I know of at least four HOA movies in various stages of production. Movies are extraordinarily expensive to do, and to do right. One of the older ones that appears to have stalled had a wonderfully clever trailer….worth watching.
If anyone has an update on this production, please let me know.
Well, the news this week is pretty bad for net neutrality. The White House has come up with a 332 page book of regulations that it’s going to hand to the FCC for implementation. Just as in the Affordable Care Act, they have to pass the bill so we can all see what’s in it. A lone renegade on the FCC is warning that this bill is so heavy handed that it will fundamentally change the way the Internet is governed, essentially treating it as a public utility.
Hundreds of billions in new taxes, controversial websites (like this one) may be subjected to a version of the old (and failed) Fairness Doctrine, and smaller businesses and smaller political operatives will essentially be driven off the web. Websites will be censored. Another name for the bill is “full employment for trial lawyers.”
The Internet has given us a measure of freedom that never would have been granted by traditional government. It has fundamentally changed the world, both socially and financially.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai says the future looks pretty grim.
That’s the power phrase that came out of an interview with Jon Harris, who owns a condominium in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. Five Points leaders tried for decades to turn around its image as a run-down part of the city. Back in the 20s and 30s it was the home of some of the best jazz clubs in the country. But as Denver expanded in all directions of the compass, Five Points was subjected to typical inner city decline.
Still, neighborhoods can be reborn and Five Points leaders have worked hard to try to make the neighborhood a showplace once again.
The problem is that they mandated higher density ‘affordable’ housing which meant developers were ordered to create Homeowner and Condo Associations. To encourage developers to build such high density housing the city loosened zoning regulations and inspections.
Condo owner Jon Harris desperately wanted to buy a quality home and live in a neighborhood rich in Colorado history. Now, he says, every condo in his complex is beset with construction defects. Meanwhile, the State Legislature is trying to pass a bill that would limit lawsuits against builders.
Harris says the legislation is wrong. The only right answer is for builders to “STOP BUILDING CRAP!”
Most of us could agree with that.
(link to KDVR-TV story on construction defects)
In fairness, shouldn’t I once in a while run a post involving someone who’s all in favor of HOAs? Don’t hate me, but here it is. I imagine a number of readers of Neighbors At War can pick this one apart feather by feather and nut by nut!
(link to Hignell HOA Management Company)
What is it about the ‘control’ issues many HOA board members have? And why is it that brand new Ford F-150 pickups are so hated?
The board of the Kimry Moor Homeowners Association in Fayetteville, New York has decided that homeowners David and Arna Orlando are scofflaws because they park their pickup in the driveway instead of in the garage.
Never mind that people all over this HOA park their trucks in their driveways.
No, I strongly suspect the issue isn’t the truck. It’s that somebody on the board thinks the Orlando family are of the wrong race, the wrong income level or because their kid might have smart-mouthed a board member’s kid at school.
I hope the Orlando’s attorney looks at an almost identical case in Texas where the owner of the Ford F-150 got sued for his truck…and he actually won the case against his power-mongering HOA. It’s too bad that HOA homeowners have to pay special assessments to support this kind of insanity.
(link to latest HOA lawsuit against an F-150 owner)
(for the Orlando’s attorney, this might save you a couple minutes of research time)
And yet another!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/28/florida-man-spends-k-right-park-driveway/
