cbs13.com - Bankrupt Calif. city losing cops amid rising crime

cbs13.com - Bankrupt Calif. city losing cops amid rising crime: "Three months after it became the largest California city to declare bankruptcy, this San Francisco suburb is facing an exodus of police officers as residents grow anxious about a surge in robberies and other crimes."
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Imagine that.

Forget back assessments when owner's foreclosed -- chicagotribune.com

Forget back assessments when owner's foreclosed -- chicagotribune.com: "If the unit proceeds to foreclosure, the association is unlikely to recover the delinquent assessments. The association will recoup delinquent assessments from a foreclosure sale only if the winning bid exceeds the amount due to the first mortgage holder, as well as other claims that may have a priority over the association."
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So says Mark Pearlstein, Chicago lawyer and columnist. This is an answer to a question about $22,000 in unpaid assessments on a unit that the bank foreclosed on.

Frisco man says HOA won't let him park pickup on driveway | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News

Frisco man says HOA won't let him park pickup on driveway | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News: "If there's one thing Texans are serious about, it's pickups. But a Frisco man says his truck is being targeted simply because his homeowners association doesn't think it's classy enough. Jim Greenwood said he never dreamed his HOA would have a problem with his new Ford F-150 pickup. Then he received the first of three notices threatening him with fines. 'Mr. Greenwood, you're violating a subdivision rule that prohibits pickup trucks in your driveway,' the notice reads. Stonebriar HOA rules allow several luxury trucks on driveways, including the Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Avalanche, Honda Ridgeline and Lincoln Mark LT. But most Ford, Dodge or Chevy pickups are restricted."
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So are homeowners supposed to go off to the state legislature and get a law passed allowing them to have pickup trucks, along with American flags?

islandpacket.com | Gated communities put brakes on scooter use

Then they came for the motorcycles: Gated communities put brakes on scooter use: "[D]riving mopeds, scooters and motorcycles is forbidden in Sea Pines, as it is in many other area plantations. That makes it challenging for some people, who have found those forms of transportation good options when it comes to the saving money on gas."
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This is a new one on me. No motorbikes in the gated communities of Hilton Head, SC.

WXVT-TV Delta News - More Local News and Weather WXVT.com | Ark. city neighborhood under 24-hour curfew

WXVT-TV Delta News - More Local News and Weather WXVT.com | Ark. city neighborhood under 24-hour curfew: "HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. (AP) - Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley says he ordered a round-the-clock curfew and heavy police patrol in a ten-block section of town because the neighborhood was 'under siege with repeated gunfire, loitering, drug dealing and other general mayhem.'...Thursday night, 18 to 20 police officers carrying M-16 rifles, shotguns and night-vision scopes patrolled the 'curfew zone.' They arrested about eight people and confiscated drugs and loaded weapons. Under Valley's order, officers do not tolerate loitering or 'hanging out.' Officers can stop and investigate all foot traffic, bicycle, horseback, mo-ped, motorcycle, riding mower, golf cart or other means of transportation. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas says the curfew is 'blatantly unconstitutional' and has demanded that Valley lift the order immediately."
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What leads public and private officials to think they can exercise unlimited power over people? This is why there have to be constitutional limits on government power. At least somebody can go to court and stop this nonsense.

Residents beg city to bulldoze shuttered Houston condos | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Residents beg city to bulldoze shuttered Houston condos | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Desperate residents who live near a shuttered condo complex in northwest Houston thronged a City Council meeting Tuesday, begging the mayor to bulldoze the empty buildings. Candlelight Trails, at 5626 De Soto, is a pretty name, but the property has become nightmarish, the neighbors said. Although the property is fenced off, criminals, squatters and drug addicts haunt the buildings, they said. The city closed the 240-unit development last August, citing myriad dangers, such as exposed wires, broken glass and broken sprinklers. Mayor Bill White appeared to support demolition but said it would be a long and legally difficult process because there are multiple owners of the units."
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Submitted for your consideration: Isolated Instance Number 2645.

Eleven Becker & Poliakoff attorneys depart firm - South Florida Business Journal:

Eleven Becker & Poliakoff attorneys depart firm - South Florida Business Journal:: "Prominent litigation attorney Daniel Rosenbaum and a team of 10 other attorneys from Becker & Poliakoff have joined Katzman Garfinkel, a Miami-based firm focused on community association law."
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Law firm wars...

Condo trustee to be prosecuted by state - Truro, MA - Wicked Local Truro

Condo trustee to be prosecuted by state - Truro, MA - Wicked Local Truro
What? Impossible! This must be another one of those "isolated instances."

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1: "DETROIT -- One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald's, a used VHS movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit.

The fact that a home on the city's east side was listed for $1 recently shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of America's poorest big cities.

And it still took 19 days to find a buyer."
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Will Detroit be the first major American city to disintegrate into total chaos?

Emerald ash borer found in River Forest

Emerald ash borer found in River Forest: "The emerald ash borer beetle has been found in River Forest.

Top public works department officials made the announcement to trustees at a meeting the village board's public works committee on Tuesday night.

The news comes a week after the beetle's presence was confirmed in Oak Park by state agriculture department officials. The fast-moving beetle has been confirmed in at least 20 Chicago area municipalities."
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River Forest is an old and very ritzy suburb a couple of miles west of Chicago. This emerald ash borer situation is potentially disastrous, because ash trees are everywhere in this metro area, and the characteristic look of many suburbs and neighborhoods is trees, trees, trees. I have two big ash trees in my back yard. River Forest could end up looking like River Desert.How bad can it get? The ash borer cost 40 million trees in southeast Michigan alone.

This becomes a cost issue. Municipalities typically order removal of trees by landowners, and with HOAs that means...the association, i.e., the owners. That costs hundreds of dollars per tree including chipping or removing the wood. If a development has, say 100 ash trees, this can be a major expense for somebody.

Main Street - WSJ.com

Home owners win one for a change: "In the latest of man-bites-dog rulings from the state courts, a three-judge panel of the New Jersey Appellate Division actually sided with ordinary homeowners over a greedy local government and developer.

In their ruling, the judges unanimously reversed a lower-court decision giving the city of Long Branch a green light to pursue its redevelopment plan. That has put a serious crimp into the city's hopes for taking the homes of about a dozen longtime residents -- and turning them over to a developer to put up luxury condos in their place."
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Thanks to Daniel Bliss for this link.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Subprime writedowns top half a trillion: "The International Monetary Fund in an April report estimated banks' losses at $510 billion, about half its forecast of $1 trillion for all companies. Predictions have crept up since then, with New York University economist Nouriel Roubini predicting losses to reach $2 trillion.

``It just keeps spreading from one asset to another, so it's hard to know when these writedowns will stop,'' said Makeem Asif, an analyst at KBC Financial Products in London. ``The U.S. economy needs to stabilize first. But even then, Europe could lag and recover later. There's still a lot more downside.''"
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A lot more downside? How much is "a lot"?

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 08/11/2008 | Cop cameras don't just catch speeders, they raise cash: "[C]op cams can be cash cows.

In Chevy Chase, for example, where speeding tickets brought in about $8,000 monthly before cop cams, 'We are routinely bringing in approximately a quarter-million dollars per month,' Geoffrey Biddle, Chevy Chase's village manager, told his Board of Managers in February.

For a community of 2,000 with an annual budget of $4.6 million, that's a bonanza. What's more, because locals know enough to evade the cop cams, the village's new revenue mostly comes from outsiders, rather like a commuter tax.

Nor are Chevy Chase's big gains unique. Washington's dozen cop cams have taken in more than $200 million since 2001. Scottsdale's six freeway cameras took in $17 million in 2006."
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Yet another way municipalities are finding new revenue sources to take the place of federal grants in aid, property tax revenues, and other streams that have dried up. Now it is HOAs, tobacco lawsuits, sin taxes, charging fees for what was once free, and cop cams.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

I think this means the housing bubble has burst...: "Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years now owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according to Zillow.com, an Internet provider of home valuations."
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Zillow also says that almost one quarter of all US homes sold in the last year were sold at a loss.

Roswell tightens codes, including clothesline rules | ajc.com

Roswell tightens codes, including clothesline rules | ajc.com: "Nothing seems simpler than a load of fresh laundry hung on a clothesline to dry. Unless you live in Roswell, where a public view of socks and shirtsleeves snapping in the breeze may spell trouble. As part of an effort to strengthen code enforcement rules, the city last week started requiring its residents to hide clotheslines behind houses. The city also lowered the acceptable height of weeds and grass from 18 inches to 10 inches and reduced the time homeowners have to tidy their properties from 10 to three days. While other local governments in metro Atlanta don't admit to regulating clotheslines, it isn't uncommon to find such bans in neighborhood association covenants."
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There is some sort of convergence between municipalities and HOAs going on. Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link.

The Myth of 'Privatopia' / Do private residential governments mean the end of the American dream?

The Myth of 'Privatopia' / Do private residential governments mean the end of the American dream?
Thanks to Fred Fischer for the link to this San Francisco Chronicle article that has some comments from yours truly.

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | South East Wales | Cher fan has his stereo destroyed

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | South East Wales | Cher fan has his stereo destroyed: "A man who blasted Cher and U2 from his home has had his stereo equipment and music collection destroyed. Karl Wiosna of Graig, near Pontypridd, was warned to turn down his music by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council after complaints were made. He was served with a noise abatement notice, which he later admitted breaching. As a result, his two tape and record decks, his radio and his tapes and CDs were seized by the council."
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I have to go along with this one. Cher? Talk about ruining property values.

The rich are not so different after all: Hamptons town struggles with $12M deficit -- Newsday.com

The rich are not so different after all: Hamptons town struggles with $12M deficit -- Newsday.com: "East Hampton, one of the main towns on the eastern end of Long Island that make up the Hamptons, is burdened with a deficit that could exceed $12 million. And that has become a rich source of irony, given the community's spectacular wealth and its concentration of Wall Street money-management talent...The town operates its own airport, where Learjets and helicopters shuttle the beautiful people to their playgrounds. East Hampton also spends $100,000 a year for a day-care program for working families and $710,000 annually for free YMCA membership for all the town's children. A theater group for the handicapped gets $30,000 a year, and there are nutrition and transportation programs for senior citizens. The town replenishes its harbors with clams, oysters and scallops and recently bought $100,000 worth of beach rakes to keep the shoreline clean. In the fall, residents do not have to bag and dispose of their leaves themselves; the town lets homeowners rake them to the curb, where a giant vacuum truck sucks them up and hauls them away at a cost estimated by McGintee at $300,000 to $400,000 a year. Over the years, town leaders have been reluctant to raise taxes, because that could harm the many working-class folks struggling to pay their bills, and hurt the politicians on Election Day, too. But now they may have to cut services and increase taxes after all."
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Sounds like some pretty imaginative and generous spending has been going. Free YMCA membership for all the kids in town? An airport? Maybe a little budget-trimming is in order.

Nobel Economist Stiglitz Outraged That Fannie (FNM), Freddie (FRE) Paying Dividend With Our Bailout Money

Nobel Economist Stiglitz Outraged That Fannie (FNM), Freddie (FRE) Paying Dividend With Our Bailout Money: "WHAT BOTHERS ME FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PUBLIC POLICY IS THAT FREDDIE MAC AND FANNIE MAE CAME TO THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS, ASKED FOR THE RIGHT TO WRITE A BLANK CHECK. CONGRESS GAVE THEM THAT RIGHT. WHILE WE ARE, AS TAXPAYERS, IN A POSITION TO PUT MORE MONEY INTO FREDDIE MAC AND FANNIE MAE.THEY'RE TAKING OUT MONEY. TO ME THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. IF THERE IS A THREAT OR A LACK OF LIQUIDITY IN THE FIRM, WHY ARE THEY STILL PAYING DIVIDENDS AT ALL? ANY DIVIDEND."
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So, the taxpayers commit to financial support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they are having liquidity problems, i.e., not enough $$$ given the loans they have outstanding. So waht do they do? Right away they both pay dividends to their stockholders, sending $$$ out. As Stiglitz says, did they have liquidity problems or not? If yes, they need to keep that money in house and not send dividend checks to stockholders. If no, then why on earth are they getting bailed out by the taxpayers?

Prince George's raid prompts call for probe -- baltimoresun.com

Prince George's raid prompts call for probe -- baltimoresun.com: "When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead. A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back. His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body of one of the family pets that police had killed before her eyes.

After the raid, Prince George's County police officials who burst into the home of Berwyn Heights' mayor last week seized the same unopened package of marijuana that an undercover officer had delivered an hour earlier."
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All this for marijuana? Shooting the family pets seems to be a recurrent theme in these no-knock police drug raids.