I subscribe to all the science magazines, and I love this story!
For many years I’ve read and reported on cancer-sniffing dogs, and African Giant Pouched Rats that can be trained to sniff out just about every kind of disease. In East Africa they’re now using the trained rats in prisons to sniff out tuberculosis. Their accuracy rate is almost 100%.
LOL! If these rats are so good why can’t we train them to sniff out HOA scumbags?!?
(link to story on TB sniffing rats)
OK, OK, so I do occasionally go off on a wild goose chase. I admit it. Hopefully you’ll forgive me.
For the past two days I’ve been absolutely addicted to something on the web. Can’t take my eyes off of it. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has placed a high quality live camera right next to a nest of bald eagles, that grand symbol of America.
Just a couple days ago they hatched a chick. I think there are two more eggs in the nest but I can’t tell for sure. Dad is usually off hunting.
I do believe in celestial miracles and this is one of God’s greatest! Make sure you view it full screen!
(live web cam on eagles’ nest)
Yes, welcome to your new condo. You’re going to love living here. The neighbors all get along and we don’t seem to suffer the kinds of problems felt in many other Homeowners Associations. You’re buying into a little bit of Heaven, your own private home. Welcome, welcome, welcome!
Oh, we’re sorry we couldn’t give you copies of the covenants, the budget and insurance papers in time for your real estate closing. At the time you requested them, the paperwork was tied up in some minor snafu. But it’ll all get worked out soon.
Ah yes, and ignore the story in the newspapers today. Those crooked reporters always make up their facts and get the story wrong. Everybody knows how warped and dishonest the media are. Just sit back and enjoy your new life!
(link to the neighborhood Welcome Wagon!)
The HOA industry, and the politicians who support the industry – perhaps for dubious reasons – use the same talking point, over and over again:
“Vote the bums out!”
What a joke! As many have pointed out here on this blog, there are many factors that make a mockery of the fair election process in homeowners or condo associations.
The very first problem is that votes are allocated according to the corporate model of governance, and not based upon a democratic basis of “one person, one vote.” In Association Governed Residential Communities, voting interests (notice I did not say “rights”) are tied directly to the share of property owned within the association.
When investors or developers own most of the property, they hold a majority of the voting interests, and therefore control the Board by default. In this respect, life in an HOA is no different than living under a dictatorial, communist, or fascist regime.
Or, another way to look at it is that, as a homeowner, you become an unwilling pawn in a game of hostile corporate takeover.
But even in cases where the developer or investor group are no longer involved, owners can form voting blocs of like-minded property owners to prey upon the remaining owners. One common scenario pits absentee landlord owners against owner occupants. This is especially common in condominium associations.
In 55+ communities, where many of the owners are in their seventies and older, it can be difficult to find candidates for the board who are healthy enough to serve! That opens the door for relatively young but unscrupulous board members to take advantage of senior citizens living on fixed incomes, and dealing with declining health.
The HOA concept is flawed to the core. The foundation is shaky from Day One.
And on top of that, there are no consistent laws that offer adequate consumer protection.
Why have so many of our elected officials failed to recognize that the HOA industry has, in effect, created an alternative local governance scheme that circumvents Constitutional principles? And what’s more, at the local and state level, misguided housing and development policies have encouraged or, in effect, required the establishment of nothing else but Association-Governed Residential Communities across the state and throughout population growth centers in the US.
It’s time to end the denial of abuse of homeowners and residents of these HOAs, COAs. It’s time to recognize that the governance model is flawed, and that, quite often, the financial model is also precarious at best.
This is America, and people need to be able to not only freely choose where they want to live, but they also must be free to live in peace. Americans should not have to risk losing their property equity and financial nest egg — not to mention their physical and mental health — because they have been sucked into a dysfunctional “community” governed by a mandatory association.
If state and local policies keep pushing these HOAs and building condos, there will very soon be no other housing alternatives. The supply of non-HOA, non-condo property to buy is already in short supply in high-growth real estate markets.
I recently relocated to Central Pennsylvania, where HOAs are not as common as they are in areas surrounding population centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. States such as Florida (where I lived for about 7 years), California, Virginia, Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, etc. have very high concentrations of HOA/condo property and a great deal of problems as a result. Local governments are increasingly required to provide financial assistance to failed or failing Associations with aging infrastructure and inadequate reserves. The industry does not want you to know about this! Advocates and concerned citizens, don’t allow your state to fall into the same trap!
Nila Ridings, the homeowners rights firebrand from Kansas, raises a question that deserves consideration.
Now, I’ve read Rules for Radicals a number of times over the years. Saul Alinsky was the Chicago activist who taught that sneaky underhanded rebellion was a way to take over society. But read a little more deeply into his writings. Forget the politics. Forget left and right, Democrat and Republican. Forget conservative and liberal. Just sink deeply into his rhetoric and his logic.
Finally, emerge from your voyage of discovery and analyze how the HOA movement has slowly and stealthily taken over the American real estate development and home building industry. Slowly, this industry has moved almost a quarter of all Americans into a political system which is completely outside the control of the U.S. Constitution.
Make no mistake, Homeowners Associations are absolutely a form of government. They control your roads, your sewer, your trash pickup, maintenance of your local water system, policing of your neighborhood. They even form your court system, since traditional courts have washed their hands of most HOA conflicts. And to an incredible degree they control your personal finances. Of course, just like in a traditional government you pay taxes. Your monthly dues and the sudden demand for a $10,000 or $20,000 special assessment are taxes.
What rights do you actually have in an HOA? Well, what rights do you have under facism, or marxism, or communism or any other kind of non-constitutional dictatorship?
Nila Ridings is right. We all need to read Rules for Radicals, just to see what we’re up against.
(link to wiki and Rules for Radicals)
