In article , "Kari" wrote:


In reality, the laws and by-laws are there to support a neighborhood style
of living that others want and have pretty much established by court record.
If you don't like them, don't live there.

This is good advice. Yes, assume if you sign away property rights, SOMEone
will be on hand to make you suffer for it.

But this thread shows that a lot of people are in serious denial about the
fact that HOAs came about to circumvent the inroads of Civil Rights, NOT
because articles of incorporation were worth it merely to force the
neighbor to mow his lawn more often, because city or county ordinances
frequently sufficiently take care of the cosmetic aspects of what one must
adhere to. "Innocent" buyers should be more fully aprised of the
historical purpose, & still-strong underlying effect of HOAs, so they
don't accidentally buy into a HOA thinking the worst thing possible is
they have to mow their lawn ridiculously often, then their son marries a
Chinese woman & the shit hits the fan.

Second, some HOA neighborhoods consist of 2,000 or more homes. If you're a
Jew or Black & know those are all automatically OFF your list of safe
places to attempt to buy because nine times out of a ten it's a honky
enclave accidentally-on-purpose, you will suddenly be a little happier
that several states are right today (at least 40 years late!) finally
beginning to undermine HOAs' bigotry privileges. Yes, such people know we
wouldn't like it, & many "voluntarily" elect not to live there.

But your "right" or "option" to join a HOA where the percentage of
minorities drops dramatically (to as low as zero percent ) doesn't look so
nifty, not if the day before you went house-hunting you naively believed
that discriminatory housing policies was illegal in all cases, only to
discover a half-dozen of the surrunding neighborhoods "coincidentally"
only sell to whites & a huge percentage of houses on the market aren't for
you -- & turns out there's very little you can do about it even if you
were brave enough to force the issue & forge a path amidst all those
honkies.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/