.

Vicksburg attorney indicted in drive-by shooting - The Clarion-Ledger
Now, there's a headline you don't see every day.

Watley Review: New York City Invokes Eminent Domain to Acquire New Jersey

I told you the Kelo decision would have bad repurcussions.

Buoyed by the Supreme Court's decision to expand cities' power of eminent domain, New York City filed today to acquire the state of New Jersey for commercial development. "New York has been facing some very difficult economic decisions," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "Building viable economic development strategies for the city has been our number one priority. We think that the Supreme Court decision really opens a door for us, and will allow New York City to finally resolve some of these intractable issues."

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Island fort for sale at 150,000 pounds

If I were interested in moving to a gated community--I said if--this would be the one.

If you are struggling to get on the property ladder in the UK, how about buying a fort just off the coast? Stack Rock Fort, about 800 yards off the west Wales coast near Milford Haven, is for sale for £150,000. The 19th Century fort - complete with a couple of cannons - dates back from the time of Napoleon, when it was initially built as a defence for the river Haven. But it has nowhere to sleep at present, and the new owner will have to sort out sewage, water and power.

George Will gets off the best pithy summary of Kelo...
The question answered yesterday was: Can government profit by seizing the property of people of modest means and giving it to wealthy people who can pay more taxes than can be extracted from the original owners? The court answered yes.
-------------------
And that's what it comes down to. Your municipality can force you and your neighbors out of your own homes and replace your entire neighborhood with yuppie townhomes and condos in order to increase property tax revenues.

TCS: Tech Central Station - They Can't Take That Away From Me... Unless They Can
A great article on Kelo and eminent domain, from law professor Stephen Bainbridge. Here's a great line:

After news of Napoleon's victory in the Battle of Austerlitz was conveyed to British Prime Minister William Pitt, Pitt pointed to a map of Europe and said: "Roll up the map; it will not be wanted these ten years." In light of the Supreme Court's decision to side with New London, we might just as well roll up the Takings Clause of the Bill of Rights, because we won't need it any longer.

Eminent Domain Watch
That's a blog about eminent domain, with lots of reactions to the Kelo decision.

Wall Street Journal on Kelo
This is an excellent explanation of the decision, the dissents by O'Connor and Thomas, and why developers who are cozy with local governments now have free reign to profit by snatching your land. Market price now goes out the window. Owners of valuable property will be low-balled by well-connected developers who can now threaten to take the property and have a judge set the price. I think this is one of the worst USSC decisions in decades.
Libertarians must be furious. They just saw the USSC hand them their head in Raich v. Gonzales, the medical marijuana case that says there is no practical limit to the commerce clause (see last paragraph of snippet that follows), and now this. I wonder if libertarians can use these cases to make some headway as a third party? What's the point of sticking with the Republicans if you end up with justices like Kennedy, who won't respect limits on government that are actually written into the constitution?

The Supreme Court's "liberal" wing has a reputation in some circles as a guardian of the little guy and a protector of civil liberties. That deserves reconsideration in light of yesterday's decision in Kelo v. City of New London. The Court's four liberals (Justices Stevens, Breyer, Souter and Ginsburg) combined with the protean Anthony Kennedy to rule that local governments have more or less unlimited authority to seize homes and businesses....
So, in just two weeks, the Supreme Court has rendered two major decisions on the limits of government. In Raich v. Gonzales the Court said there are effectively no limits on what the federal government can do using the Commerce Clause as a justification. In Kelo, it's now ruled that there are effectively no limits on the predations of local governments against private property.

Local10.com - Problem Solvers - Attorney General Chastises Davie HOA For Restricting Police Vehicles
Via Fred Pilot and Jan Bergemann, a link to more on the HOA that thinks police cars are bad for property values. Plus, you can vote on it!

A man's home is... somebody else's piggy-bank - Glenn Reynolds - MSNBC.com
Read the Instapundit on the horrible Kelo decision. Here's a sample:

I predict that this will be a big political issue, on both the left and the right. For Bush and the Republicans it's a big vulnerability -- if they don't do anything about it, many conservatives will stay home in disgust at the next election. On the other hand, if they do something -- like, say, backing Congressional action to limit takings for private use -- they'll offend wealthy real estate developers, merchants, and influential local populations. They'll be squeezed, and I don't think that "help us confirm our judges to reverse this" will be a sufficient answer, though they'll try to make it one. On the left, it's seen (rightly) as a victory for the hated Wal-Mart, and as a rule whose burden is sure to fall mostly on the poor. (When did a city ever level a rich neighborhood for this sort of thing?) On the other hand, the left isn't big on limits to government power, especially in the economic sphere. It's certainly a hot issue on talk radio and in the blogosphere already. I suspect it'll stay that way through the 2006 elections.

Tampa: Don't feed the birds! They are ingrates. Plus, you aren't allowed to feed them. Or kill them.
Zephryhills, Florida - Some people who live in a subdivision in a Pasco County community are finding out feeding sandhill cranes has some expensive consequences. State fish and wildlife biologists have verified cranes fed by residents have destroyed screened porches, vinyl siding and car door mirrors and finishes. The birds have caused thousands of dollars damage at nearly a dozen homes in the Oak Run subdivision. Wildlife biologists say it is illegal to feed sandhill cranes in Florida...It’s illegal to harass or injure sandhill cranes, punishable by a $5,000 fine and/or five years in prison.

The Volokh Conspiracy - -
Here's a link to an excellent post by Todd Zywicki that explains in simple but very pointed language exactly why today's USSC decision in Kelo v. City of New London is an abomination. How's this paragraph:

Rather than laundering it through the government, why not just skip the government as middleman and let Donald Trump take whatever he wants whenever he wants it, and just write a check for it? Then we could skip the pretense that this is anything but rent-seeking.

Home sales 2nd highest in history; housing prices at all-time high
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sales of existing homes slowed slightly in May but still came in at the second-highest level on record with home prices hitting an all-time high. Sales of previously owned homes and condominiums edged down 0.7 percent last month, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The small decline left sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.13 million units, down only slightly from the 7.18 million sales pace in April, which had been an all time high. Even with the small drop in sales, home prices moved higher, to an all-time record of $207,000 for the median price, the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less. The new report was likely to do little to lessen concerns that the housing market in some parts of the country is caught in the grip of a speculative fever similar to the bubble that was created in the stock market in the late 1990s before prices came crashing back to earth.

AGENDA MEETING June 25, 2005 -- ADVISORY COUNCIL ON CONDOMINIUMS
Fred Pilot sent me this link to a Cyber Citizens For Justice (CCFJ) post trying to get owner participation at a meeting of Florida's Advisory Council on Condominiums.

KELO V. NEW LONDON
Here is a link to the Legal Information Institute, where the full text of the majority and dissenting opinions can be found.

Institute for Justice: Property Rights Cases: New London, CT
The Institute for Justice is a libertarian public interest law firm that represented Paulette Kelo in this case. Here is their take on this major defeat for the property owners rights. Coming on the heels of the San Remo Hotel case handed down June 20, and the Lingle v. Chevron case from May 23, this has been a disastrous few weeks for property rights advocates.

“The Court simply got the law wrong today, and our Constitution and country will suffer as a result,” said Scott Bullock, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice. “With today’s ruling, the poor and middle class will be most vulnerable to eminent domain abuse by government and its corporate allies. The 5-4 split and the nearly equal division among state supreme courts shows just how divided the courts really are. This will not be the last word.” “One of the key quotes from the Court to keep in mind today was written by Justice O’Connor,” Bullock said. “Justice O’Connor wrote, ‘Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.’”

Instapundit.com--link to posts on housing bubble -

Interest-only loans raise the stakes - 06/13/05
This guy has a nice view from his balcony. Hope he doesn't end up jumping off.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Once a frustrated renter, Chris Economou is now a happy homeowner, enjoying a splendid view of San Francisco and an $80,000 increase in his property's value since he bought the one-bedroom condominium for $435,000 a year ago. He credits his good fortune to an interest-only mortgage, an increasingly popular -- and risky -- loan that enables borrowers to lower their monthly payments enough for several years to afford rapidly escalating home prices in expensive markets like the San Francisco Bay area.

Condo Flip - For Buyers and Sellers of Preconstuction Condos
I read about this website on The Volokh Conspiracy. The headline is "Bubbles are for Bathtubs." It bills itself as "a marketplace for condo flips." My memory of Revelations is a little vague. Is this one of the signs of the Apocalypse? Maybe they should make a movie called "Condo Flip." Then the sequel could be "Condo Flop."


Condo Flip™ lets buyers of preconstruction condos resell or assign those condos to new buyers. Whether you are flipping (selling) or buying, we are preconstruction experts and we've created this site for you!

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes
The Kelo case has been decided. A huge win for municipalities and well-connected developers, and a major defeat for property owners and property rights advocates. The ruling is 5-4, because Justice Kennedy sided with the liberals (Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Souter).

WASHINGTON -- A divided Supreme Court ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth conflicts with individual property rights. Thursday's 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas. As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

Sewer supervision in Arkansas: Judge pushing for government oversight of decentralized sewers
Nancy Levy sends this interesting story of a judge's efforts to corral private sewer systems in many real estate developments (many probably run by HOAs) under some sort of governmental supervisory umbrella:

County Judge Jerry Hunton has spent this month cultivating his push for governmental involvement in the supervision of decentralized sewer systems installed in Washington County. Hunton initially planted the seed of supervision in May at a Rural Development Authority meeting, at which he proposed the body consider filling a managerial role over the systems. "We need to set up an authority that would oversee these decentralized sewers in unincorporated parts of the county," Hunton said Tuesday. "We simply need an authority that says how they’re going to be managed in the long term, that if there’s a need for replacement parts and replacement fields, to make sure the money is there and generated by that subdivision."

South Norfolk condo project passes (HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online)
Nancy Levy notes that these owners may get "high octane water."

CHESAPEAKE — Despite concerns about school crowding, environmental red flags and project details that were not provided to the council until just before their meeting, the City Council voted to approve a condominium project in a predominantly industrial section of South Norfolk on Tuesday night. Mill Creek Village, a 272-unit project that will sit adjacent to a junkyard, a tow-truck manufacturer and a multi-track rail switching corridor, was approved by a 5-3 vote...A vote on a second development, Portlock Square, a roughly 30-unit project next door, fronting on Bainbridge Boulevard, was delayed late Tuesday after City Engineer Eric Martin said tests on the property detected high enough levels of petroleum products in the soil and groundwater that the results are reportable to the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Hollywood moves to seize woman's storefronts so developer can build condos: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
From Nancy Levy comes this story of a big-time municipal land grab, that deals with an issue similar to the Kelo case now before the USSC.

Over the objections of a man who said Hollywood is stealing his family's land to enrich a powerful developer, the City Commission voted Tuesday night to begin eminent-domain proceedings on a small retail building downtown to make way for a $100 million condo project.

Community Associations Institute (CAI): New Membership Structure
Instead of “associations” being members of CAI, volunteer community leaders and homeowners will hold individual memberships as of July 1. Member benefits, including discounts, will be available only to those who hold individual memberships.
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As George Starapoli and Fred Pilot point out, this means that CAI no longer has a membership category for "homeowner associations." This reinforces what I (and others) have been saying for many years. CAI is a 501 (c) (6) trade association that represents the interests of lawyers, property managers, and other providers of services to HOAs. It doesn't represent homeowner associations or the owners who live in them. I don't mean that as a negative comment. I think it is a good thing that such a trade association exists, because professionals need specialized training to do this work, and they should seek to represent their interests in the policy process. It is a basic constitutional liberty (freedom of association) guaranteed by the First Amendment. Owners and associations should organize on their own and not expect CAI to serve their needs. However, I have been critical of CAI representatives, such as lobbyists, for claiming to represent owners and associations, which they have done on many occasions while pushing legislation. They don't, they never really did, and it is an impossible conflict of interests for a trade association to also seek to represent consumers of their services. Maybe this new structure moves things closer to toward acknowledging the actual situation.

$90 million home sets US property record
Not bad for a three-bedroom house.
A 40-acre estate in the Hamptons - the Long Island summer retreat of New York's rich and famous, has been sold for $US90 million, a new US record for a residential property.

An Inside Look at Supreme Court Decision-Making

Nancy Levy sends this link to a fascinating glimpse into how the USSC makes up its collective mind on matters of great consequence.

Secret database kept on airline passengers
Congress ordered the Transportation Security Administration not to gather personal information about airline passengers. So, the TSA hired private data brokers to do it for them, and put it in a secret database--which looks like a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974. Another example of using privatization to get around limits on government action?

WASHINGTON -- A federal agency collected extensive personal information about airline passengers although Congress told it not to and it said it wouldn't, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. A Transportation Security Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed information about U.S. citizens who flew on airlines in June 2004 in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, according to documents that will be published in the Federal Register this week. The Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits the government from keeping a secret database.

Private space flight--a new project
In an effort to promote space exploration, a private group plans today to launch the first spacecraft to sail in Earth orbit on the solar wind. If successful, the mission will provide scientific proof for a concept that has captivated science fiction for decades - that ships can travel great distances across the heavens under the power of giant solar sails nudged by the faint energy of light itself. The satellite, called Cosmos 1, was built in Russia to the specifications of the Planetary Society, a group based in Pasadena, Calif., that raised almost $4 million for the project.

Chicago Tribune: Christmas in June? Bah, humbug
From Mystery Reader comes this tale of what happens to neighborhoods that don't have HOAs to make you rip down all your holiday decorations on December 26--assuming they let you put them up in the first place.

Summer arrived early this year with a string of steamy days, but in some of Aurora's older neighborhoods it's continuing to look a lot like Christmas. On the roof of a porch on Claim Street, three white reindeer paw at asphalt shingles below icicle lights rimming the second-story roofline. Nearby, at a home on Root Street, a plastic Santa smiles next to a front door festooned with long red ribbons and greetings for a season long since passed. A recent canvass of downtown neighborhoods by 2nd Ward Ald. Juany Garza found as many as 120 homes still decorated for Christmas at a time of year when Frosty the Snowman would become Peter the Puddle in a matter of minutes. Garza left letters asking the residents to take down the decorations by Thursday...The city does not have the authority to force people to take down the decorations, Garza said, so the letter-writing campaign is intended to encourage it. Letters written in English and Spanish explain the out-of-season decorations reflect poorly on the community.

Isabel Victims in Va. Get Unexpected Bills From FEMA
Fred Pilot sent this link that was originally unearthed by Patrick's HOA News. And these are victims of Hurricane Isabel, not my 7 year old daughter. It seems that the condo association made a mistake in purchasing flood insurance from a private carrier instead of FEMA.

When the floodwaters from Hurricane Isabel inundated the Belle View condominium complex in September 2003, causing nearly $6 million in damage, condo owner Stephen Snell had to flee to a nearby motel for two weeks because the water and mold caused him to have serious breathing problems. Nearly two years after the hurricane, Snell, a consultant, said he and dozens of other Belle View residents were "dumbfounded" when they received a collection letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last month. The letter demanded repayment of disaster relief money the agency awarded Snell and other residents of the beleaguered condo complex, which sits just off the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Fairfax County, south of Alexandria. It gave them a 30-day deadline to pay. FEMA recently demanded that about 147 condo owners repay at least part of the funds they were awarded -- a total of about $140,000. The agency said that under condo association bylaws, the federal government should not have to cover some repairs.

WFTV.com - News - Masked Men Rob Elderly Couple At Their Casselberry Condo
As Nancy Levy observes, this sort of thing undermines the "security" claims many gated community developers like to make.

Police are searching for two masked men in Casselberry who they say robbed a 70-year-old man inside his own home.According to the Casselberry Police Department, around 8 o'clock Friday morning, two men, wearing dark clothing from head to toe, forced their way into a fifth floor condo unit at Carmel By The Lake. Police say, the man and woman who live in the particular unit are in their 70s. The suspects were hiding in the stairwell when the elderly man opened the door to go to an appointment. They pushed him back inside, shoved the woman to the ground and took an undisclosed amount of jewelry, including the jewelry the victims were wearing. The Carmel By The Lake condos are gated. There's only one way in and one way out.

New Joisey: More on the pending adoption of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act
Fred Pilot sends the link to this update...

A bill being considered by the state Senate that would change the way homeowners associations operate received mixed reaction from residents of Rossmoor on Wednesday.
The bill, called the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, would create uniform practices in the areas of alternative dispute resolution, bidding and elections.
If approved, the bill will require homeowners association board meetings, including work sessions, to be open to the public, public forums would be required in any meeting where votes are held and elections would have to be tabulated unanimously and run independently.
In addition, executive boards would be required to explain to their constituents why they accepted a bid, however they need not select the lowest bidder.

ABC13.com: Angry resident paints giant lemons on her condo's windows in protest
Nancy Levy sends this lemony-fresh slice of home-grown, vitamin C-enriched, protest.

Attorney General Crist Joins Cruiser Conflict - Yahoo! News
From Fred Pilot: followup on the HOA that thinks a police car is bad for property values.

The state attorney general is joining in a conflict between a police officer who parks his cruiser in his driveway and the homeowner's association that doesn't want him to. The Carton Ranches Homeowner's Association is threatening legal action against Miami Beach police officer Kevin Millan. The association wants Millan to stop parking his police car in his driveway because they say it is a "commercial vehicle" and an eyesore.

Broad Beach Sand Battle Results in Denials, Outrage
Fred Pilot sends this long roundup on the sand grab in Malibu that suggests the rich HOA residents are trying to keep the public away from their sacrosanct property:

Following years of litigation between the California Coastal Commission and the Trancas Property Owners Association over public access issues at Broad Beach, a new dispute arose last week after the homeowners association contracted skip loaders to move tons of sand from the shoreline along Broad Beach and form berms near private beachfront homes. As first reported in last week's Los Angeles Times, the Coastal Commission quickly issued notice-of-intent orders that abruptly put an end to the sand relocation, but not before a large sand berm, approximately eight feet in height in some places and 1.1 miles long, had already been constructed. Immediately following the construction of the large berm, water began to get trapped in and around the beach's tidal zone-the section of beach where the public is allowed to congregate-making public access to the beach extremely difficult...

Philocrites: Domino's founder's dream: A Catholic utopia.
From Beth Young comes this link to Philocrites, with a story about a proposed Catholic HOA.

Ave Maria won’t be just a university, he continues. It will also be a new town, built from scratch, in which the wickedness of the world will be kept at bay. "We’ve already had about 3500 people inquire on our Web site about buying a home there — you know, they’re all Catholic," Monaghan says excitedly. "We’re going to control all the commercial real estate, so there’s not going to be any pornography sold in this town. We’re controlling the cable system. The pharmacies are not going to be able to sell condoms or dispense contraceptives." A private chapel will be located within walking distance of each home. At the stunning church in the center of town, Mass will be said hourly, seven days a week, from 6 a.m. on. "So," Monaghan concludes, with just a hint of understatement, "it’ll be a unique town." As he exits the stage, the applause is thunderous.

Giscard regrets proposed EU constitution sent to French people

Sounds like the same theory we use with CC&Rs--you're stuck with it, even though it's impossible to understand.
It was a crucial mistake to send out the entire constitution to every French voter, the architect of the EU's first constitution Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said in an interview. In an interview with the New York Times, his first since the French rejection of the constitution two weeks ago, the former French president apportions most of the blame to president Jacques Chirac for failure in the referendum campaign. One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter, said Mr Giscard...Over the phone he had warned Mr Chirac already in March: "I said, 'Don't do it, don't do it'". "It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005
A condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property within the association with respect to which such member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use.

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So says this bill introduced in the United States House of Represenatives by Rep. Roscoe B. Bartlett of Maryland. It is currently in the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Thanks to Fred Pilot for notifying me about this. The same bill was introduced last Congress under the number H.R. 5301 but it didn't get anywhere.

Bronze calf dedicated in politician's honor - billingsgazette.com
From Montana comes evidence that some people need to take a look at the Old Testament. Coming soon: a plague of locusts hits Butte. Oh, and the honoree is a Republican.

CHEYENNE - A bronze calf was dedicated Thursday to former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Clifford Hansen for his contributions to Wyoming and the farm and ranch industry.

Mount Mt. Clemens, Michigan: Residents hit street to fight prostitution

Here's an example of some serious volunteer action:

North Gratiot Neighborhood Watch members spent two days this week posing as streetwalkers and vagrants in an area north of the Mount Clemens downtown section known for its street crime. When potential customers pulled over, the activists handed out a flier that said, "If you're soliciting sex and/or drugs in this neighborhood, you are being videotaped. Stay tuned for the 11 (o'clock) news. Zero tolerance."

Buffalo News - Packets will offer advice on how to be good neighbor
From Fred Pilot comes this news of this HOA program. I wonder if the "lessons" include a warning about what happens to you if you let your grass grow too long.

Lessons on how to be a good neighbor will be spreading to new areas of Cheektowaga this month. A package of information delivered last year by volunteers to 2,500 homes in the Pine Hill-Walden area will be distributed this year to the Harlem-Kensington-Cleveland and Cedar Grove Heights communities. "Everybody wants a clean, safe neighborhood," said Stanley Kaznowski III, president of the Town Park Homeowners Association. Homeowners will be reminded to keep the lawn mowed, repair the gutters and windows and put the garbage cans out the night before pickup. Renters will get a list of their responsibilities and where to call if the landlord doesn't live up to his. Kaznowski and the Town Park Homeowners Association initiated the distribution last year. "It just gives people hope that people care about the neighborhood," Kaznowski said.

Indiana: Gary Urban Enterprise Association still avoiding inspection: Critics question whether new board has fulfilled state mandates

Nancy Levy send this story, noting the way non-profits sometimes decide that "non" part is just a meaningless little prefix that shouldn't prevent them from making money when they get the chance...

The new Gary Urban Enterprise Association board and its lawyer have slipped through a crack in open-door laws and are refusing to provide state-requested reports on the embattled nonprofit agency...No one appears able -- or willing -- to provide basic factual information on the nonprofit, whose former directors allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal travel and shopping sprees. After The Times obtained parts of a preliminary fraud investigation report by Crowe Chizek, the board has not sent anything further to the state, which must provide public access to the documents.

Californians taking big risks to buy homes, report warns | The San Diego Union-Tribune
From Fred Pilot comes this cautionary tale. But Obi-Wan Greenspan says this is just "froth," and nothing to worry about. Personally, I wouldn't buy a $600,000 home in San Diego with an adjustable rate loan if you held a gun to my head.

Desperate to enter the housing market before prices soar even higher, Californians are taking on larger and riskier mortgage debts, Harvard University warned today in its annual report on the nation's housing...In high-cost markets such as San Diego County, most purchases are made with adjustable-interest-rate loans...

Residents want say in subdivision group
Fred Pilot sends this story about a developer who seems reluctant to give up control of an HOA, far beyond the 3 years or 75% sold time limit imposed by state law. This is about ten miles from where we live, up here in Lake County, IL:

ROUND LAKE — Homeowners want control — control of their homeowners' associations, that is. More than a dozen residents from the Remington Trail subdivision showed up at Monday's Village Board meeting to ask for board help gaining control of their association from the developer. "We would appreciate any help you could provide," said John Gutknecht, alleging the association is being mismanaged by three employees from Remington Homes. "They've been totally inadequate to respond to us," Gutknecht said, adding association control was promised to the homeowners once 90 percent of the homes in the development were sold. "They have been at 89 percent for the last two years," Gutknecht said. Gutknecht presented a petition which he said had 33 signatures. With the 15 residents in the audience, he said, that represented 55 percent of Remington Trail owners. By state law, Gutknecht said, the turnover percentage should be at 75 percent sold or after three years, not 90 percent and five years.

Boca Dunes residents want to take control from Country Club
From Fred Pilot, this story about folks who want to form an HOA to clean up the area, because the golf club that has the job of enforcing CC&Rs isn't doing it up to par. Includes picturesque language from two residents:

"It'd help bring a better class of people in here and prevent people from owning 80 pit bulls and parking broken cars in their driveways," she says..."A homeowners association would really keep people in line more. You wouldn't have the cars and the mess. And if you live normal, then you don't have to worry about the HOA coming after you," she said.

The Advocate - Murder victim's father sues condo complex
Here, from Nancy Levy, is a example of the kind of potential liability a condo association can incur by having "gated community"-type security measures...if they aren't effective. It is common now to have a guardhouse that is never manned, because it looks like security, but doesn't require a paycheck...

STAMFORD -- The father of Anna-Lisa Raymundo is suing the waterfront condominium complex where she was brutally murdered in 2002, claiming it didn't have the proper security in place. Renato Raymundo of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., says there is a guardhouse at the Palmer Landing Community on Harbor Drive, yet no one was manning it on the day of the murder. "The guardhouse is never manned," his lawsuit states.

Chicago Tribune: Chief zoning official fired in condo probe


From Nancy Levy comes this article on further carnage in the Daley administration. Daley is being treated like a huge success by the national press and other big city mayors. Somehow the numerous corruption investigations that are going on regarding multiple city departments (with hundreds of millions of dollars involved) doesn't affect their opinion. In this case, a condo project mysteriously got built in an area zoned for manufacturing, and several city officials just coincidentally happen to have had a nice vacation in Brazil with the developer of the condo project. But of course, Daley himself knows nothing about any of these incidents. We know that because he invariably says so.

Mayor Richard Daley's administration fired a high-ranking Zoning Department official Friday, saying he refused to answer questions from city investigators who are probing a controversial condominium project west of the Loop. John Quinn, who received $83,000 a year as chief zoning inspector, was put on paid administrative leave last week pending the investigation into the 44-unit condo development at 373 N. Morgan St...The firing follows the resignations last month of two top Buildings Department officials who faced scrutiny in the same probe. Kimberly Brown, the department's $124,700-a-year first deputy commissioner, resigned after officials learned that she made a vacation trip to Brazil earlier this year with the project's developer, Jerry Cedicci, and his brother.

Feliciano v. 7-Eleven, No. 29564--West Virginia Supreme Court
Feliciano was employed at a 7-11. He disarmed a robber and held her for police. 7-11 fired him for violating company policy, which requires that the employee not subdue or otherwise interfere with the robber. Held: employees right to self-defense trumps the terms of the employment contract. He can sue 7-11 for wrongful discharge.

When an at will employee has been discharged from his/her employment based upon his/her exercise of self-defense in response to lethal imminent danger, such right of self-defense constitutes a substantial public policy exception to the at will employment doctrine and will sustain a cause of action for wrongful discharge.
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Significance for HOAs? Well, it's nice to see a court find some limits to this notion that the terms of a contractual relationship are always sovereign. The state Supreme Court found the employment relationship limited by fundamental public policies, in this case the right of self-defense. But how do you like the trial court's holding (reversed), that "self-defense is not a substantial public policy in West Virginia"? Is that scary, or what?

Philippine HOAs invited to participate in policy making
This, from Nancy Levy, should be read by those who keep saying HOAs are entirely private organizations. In my view, this sort of explicit relationship between HOAs and municipalities is the shape of things to come.

The Quezon City government will be sponsoring the First QC Subdivision Forum today to encourage homeowners associations to participate in the formulation of policies and programs aimed at enhancing the delivery of the city’s basic services.

NBC 4 - Weather - Malibu Beach Battle Erupts Over Homeowners' 'Sand Grab'
Fred Pilot sends this fascinating story from Malibu, California. Is it privatization when an HOA takes sand from a public beach and piles it on their property?

The Broad Beach homeowners association has used skip loaders to move tons of public beach sand, as high as eight feet in some places, in front of their ocean-front homes. The California Coastal Commission sent a letter to the homeowners, ordering the work stopped. The commission says not only has public access to the beach been blocked, but moving the sand has harmed local wildlifre and put adjacent public beach under water. Broad Beach homeowner and former coastal commissioner Marshall Grossman says the homeowners weren't trying to block public access, but were restoring sand dunes that had washed away during last winter's storms.

Found: Europe's oldest civilisation
Archaeologists have discovered Europe's oldest civilisation, a network of dozens of temples, 2,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. More than 150 gigantic monuments have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800BC and 4600BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent, will revolutionise the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than in Mesopotamia and Egypt. In all, more than 150 temples have been identified. Constructed of earth and wood, they had ramparts and palisades that stretched for up to half a mile. They were built by a religious people who lived in communal longhouses up to 50 metres long, grouped around substantial villages. Evidence suggests their economy was based on cattle, sheep, goat and pig farming...The multiple bank, ditch and palisade systems "protecting" the inner space seem not to have been built for defensive purposes - and were instead probably designed to prevent ordinary tribespeople from seeing the sacred and presumably secret rituals which were performed in the "inner sanctum".

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Comments, anybody?

Chicago Tribune: Condo plan would raze McCormick birthplace

Nancy Levy sends this link (it is also in the dead tree edition of the Trib sitting on my kitchen table) about a battle between developers and preservationists. I have no strong feelings about this one way or the other, but I love the line from one of the preservationists: "McCormick, who died in 1955, 'was an eccentric, but he was our eccentric,' Moran said."

Preservationists seemed resigned Thursday to the demolition of the Streeterville birthplace of longtime Chicago Tribune editor and publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick to make way for a condo and retail tower.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > North County -- Damaged condos' lawyer blasts city
Interesting wrinkle in a landslide case--thanks to Nancy Levy for the link. Seems the condo association got itself a new attorney, who doesn't like the repair deal that had been worked out:

CARLSBAD – A city official said a contractor is ready to begin stabilizing a landslide at the Marbella condominiums today, but the attorney for the homeowners association said he will not allow workers onto the property to begin repairs. Patrick Catalano, who replaced another firm as the homeowners association's attorney on the slope collapse two weeks ago, called a news conference yesterday to accuse the city of breaching an agreement to repair the slope.

Newsday.com: Neighbors by choice
Nancy Levy forwards this story written by a reporter who is smitten with how idyllic life can be in a condo because you don't have to mow the lawn. Wait until these owners put up the flag on the Fourth of July.

Here's the advantage of being bilingual--talking out of both sides of your mouth
Wondering if Bill Richardson is running for president? It depends on which language you speak. "I want to be very clear about this presidential stuff," Richardson, the Democratic governor of New Mexico, said at yesterday's New Hampshire Latino Summit. "No, I will not run for president." Then, switching to Spanish, he told the heavily Hispanic crowd, "Segura que si, voy a ser candidato!" Rough translation: You bet I am!

kingcountyjournal.com - Goodwill ends after man takes chain saw to neighbor's trees
I have a huge backlog of great links that people have sent me, but I have been too busy to attend to this high-paying job of maintaining a weblog. Sorry. In the meantime, here's something I ran across. I have only included the lead, because it is a work of pure genius that deserves to be taught in journalism school for the next half-century.

Looking to improve his territorial view of Bellevue, Shaohua Li took a chain saw to his neighbor's cypress trees.

Fiscal guru didn't pay the mortgage
It's so nice here in Illinois ever since we put the Chicago Democratic machine in charge of the entire state government...

In a matter of months, a $60,000-plus campaign contributor to Gov. Blagojevich went from defaulting on a mortgage to heading up a state agency that annually doles out $3 billion in loans. Ali D. Ata and three partners took in more than $3.2 million from taxpayers by leasing a West Side office building to the state over 10 years, records show. Despite that income, they fell behind on mortgage payments, and the property was foreclosed upon in September 2003. In January 2004, Ata landed a $127,000-a-year job as executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, one of Blagojevich's showpiece government streamlining initiatives. He left that post after a little more than a year amid a critical audit, but then almost immediately was awarded a $55,200-a-year contract to be a consultant for the agency.

nbc4i.com - Family - Texas Developers Creating Sex-Offender-Free Neighborhood
Ah, the advantages of private government. Here's something no municipality can do--exclude sex offenders.

LUBBOCK, Texas -- The sales pitch for a planned subdivision promises safety: criminal background checks for homeowners and, guaranteed, no convicted sex offenders. It's a concept that might prove right for the times, said first-time developer Clayton Isom, one of three partners in a company that's creating Milwaukee Ridge on the outskirts of this West Texas city.

Governor signs new condo laws - 2005-06-03
A Nancy Levy/Fred Pilot submission about action in Hawaii. There's something about the name "Linda Lingle" that sounds like a character in a comic book. Lois Lane, Peter Parker...and now Linda Lingle.

Gov. Linda Lingle signed two bills on Thursday that make some major changes to condominium laws...[Act 93]expands the types of disclosures that sellers must make, specifying the contents of the developer's report and clarifying requirements for binding sales contract.
The act clarifies the basis upon which a buyer can rescind a condominium sales contract.
The act also provides condo associations the power to evict a tenant if a tenant violates rules, even if the owner fails to do so, after notice and a reasonable opportunity to be heard.
Act 92, the second bill the Gov. Lingle signed, allows a broader range of condominium disputes to be heard by a dispute resolution pilot program in the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

WLOX-TV - The News for South Mississippi: Long Beach Mayor Worries About Division Over Condos
Fred Pilot and Nancy Levy sent this story. Please note that even in Mississippi the municipalities are using impact fees from condo projects to fund public infrastructure. The problem is that new development changes the community.

It's the hottest political issue in Long Beach this election year, but you won't find it on the ballot. The discussion about high rise condominiums is creating quite a division in "the friendly city". Mayor Billy Skellie doesn't have to worry about re-election. He's unopposed this Tuesday. But he is worried about the division over condo development, an issue he fears could hurt the city's image and it's future...Skellie says city leaders worked hard on an ordinance to regulate condominiums and charge the developers with funding necessary improvements to the city infrastructure. Condo projects will pay for a new fire station and pumper truck. "It will all be built, like the infrastructure on water and sewer, also on police and fire, will all be accomplished as funds come in from developers. And it's not going to cost the citizens a penny," the mayor explained.

Pahrump, NV: 700 homes planned for Sheri's Ranch
PLANNING COMMISSION APPROVES PROPOSAL TO BUILD RV PARK IN AREA ZONED FOR SEX TRADE
From Nancy Levy, a story from Art Bell's "Kingdom of Nye" that poses the eternal question, "BROTHEL OR SUBDIVISION?"

Netherlands town bans blasphemy - Yahoo! News
Who do these dad gum ramifrazit @%#%&$#@@ busybodies think they are--HOA trustees, or something?.


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst. Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch "bible belt" of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes

WHEATON, IL: The 109-year-old DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton will be converted to condominiums
Now, that's what I call privatization. But they will need a courthouse later when the lawsuits start flying (thanks to Nancy Levy--and you have to scroll halfway down the page to get to this story):

The 109-year-old DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton will be converted to condominiums. The building has long been retired from its career as a judicial institution. The courthouse was constructed in 1896 on land donated by the city's founding father, Warren Wheaton.

Operation Condo Conversion Invades San Diego
From Nancy Levy comes this opinion piece by a fellow who sees the good and bad of condo conversions:

Condominium conversions in San Diego and all of Southern California are increasing with both positive and negative implication. On the plus side, they offer more affordable housing which allows more people to purchase a home. On the negative side, they can displace renters who may have a hard time finding a new apartment.

Zoning investigator put on leave as city probes trip with developer
Chicago Sun-Times story forwarded by Nancy Levy. How could a thing like this happen in Chicago, of all places?

Another high-ranking city official -- the $82,800-a-year chief investigator for Mayor Daley's Department of Zoning -- was placed on administrative leave Thursday after being questioned about a spring break trip to Brazil he allegedly took with a developer who mysteriously got a permit to build a condominium in the heart of a planned manufacturing district.

NAMC Newswire - Vegas Grand Condo Lawsuit
Nancy Levy forwarded this press release about a class action in Vegas. This release seems to come from the law firm that filed the suit. I don't have anything to post from the other side, but the press release has links to the complaint and other things:

Five individuals who executed Reservation Agreements to purchase specific high-rise condominiums at Vegas Grand, a Las Vegas high-rise condominium development, have filed a class action lawsuit against developers who unilaterally cancelled their agreements. In 2003 and 2004, the original purchasers paid deposits up to $25,000 for their reservations of specific condominium units at Vegas Grand at specified prices.The lawsuit was filed after the developer notified buyers on April 25, 2005 that their current Reservation Agreements are cancelled effective May 11, 2005, and that unless they agreed to substantial increases in the prices for their condos by May 10, 2005, that their units would be offered to the public at newly announced higher prices. The developer has scheduled a sales event for Vegas Grand at the Wynn Hotel on Friday, May 20, 2005. The purchasers are concerned that their condominium units will be resold on May 20th to unsuspecting new buyers at almost double the price of their original purchase reservations.

Growing Numbers of Master-Planned Communities Create More Special Utility Districts, Reports Dallas ULI Conference

This is a press release from the Urban Land Institute, forwarded by Fred Pilot, that is well worth reading. I have been arguing for twenty years or so that HOAs are part of a larger transformation of local government, from large general purpose governments to small special purpose districts. Well, here is the blueprint, laid out at at meeting of the leading real estate development think tank.

The evolving popularity of large master-planned communities is a major catalyst in the development of more Special Districts (Municipal Utility Districts or MUDs) and special water districts in North Texas, according to some of the Southwest's most knowledgeable developers and land planners. Special Districts in the North Texas residential market, along with hospitality trends in North Texas, were two major focus points of the Urban Land Institute's North Texas 1-Day Conference last week in Las Colinas. "Special Districts are now the trend for large master-planned communities," said Phillip Huffines of Huffines Communities Inc. Huffines, whose two communities, Providence and Savannah, had 771 combined annual starts in 2004 in Special District communities, said the new type of utility design has become necessary in order to fund the amenities and infrastructures that consumers want.

Chicago Tribune | Glenview, resident fight on over village's legal-fee rule
Mystery Reader urges me to post this nasty neighborhood dispute, non-HOA related it seems, that has led to a lot of legal action. Plus, it's a Chicago-area story, so how can I ignore it?
[update: MR was not, in fact, urging me to post this, but merely pointing out the relevance of this story to the theme I was posting about: "larger transformation of
local government, from large general purpose governments to small special purpose districts." Which, MR argues, is closer to the mark than my occasional Monty Python references. Can't argue with that.]

Michael Zwick's problems in Glenview began when he complained that a fence his neighbor built in 1998 posed a security concern. She fired back that he plowed snow onto her property and let his weeds grow a foot high. Zwick eventually wound up with 186 municipal citations for putting his bright red recycling bins by the curb in the public parkway near her house. Now the dispute has escalated into a legal skirmish involving Glenview's declared right to recoup legal fees for taking Zwick to court. A Cook County circuit judge fined Zwick more than $9,000 in 2003 for violating the Glenview trash ordinance. But the court sided with him in dismissing Glenview's claim that he should pay the village's legal fees, which amounted to more than $30,000. The Illinois Appellate Court upheld that decision. Unwilling to give up, Glenview recently asked the Illinois Supreme Court to consider the issue.

AZ: HOAs oppose possible move by thrift shop


From Nancy Levy, this story about organized HOA opposition to a thrift store. The race for "Best Example of Acting Like the Stereotypical HOA" is on, between these folks and the ones in the story immediately below.

At least two homeowners' associations have initiated petition drives against the proposed relocation of the Country Fair White Elephant, saying it would bring too much traffic, "possible litter" and "an opportunity for less desirable persons" to visit the area. In addition, Portillo Place Homeowners' Association President Paul Reiser wrote a May 19 letter to White Elephant board President Robert Freckmann, saying that several homeowners told him that if the thrift store moves to their neighborhood "their home would be on the market before a spade of dirt was moved."

City To Rewrite Code After Cruiser Conflict - Yahoo! News
Because of this supremely idiotic HOA behavior, the city is going to change the city code section that these jokers claim they are "enforcing." Check out the real reason for this ridiculous behavior. Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

During his off-duty hours, a Miami Beach police officer parks his cruiser in front of his home in Carlton Ranches in Davie. More than a week ago, Local 10 Problem Solver Jeff Weinsier reported that the Carlton Ranches Association board wants that police car out of sight. The association said that it classifies the car as a commercial vehicle, and because of that classification, they will not allow the car to be parked in a driveway overnight. The officer disagreed -- so the association assessed residents of the community $350 each to take the fight to court. They even assessed the officer himself...Council Member Susan Starkey said, "I believe it's insane."...The association members say that they think the cruiser creates a perception of a crime problem and would bring property values down.

Trump Group Selling West Side Parcel for $1.8 Billion - New York Times
A consortium of Hong Kong investors and Donald J. Trump are selling a stretch of riverfront land and three buildings on the Upper West Side for about $1.8 billion in the largest residential sale in city history and in the latest example of a rocketing housing market...The deal comes as the average condominium price in Manhattan has soared to more than $1.2 million and as developable land has become increasingly rare, even as some economists worry that a housing bubble will soon burst.

Dutch Voters Reject EU Constitution - Yahoo! News
Big government takes it in the teeth for the second time in a few days. Does this mean that even Europeans prefer governments to be a little closer to home?

Maybe they need an ombudsperson...

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said Tuesday.The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said. "When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I," it quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the northeastern state of Nong Khai Monday.

Angry Apartment Residents Throw Grenade at Noisy Neighbors - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
How many of us have felt like doing this? And of course if you don't have an HOA to complain to...

Residents in the city of Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East threw a grenade at youths who were having a noisy nighttime party near their apartment block, Interfax news agency reported. Two young men, aged 21 and 16, and a 17-year-old girl have been hospitalized with fragmentation wounds. An investigation into the incident was launched, but local police are still unable to determine who threw the grenade.

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Any nominations?

From Illinois: Bill requires homeowners associations to alert members of meetings

Does it seem at all strange to anybody else that the state legislature has to force HOAs to do this?

A bill by state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, could force homeowners associations to be more open by requiring them to notify members of upcoming meetings. The bill, which passed the Illinois House unanimously May 19, would make association boards publicize meetings by notifying their members by mail, delivery or posting at least 48 hours before convening.

HOAs can ban your political signs in TX anymore...
Passed along by Fred Pilot. Don't mess with Texas.
AUSTIN - Want to stick a sign in your front yard endorsing a favorite political candidate? Go ahead, no homeowners association will be able to stop you.

Hiker uses martial arts to fight off grizzly bear
I just had to post this.
An Alberta man on a Bible retreat successfully used his Brazilian martial arts training on the weekend to fend off a charging grizzly. Lyle Simpson was hiking through the bush with friends west of Calgary on Saturday when the bruin started chasing him, he said. “It just burst out of the bush, charging right away. There wasn’t much time to think,” said Simpson, 32, who added there was a cub nearby. The hikers quickly ran in different directions, but as Simpson was trying to escape, he tripped and landed on his back. “I put my arm up as the bear was coming on down towards me. The bear tried to bite my arm.” That’s when Simpson’s training instincts took over and he kicked the bear in the face.“I think I stunned it just enough. I really think it saved me from a mauling.”

Only who can prevent fires? Homeowners seek federal funds to protect land themselves
Local News - The Coloradoan
Nancy Levy sent this piece on what appears to be HOAs getting federal fire prevention money. Yet another example of these organizations providing public services, with the difference being that here they are using public funds to do it.


Bud Duryea's view sparked his drive to protect his subdivision from wildfire, and the federal government paid for it. "Three-and-a-half years ago we became aware of the beauty of Rams Horn Mountain and the notion that fire and bugs don't respect property lines," said Duryea, the Windcliff subdivision homeowners association president, who lives in Pittsburgh and has a second home in Windcliff. Since then, homeowners in the Windcliff subdivision near Estes Park have used government money to thin the forest around their homes. The 240-acre subdivision houses about 254 people with 37 lots still unbuilt. The money that aided Duryea's group came from the National Fire Plan, an August 2000 directive to provide more money for fire fighting and reducing risky fire conditions in and around the nation's forests.

Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2005
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

On Memorial Day, we honor the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our Nation. When the stakes were highest, our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen answered the call of duty and made the ultimate sacrifice for the security of our country and the peace of the world.
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A Bane Amid The Housing Boom: Rising Foreclosures
From Nancy Levy, with some speculation that, although this article isn't specifically about HOAs, it could be a tast of things to come.

Will patriotism trump condo association anti-flag rules? Bill would allow all Pennsylvanians to fly the American flag -- even if it's against homeowners' association regulations

From Fred Pilot--and some pungent remarks from Mr. Clifford G. Hughes:

Hughes, a Marine Corps vet who served during World War II and the Korean conflict, said if he and his fists were a few decades younger, they'd take the folks from Forest Glenn out back and teach them a lesson. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to have some jerk tell me I can't fly the flag," said Hughes, 81. "This is, I think, still America." Forest Glenn's bylaws say that condo owners can fly the flag only on six holidays, including Memorial Day. But Hughes says a condo owner ought to be able to display the colors year-round.
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...at Hughes' request, state Rep. Mark Mustio, R-Moon, has introduced a bill that would give Pennsylvanians the right to fly the U.S. flag, and state and military flags, even if the person has signed a homeowner's agreement forbidding flag display.

It's Not a Bubble Until It Bursts - Yahoo! News
I wonder if all the press chatter about the bubble bursting is going to make it happen.

Prominent policymakers and academics, including Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, have recently warned about bubbles in regional markets. A recent nationwide Gallup/Experian poll of consumers showed that nearly four in 10 said they expected a bubble to burst in their region in the next three years. Across America, water cooler or cocktail party conversations often include talk about those who have made a killing in real estate, and whether it's now too late to get in on the action. However, none of the experts or novices knows for sure when and how a bubble might burst. Bubbles throughout history, including tech stocks in the late 1990s, often go on for years, and crash when few expect it. Many experts and media pundits have been predicting a downturn for the last three years — and home prices have continued to rise, up nearly 70% since 2001 in the hot Southern California market.