Where Neighbors Are Neighbors

Neighborhoods are supposed to be all about like-minded people working together to strengthen the bonds between each other. There’s a strange aloofness and paranoia among some of the country’s neighborhoods…. approximately one-out-of-five. You ‘in-crowd’ people know what that percentage is referring to.

But in my youth, I really do remember neighbors who’d talk over the fence, and gather for dinner, where the kids would take each others’ sons and daughters to the senior prom. Neighborhoods. Healthy. Old fashioned.

Yes, we’ve lost something in the madness of the modern HOA movement. We’ve learned how to keep those intrusive Negroes, Jews and Orientals from moving into our white ghettos. We’ve learned how to encourage the disabled, the single moms, the elderly, to find other places to live. After all, our exclusionary attitudes keep our property values up, right?

No, I kind of like that ‘old-timey’ feeling where we loved our neighbors with the full knowledge and assurance that they loved us right back.

The link below kind of moved me tonight, as I sat here contemplating where we’ve been, and where we’re going.

http://www.wkrg.com/story/21754502/whats-working-south-lafayette-street-community-association

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About

Ward Lucas is a longtime investigative journalist and television news anchor. He has won more than 70 national and regional awards for Excellence in Journalism, Creative Writing and community involvement. His new book, "Neighbors At War: the Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association," is now available for purchase. In it, he discusses the American homeowners association movement, from its racist origins, to its transformation into a lucrative money machine for the nation's legal industry. From scams to outright violence to foreclosures and neighborhood collapses across the country, the reader will find this book enormously compelling and a necessary read for every homeowner. Knowledge is self-defense. No homeowner contemplating life in an HOA should neglect reading this book. No HOA board officer should overlook this examination of the pitfalls in HOA management. And no lawyer representing either side in an HOA dispute should gloss over what homeowners are saying or believing about the lawsuit industry.

5 thoughts on “Where Neighbors Are Neighbors

  1. Nila

    Yes, indeed coming together as neighbors, becoming friends and staying in touch for a lifetime was truly a great thing. I’m still friends with people I’ve known since I was born. We started out as neighbors and for various reasons we moved away from the neighborhood but we stayed in touch. Together, we made trips to the lake, went skiing in Colorado, attended weddings, baby-sat, and sadly attended memorial services for the elderly parents. I even hired a lifelong friend to repair my rotten house when the HOA failed to do so. Something about a property with CC&R’s turns the charm of the neighborhood into a hellish nightmare filled with hate, distrust, and loneliness. What Homeowners Associations have done to America’s neighborhoods is disgraceful!

    Reply
  2. Communisty Associations Institute

    “The neighborhood has gone beyond just planting trees. One home was badly in need of repair, but the homeowner couldn’t afford to have work done. She asked for help painting and repairing her columns and her neighbors stepped up. She provided the supplies, and for the last three months, neighbors have done the work. Art Crooker lives across the street, He says, ‘Just a neighborly act from up and down the streets. Five to ten people at a time would be up there working.’ The house looks much better now with a new coat of paint.”

    These people are doing it wrong.

    If there was a house that “was badly in need of repair”, the HOA’s lawyers should have fined the homeowner and threatened to foreclose upon her.

    Otherwise, people may start to realize that a “community association corporation” is not necessary to create a “community”. If that happens, our entire $50 billion per year business model may fail.

    Reply
  3. Communisty Associations Institute

    “All good things must come to an end!”

    Communisty Associations are Too Big To Fail ™.

    Reply

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