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
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!
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.
LOL! Nice Satire.
Let’s see, what is that saying? Oh yes, “All good things must come to an end!”
Communisty Associations are Too Big To Fail ™.