Category Archives: drones

The HOA Tsunami Is Coming!

      1 Comment on The HOA Tsunami Is Coming!

It’s all about the news media, folks. It’s all about publicity. P.T. Barnum was once rumored to have said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity, it’s all publicity.”

Five years ago I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but now anti-HOA stories have almost gone mainstream. Our misery as HOA homeowners really is getting out there and prospective home buyers are paying attention. Does a Homeowners Association really protect your property values?  Well, your property is only worth what someone is willing to pay. So if a growing number of people are saying they’ll never buy an HOA property, doesn’t that mean your HOA is actually hurting your property values?

Fantastic story on FOX-Network!

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/07/01/dont-get-owned-by-your-hoa/

Eviction? Over A Fake Confederate Flag?

      No Comments on Eviction? Over A Fake Confederate Flag?

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)

 

 

Jerry Seinfeld Crushed by the Lemonade Nazis

      1 Comment on Jerry Seinfeld Crushed by the Lemonade Nazis

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)

 

Drones! Drones! Drones!

      3 Comments on Drones! Drones! Drones!

I should charge money for psychic readings!  It was four or five years ago that I began predicting the advent of drones and that they would eventually be cheap enough for the boards of Homeowners Associations to start using them to inspect the most private part of your property. Your nude sunbathing or hot tub trysts could be played on the TV set at the HOA clubhouse and you probably wouldn’t win a legal case.

Well, so far I’m batting about 90% so far. The drones are here. They cost as little a four hundred bucks. And they’re popping up in thousands and thousands of places. Realtors are using them to advertise homes and neighborhoods. Terrorists are using them to interfere with commercial aircraft. Voyeurs are using them to videotape you and your lover on the backyard blanket. The FAA only controls drones in airspace over 1000 feet.

Privacy? Fugeddaboutit!

There’ve been a number of cases where homeowners have shot drones out of the air. The shooters usually end up being arrested and jailed. But it’s a whole new area of developing law and will probably take a decade or more to resolve. In the meantime even if a jury finds you not guilty you will have expended hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees.

(link to shoot a drone, go to jail, do not collect $200. It ain’t Monopoly money, folks!)