Tag Archives: discrimination

Madonna’s HOA problems

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Madonna may decide her uppity New York co-op neighbors aren’t worth the rent. She’s suing because the co-op board doesn’t want Madonna’s kids or domestic help staying there when she isn’t physically in the building.

In the story linked below, I don’t read that she’s suing for racial discrimination, but I’d bet my last dollar that’s going to be a central point of her lawsuit. Some white folks just don’t like it when people of color are around. That’s how the whole HOA movement got started in the first place. Don’t believe me? Go look in the title history of your property deed!

Gosh, when is racism ever going to go away? Isn’t it time, folks?

(link to story on Madonna suing her co-op)

 

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/madonna-sues-nyc-apartment-for-allegedly-barring-her-kids-or-staff-from-staying-there-while-shes-away-report/ar-BBrihNu?li=BBnb7Kz

Madonna‘s claims her Upper West Side co-op in New York City has barred her children and staff from living in the residence while she is not there, according to a lawsuit obtained by Page Six.

The pop star – who has been traveling the world on her Rebel Heart tour – alleges that Harperley Hall “illegally changed her original proprietary lease in April 2014 to say that her children and domestic help cannot live in the unit unless she herself is ‘in residence’ at the time,” according to Page Six.

Her lease at Harperley Hall prevents anyone younger than 16 from living in her apartment without an adult older than 21 also present, according to Page Six.

In her suit, Madonna, 57, said that her career requires her to travel extensively, and that she owns several residences around the world, thus creating an impossible situation, according to Page Six.

Madonna’s four children are all under the age of 21, and only one, Lourdes, 19, is older than 16.

Meanwhile, the singer is currently in the middle of a months-long custody dispute with ex-husband Guy Ritchie over their 15-year-old son, Rocco.

 

Child Discrimination in HOAs Illegal!

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guest blog by Dave Russell (community association manager)
Last week Minnetonka residents of a condo complex won a massive settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit contending that a ban on playing in the grass illegally discriminated against families with children.The settlement agreement, announced last Friday, by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, means that the Greenbrier Village Homeowners’ Association Inc. and Gassen Company Inc. must establish a new nondiscrimination policy and pay a $10,000 penalty to the federal government and $100,000 to six families.  We all know well who is going to foot the bill for this one. Don’t we?
 
Just days after the Minnetonka settlement another HOA in California was making headlines for smacking homeowners with $50 fines for basically the same thing.  It appears that the Agave and Saguaro HOA in Chula Vista , California prohibits a number of kid-friendly activities in their development. This HOA prohibits their resident children from riding skateboards, bicycles, roller-skates or anything with ‘wheels’ on their driveways, common areas, sidewalks or streets. So what gives with these kooky rules?
 
Well the reporters down at ABC 10 News went to Prescott Management (the management company for Agave and Saguaro HOA) to ask that very question. The HOA manager claimed that some of those rules were for the ‘safety of children.’  Are these ‘safety concerns’ really legitimate?
 
While I completely understand the need for kids to be able to play in their communities, what happens if something goes terribly wrong? Hypothetically, let’s say this HOA changes their rules and a child gets mowed down by a car in the driveway. Whose fault is it? Well that’s the question the parents attorneys will be asking.
 
The argument can easily be made that the HOA should have adopted rules restricting children from playing in dangerous areas, such as driveways. One has to remember, attorneys are always searching for the deepest pockets when it comes to lawsuits and settlements. Unfortunately, those deep pockets always belong to the HOA and their insurance carriers.
 
HOAs and community managers seem to be in a real pickle here. If you restrict child-friendly activities, even if they may be dangerous, the HOA could be sued for a fair housing violation. If you don’t have safety rules in place, and a child gets hurt, the HOA still gets sued if something goes ‘terribly wrong.’ When it’s all said and done, and dust settles from the lawsuits,  it’s the homeowners who will foot the bill once again. Well, don’t they always?
 
So what’s the solution to this seemingly new legal issue of Children vs. HOA’s? A large part of this problem was actually created by the developers themselves, who poorly designed these communities, and without children in mind. Very rarely do you see a developer put in a kid-friendly area where kids can just be kids. And for some reason if the developer does build a kid-friendly area, it’s always across a busy road like the development in the Minnesota case.  It’s all about jamming in as many units into one confined space as possible for profit.
 
There’s no doubt we’ll be seeing a magnitude of new lawsuits from homeowners and federal agencies like Fair Housing. These lawsuits are going to cost homeowners billions of dollars and make HOA insurance premiums skyrocket!  In my opinion, the best solution to this newly found problem is to stop building these damn liabilities!
 
If you ever needed another reason not to buy into an HOA……make sure that you add this one to the top of your list!
 

Darcy Spears Pitches A No-Hitter

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Yes, it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out…..

And for a third time, Darcy Spears of KTNV TV has gone to the Southern Highlands Country Club area and learned it’s a community of frightened homeowners with a leadership of gangster-minded bullies. Maybe that just comes naturally for people who move to Las Vegas: Find out how to join the Mob! In her latest HOA Hall of Shame report she tries to locate the skunks who are trying to chase a black man out of the neighborhood.

Even though Louis Washington is one of the original residents of Southern Highlands, the HOA is demanding that he plant a couple of trees in his yard. Never mind that the country club just behind Washington’s house, has a few trees that clearly look like they’re dying, this monstrous HOA tyrant wants the homeowner to plant a tree right in front of his picture window, or they’ll fine him out of existence.

Darcy says this is the third time Southern Highlands has been on her Hall of Shame report, Readers of my book, Neighbors At War already know about Southern Highlands for the way it treats black families. Just go back and re-read chapter eight where I document the shameful history of Homeowners Associations and minorities. Southern Highlands is featured. In 2006, Troy McMullen, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Online did an investigative story on how blacks are treated at Southern Highlands. It was called “Trouble in Paradise: Minorities Report Bias in Vacation areas.”

Some people just have no shame.

They’re too ignorant to have shame.

 http://tinyurl.com/mbcbgog

 One footnote: the management company which runs Southern Highlands brags that it sends out a thousand violation notices per month. Am I wrong, or does that sound a little fascist to you?