Tag Archives: Ward Lucas

Can Dinosaurs Wreck Property Values?

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Oh, Lordy, I love this job! It never gets old.

Good neighborhoods are quirky. That’s because people are quirky, and their quirks keep us all smiling and make the world go ’round. The problem with Homeowners Associations is that they’re bland, bleached, with a sameness that brings everyone to the same level. Standing out from the crowd is a well-known guaranty of getting yourself sued.

The New Territory Residential Community Association in Sugar Land, Texas is having a conniption fit over some ‘yard art’ in front of one family’s home. Other families have decorative lions in their front yards. But the Hentschel family has put up some beautifully made statuary that’s unique: metal sculptures of a velociraptor and a T-Rex.

Of course, they’ll get liened, fined and probably sued. And that’s a shame. I would give my eye teeth to be able to live next door to the Hentschel family!

(link to USA Today story on HOA dinosaurs)

 

“Damn the Disabled!” -Brookfield Farms HOA

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Discrimination has long been a hallmark of the modern HOA movement. The disabled, Negroes, Orientals, members of the Mongol race, gays, the handicapped, non-married adults. I’ve seen that in my own Colorado HOA, stories I relate in my book, Neighbors At War. I’ve seen it firsthand, but since starting this website I’ve been stunned at the number of blatantly racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic stories that are happening daily in American homeowner associations. There just aren’t enough courtrooms to handle all those cases, Ah, there are enough lawyers, to be sure. More than enough. Just not enough courtrooms.

In Lafayette, Indiana the Brookfield Farms Homeowners Association has made it clear they don’t want three handicapped people living in their neighborhood. “It’s a group home,” they’re screaming. “We don’t allow three unmarried handicapped people to live in a single home. And we’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary!”

Stupid people. They’ll lose, of course. Federal law is pretty clear about abuse and discrimination against handicapped people. But in the meantime this idiot board will cost its homeowners tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands in legal fees.

Avoid HOA life like the plague. It looks good on paper. But when planning to buy into the HOA scam just remember you’re putting all of your personal assets into a common pool of money with people you don’t know and have never even met. All your assets including the equity of your house are being pledged to pay for moronic legal positions like the one being taken by Brookfield Farms in Indiana.

(link to Indianapolis Star article on discrimination against the disabled)

 

Eviction? Over A Fake Confederate Flag?

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Some HOA controversies are just a little too hard for my poor brain to figure out.

In Naples, Florida, the Timberwood of Naples HOA is planning to evict a family because their mentally disabled teenage son put up a Confederate flag in his window.

I’m a longtime defender of the First Amendment who doesn’t think ANYONE should be able to restrict the free speech rights of another. And certainly I understand the sensitivity about the Confederate flag especially when its display is supported by tax monies.

But over the past hour I’ve been searching for images of various flags of the Confederacy. If the image of the flag in the news story linked below is accurate, then this family is being evicted for a flag that’s fake. It’s not a Confederate flag. It just happens to be red, white and blue and have a star. It doesn’t match any of the flags of the Confederacy. So, essentially this family is being evicted for displaying the colors red, white and blue with a star?

How far can suppression of speech go?

In the typical HOA, they just make up the rules as they go along.

(link to story on phony controversy in Naples, Florida)

 

 

M-I-C…K-E-Y…….M-O-U-S-E!

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HOA neighborhoods are sometimes so sterile they look like Army Basic Training barracks. I’ve been there. I went to Basic. And I can just see military trainees in khaki walking through these bland neighborhoods picking up cigarette butts. Sometimes the best way to describe the actions of HOA lawn Nazis is the old Disney tune for the Mickey Mouse Club TV show. Here’s a case where it’s more than appropriate.

Timber Creek Homeowners Association, Yulee, Florida. When Rachael Dennis moved into her new home five years ago she started getting hammered with violation notices and fines by the board. Damaged mailbox. Trash cans in the wrong place.

Rachael, a big fan of Disney, put in some circular flower beds in her front yard. If you’re flying in a hot air balloon over her house you might notice that three of her flower beds have a vague resemblance to a certain cartoon character. The Timber Creek HOA bullies went ballistic. HOA Nazis hate it when  they’re made fun of.

So, they’ve hit Rachael with another violation. She can have circular flower beds. But they just can’t touch.

Folks, some of these things you just can’t make up.

(link to story on ‘Micky Mouse’ flower beds)

 

Jerry Seinfeld Crushed by the Lemonade Nazis

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Comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his family are the latest victims of the Neighborhood Nazis. He and his family were selling lemonade outside their suburban home to bring attention to their favorite charity, Baby Buggy. It provides clothing and other services to families in need.

But in stomps an angry neighbor saying cars are stopping at the side of the road to buy lemonade and motorists are having the nerve to contribute to the charity. In East Hampton Village that’s a crime tantamount to bank robbery.

Yes, the bullies are gradually taking over in America costing young people a chance to see what times were like in the good old days.

What a shame. What a horrible shame.

(link to East Hampden Press story on Seinfeld getting shut down by cops)