Ladies and gentlemen, grab your pastel colored chalk -- this is war

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Sorry for the source --

FOX News - Denver mom Sarah Cohen says drawing sidewalk chalk art is one of her three-year-old daughter Emerson's "simple pleasures in life."

"It's definitely better than video games," Cohen told KCNC.

However, the homeowner's association in Cohen's neighborhood feels differently. They say Emerson's drawings -- usually of hearts and flowers -- are distracting and offensive blights on their community.

"My initial reaction was, 'You have to be kidding me," Cohen said.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/18847568/denver-neighborhood-bans-children-from-drawing-chalk-art-on-sidewalk#ixzz1yTBVYMOw

There needs to be a rally of people going to the neighborhood and drawing their biggest, brightest, most beautful collecction of rainbows and butterflies and silly faces on the sidewalks and we need to keep drawing them everyday until the HOA relents.

[Tigress DEM]

1. Seriously? Well it's obvious the HOA has too much time on their hands.

You gotta grow up sometime... we all do.

But you don't have to get so old and mean as the HOA is. GEESE!



Tig

[Voice for Peace]

41. funny you should say geese...

Some years back the HOA at a friend's condo in MD decreed
that annual geese poop was a serious problem.

The Canadian geese had been stopping in this area
on their migration for a long long time, since long before
there was a condo development. And they still stopped
by every year. Many residents loved their presence,
especially the children.

But the HOA didn't like the poop. And this is a true story.
So they had the whole flock rounded up and euthanized.

This story still sickens me so many years later.
Residents were crying, holding signs, please don't kill them.

The HOA did it anyway. Can't have goose poop.

[Odin2005]

46. OMG! Those evil SOBs!!!

[Tigress DEM]

48. Yeah, they are real poop producers.

I have visited lakes where the Canadia Geese congregate and it's nasty. Lots of diseases carried in bird poop. Well, anyone's poop.

BUT the thing about it ... they could have done it differently.

[Voice for Peace]

50. or they could have taken it as an educational and cooperative opportunity

to teach people to watch where they step,
to learn about geese and how amazing they are,
to work together to keep the area cleaned up
and so on.

maybe some day, when people have evolved a little more.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Every HOA I've ever heard of sound like a dictator's wet-dream

They should be abolished.

[quaker bill]

4. Most are innocous enough

but they don't make the news.

[phantom power]

8. the problem is they are a magnet for neighborhood nazis and busybodies

Normal people don't mostly want to be bothered, and so the ones who want it most end up on the committees. Except that the ones who want it most are a demographic that is highly enriched with control freaks...

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Do they do anything useful?

Is there a real need for them at all?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

10. They seem to think they're very important.

And if you don't agree they will fine you.

[Curmudgeoness]

15. As someone who lived in an HOA community

I can say that there are some things that make sense. No homes can have junk cars sitting in view on their properties, lawns have to be kept mowed (ours did not allow anything over 12 inches in the yard, which is not unreasonable and could have been lower), the beautiful old trees were protected and could not be removed without good reason, etc.

But I will never live in another HOA community because of the arbitrary and ridiculous rules that they come up with---like no chalk drawings on sidewalks. I have decided that I would rather take my chances that my neighbors will not decide to store their used appliances on their front porch---but I would tolerate that better.

[Aerows]

17. We got dinged for caroling at Christmas!

Then they wondered why we left because we were such "responsible neighbors".

[FiveGoodMen]

18. If our government shouldn't have that kind of tight control over our lives...

...why the fuck should our neighbors?!

[Curmudgeoness]

24. I saw your post and almost fell over.

Drying a beach towel on the balcony and Christmas caroling!!! Never again.

The worst part of the HOAs is that they have the ability to change the rules after you buy property. At first, it is only junk cars and mowing grass....then all of a sudden you are a "bad neighbor" if you go caroling.

My question when I read your post though, what was the penalty?

[Aerows]

37. We got fined.

It was ridiculous. Granted, it was only $15 bucks for each offense, but it was silly. I laughed my ass off for getting fined for Christmas caroling, and we lived there for two years. The second year? We had a massive party and plenty of people, including me, with projective, voluminous voices doing the caroling. Most residents loved it.

A bunch of gay men and lesbians singing Christmas carols (that they practiced, no less) at your door is something that most people like unless you are some Condo Commando yahoo.

[Curmudgeoness]

43. Did you pay the fine in pennies?

The despots just have to feel important. We tried a takeoff of our board, but the majority of residents just didn't see a problem.

[Aerows]

44. I wasn't big on causing a stink

and I had a great job so we just paid them and moved on. It was a weird community to say the least. The night I found the 80 year old woman from downstairs wandering around walking her cat on a leash in the nude pretty much convinced me that the rules were arbitrarily enforced. I did kindly help her back into her home (and the cat, too). I also informed her son. I have no idea what happened after that.

[Tigress DEM]

49. Poor thing probably went into HOA rule overload or was sleepwalking.

She got so focused on getting the cat on a leash to make sure no one fined her that she forgot to get dressed or had a hidden rebel streak a mile long and said, "Hey, there is no rule about having to wear clothes here! So I will leash up my cat like a good citizen and they can kiss my sunny pink behind."

[phantom power]

23. I *have* lived nextdoor to a "lawn car" ...

and so having had that experience, I get why people invented HOAs. If they stayed within some reasonable bounds, I imagine they might be a net-positive, but I'm not sure that's possible in the long run.

[Curmudgeoness]

29. I have come to realize that the lawn car

is not as bad as some of the rules you get stuck with. I was cited so many times for the dumbest things---one day, I was working on my car in the driveway and had it on a jack, and got cited for a "non-working car" being visible. I painted my house the "wrong" color (although it was not the color of the chip, but that is another story). The house was built with a shitty wood porch on the back that was made with untreated wood and fell apart in a few years----so I put an atrium there instead. I was told I had to remove the atrium because the only allowed building materials were wood and brick, not glass. We came to an agreement that I would enclose it so it was not seen from the street by a wood fence. A neighbor put in a brick wall with wrought-iron and was cited for using the wrought-iron.

So ask me if I would prefer to live with the lawn car, if that happens.

[TalkingDog]

31. Right... and most people realize this. So if your child's creativity is that important to you

Why would you move into a neighborhood with an HOA?

Or if you want to air dry your laundry
Or plant a food garden on your lawn
Or keep chickens

I wish these people would STFU and take some personal responsibility for the fact that they made the choice to live in a structured community.

You couldn't pay me to live in a neighborhood with a HOA.

[Aerows]

14. Condo commandos

Dear GOD they were irritating in Florida. Park with your tire outside the line and you get "cited". Dare to hang a beach towel over the balcony to dry out for 20 minutes ... cited. Go Christmas Caroling in the neighborhood...cited.

Leave the neighborhood, and everyone wants to know why, since you were such good neighbors. Sigh.

[Chan790]

27. Do what my landlord did.

Run on the "I refuse to show up to COA (Condominium Owners Association) meetings" platform. Then he got elected and didn't show up. Then he moved to Albania. Without him, they never seemed to have a quorum which meant they couldn't even hold a vote to declare his seat vacated; let alone fine anybody or make any decisions.

Thus went the COA.

[sadbear]

3. I'm surprised fox news didn't find a way to blame this on President Obama

Admittedly, I didn't actually read the whole article, so perhaps they did.

[freshwest]

5. Of course they will. Rainbow colored chalk? Oh, yeah, it's coming!

[Initech]

6. Drawings of hearts and flowers - teh horrors!!!!

Seriously -

[kickysnana]

7. Oh no! Flashback to 6 years old just N of the St Paul borderline

Our neighbors had been away for an extended vacation. Their house was clapboard painted at one time with salvaged sidewalk blocks of all different sizes and conditions that led up to their door. My folks were looking after their cat so I knew when they were coming home so I went and wrote "Welcome Home" "Love Kickysnana" with hearts and flowers with colored chalk and best first grade printing on their sidewalk.

The return ride must have been a ride from helll because the Mom took one look and came over yelling about defacing her sidewalk. Sooo Mom waited about and hour and sent me over to apologize which I did for Mom. By then the neighbor had calmed down and said she accepted my apology saying "but please don't do it again".

The good thing was that this lady would show up at lunchtime every day and stay until the daddies came home and my Mom was too nice to get up and do more work or ask her to leave and she stopped that too. I am guessing she was embarrassed since she had never yelled at us before even though we played back and forth between the houses from time I was 4. Fast forward until my oldest was 4, having been on road trip with my two boisterous children by myself (probably wedding or funeral) I found myself yelling at my then husband for painting the bottom half of the foyer twice and leaving the top half a different color covered with soot over the stairway. I was getting premium paint for under $1 a gallon at Wards and I had two cans of two slightly different colors that should have been coat one and coat 2 and it was going to be a few months before I could save enough change to get some more. Gees we were poor. This story flashed back to me and I stopped in mid rant and started laughing and apologized.

Today's people are annal retentive, insane, and nasty by covenant.

[LeftofObama]

11. See! This is exactly what we knew would happen!

First little girls chalk up the dang sidewalk and the next thing you know they're walking around listening to their 8 track tapes of Donny Osmond and chewing bubble gum and before you know it, There goes the neighborhood!

<-- Do I really need this?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

12. Who's Donny Osmond?

[LeftofObama]

13. He's the Justin Bieber of the

early 70's. I was just trying to do my best "You kids get off my lawn" impression. LOL!

[Shana]

21. I got the reference

so I guess I'm inching toward get off my lawn status.

[Bake]

20. Oh no, you did NOT just ask Who's Donny Osmond!!!!

You've never heard Puppy Love?????



Bake

[Liberal_in_LA]

28. yikes! major boy band of the 70s. Kinda competition with Jackson 5.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. HOAs are nothing but

semi-civilized fascists organizations. I will live in a shack before I ever join one.

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. The drones will make short work of these terrorists.

[madmom]

22. Pastel chalk? Flowers and hearts?..you know it's coming, it's that liberal

gay agenda!

[A Simple Game]

25. Just out of curiosity, who actually owns and maintains the sidewalks? n/t

[bluesbassman]

34. Depends on the development.

Any development can have an HOA; Condominiums, Town Houses, Single Family homes. In most condo developments, the homeowner literally owns the space from the middle of the wall inward. The ground the condo sits on and the surrounding grounds are referred to as "common area". With Town Houses the ground the home sits on is owned solely by the homeowner while the surrounding ground is "common area". Single Family homes typically follow the Town House rule, but also may include some additional yard space. In all of these instances the "common areas" are owned by all of the homeowners and the HOAs are charged with maintenance and jurisdiction.

Where it gets tricky is how the streets and sidewalks are deeded. If the community is private, then all is considered "common area" and is covered by the HOA. Some communities have city ownership of the streets and sidewalks, so those are maintained by the city (typically you'd see that in a single family community).

It's pretty important to understand how these HOAs are set up prior to purchasing. Save a lot of grief down the road.

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. kick!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

30. I like how we all turn in to freedom fighting freepers when it comes to HOAs.

I live in one - my condo HOA. HOAs are absolutely necessary for condominium as we share roofs, walls, common insurance, water and foundations.

I live in a great one. We call it the compound or the commune. We get drunk on wine and eat cookies at our meetings. We don't rule by board decree - we rule by vote of all 6 units. I think we have had only one or two votes that weren't unanimous. We don't get much done 'cause we're usually drunk.

We had one woman who tried to pull shit after moving in but she figured out pretty fast that she was barking up the wrong tree. Now she's all better.

Yes, being in the mortgage business, I've heard some nightmare stories. Mostly bigger associations. But I think that comes mostly from people in these bigger HOAs thinking of and treating the HOA as some sort of servant or utility. Not something they have a vested interest in.

HOAs are representative democratic organizations. Except for ours - I'm apparently president for life because I missed a meeting, got shanghaied and now am stuck with the job. I'm really just head maintenance man and chief contractor rep. The treasurer does the hard job - paying bills and depositing checks.

I know some are bad and some are good. They all operate democratically.

[JoeyT]

47. I've never seen an HoA that wasn't run by freepers.

So there's a clue why we all hate them so much.

The last time I ever had to deal with one the most regularly spoken sentiment was figuring out how to get the non-whites to GTFO before they drove down property values. I've seen a bunch through friends, family, and work and I've yet to see a good one.

But yeah, it was roughly as democratic as Jim Crow south in exactly the same way. When aforementioned non-whites would show up to vote on something, it would get postponed to the next meeting. Edited to add: Or rather when we showed up in sufficient numbers to actually be able to do anything. If there were just a few of us we'd get outvoted.

[LaydeeBug]

32. I will never, ever NEVER live anywhere with an HOA. Too much "neighborhood" for me, thanks. nt

[FarCenter]

33. Looks new; they are probably still trying to sell more units

Courtyard Traditions

http://www.stapletondenver.com/find-your-home/homes/wonderland-homes/courtyard-traditions

It appears to be a planned community on the old Stapleton Airport land.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

35. What a crock of sh*t - we had that debate in my 'hood

but we have no snooty "homeowner's association". Our resident police sargeant arranged a very successful "chalk walk" event where all the neighborhood kids ( big and small ) came with their chalk to share ice cream, cold soft drinks, pizza - and to create and share their sidewalk and street artwork - including the sarge himself! I believe they even closed part of one block off for it.

Whoever it was that complained here has been very quiet since. Maybe our complainer should go live in Cohen's neighborhood.

[NRaleighLiberal]

36. I wouldn't last 10 minutes on our HOA. Just the neighborhood email stream is amazing - dog poop

is a popular topic, as is "people in the neighborhood who look different" (meaning they are not white). Way too many red households - and yes, most go to church and pretend.

[oneshooter]

38. No formal "HOA" just neighbors looking after one another.

Roads are gravel, lots are 5-20 acres, mostly quiet people living their lives peaceable with each other. We know who is sick and help if needed, who is on vacation and how long. Tend to look after each others animals and children. Got a "Watch" program going, mainly looking for cattle and horse thieves, people lost(lots of gravel roads, no signs) and lost cats.

Real nice in this part of Texas.

Oneshooter

[JHB]

39. "Big Government" at work folks...

...they take frustration at crap like this and stampede it towards liberal, "freeloaders", "bureaucrats" etc.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. In other news...

A group of minors openly calling themselves a "gang" were referred to as "disruptive to the neigborhood" due to preforming live music and sometimes defacing sidewalks with cryptic codes still being analyzed by Homeland Security.

[img][/img]

No knock search warrants were issued and authorities were forced to shoot what they say was a trained attack dog that had lunged at them upon entering the ramshackle building. Police seized an unspecified amount of money and are continuing to search for weapons and narcotics.

[img][/img]

All four suspects are being held in juvenile detention awaiting trial.

[progressoid]

42. LOCK HER UP!

Terrorist!

[Odin2005]

45. HOAs = a bunch of authoritarians with too much time on their hands.

They exhibit the worst aspects of middle class social norms. The fear of spontaneity. The fear of anything that is not prim, proper, and completely dull and sterile.