back row home-owner
May. 13th, 2003 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkTonight at the elementary school down the street our local homeowner's association had its first "real" meeting. For the first two years we owned our home, the association was controlled by the real estate developer. When enough homes were sold, governance reverts to the home owners themselves. Tonight was the first meeting to pick our neighborhood board's elected officials. I am in general allergic to home-owner's associations, finding that they give people not suited to power the power to make other people's lives difficult. I am in favor of keeping trucks off lawns, and in keeping kids on skateboards off the streets and on the school parking lot. But I do not wish to live in a neighborhood that sends out form letters about grass incursion in flower beds.
My wife and I decided to go to the meeting. My concern in such matters really amounts to trying, as best as I can, to ensure that I vote against anyone who says the phrases "I want to enforce every darn rule in the common covenants, no exceptions", "we need to stop people from daring to park their cars in front of their own homes" or "grass in the flowerbeds must be stopped at all costs!".
We sat on the very back row. I found myself, to my surprise, inclined to scowl more than once. I have a low tolerance for euphemism and corporate speak. When the attorney hired by the developer to draft the association documents discussed their "flexibility", I thought instead of the way in which rights of the developer were emphasized and made sacrosanct and the protections of the individual home-owners from the board were minimized. When the management company hired by the developer sought to emphasize her company's independence from the developer, I thought to myself that this independence never seemed so manifest in the days before the company wanted to be hired by the new board of directors. Note to self: have dinner before attending meetings, and always wear either a smile or a blank, quiet expression.
I flirted with the idea of running for the five member board of directors on a platform of moderation and "protection from government", but the ten people who did run seemed so earnest about it that I decided not to throw my hat into the ring. Each candidate got three minutes. I kept a tally. Any candidate who used the words "enforce all the rules" got the word "no" written beside his or her name. Each candidate who said "we should work together" got an "okay" by his or her name. My wife kept a similar tally, and in most things, our tallies agreed. So we voted our ballots. Afterwards, the questions droned on and on, so we left.
My issues are all askew, I suppose. I am eager for the city to put in better sunfish in the park pond next door, and to figure out how to reduce the green algae. But that issue isn't even in the board's charge.
Small time democracy is a good thing, I suppose. But I must have a conservative streak--I firmly believe that those home-owners govern best who try to govern each other's lives least.
My wife and I decided to go to the meeting. My concern in such matters really amounts to trying, as best as I can, to ensure that I vote against anyone who says the phrases "I want to enforce every darn rule in the common covenants, no exceptions", "we need to stop people from daring to park their cars in front of their own homes" or "grass in the flowerbeds must be stopped at all costs!".
We sat on the very back row. I found myself, to my surprise, inclined to scowl more than once. I have a low tolerance for euphemism and corporate speak. When the attorney hired by the developer to draft the association documents discussed their "flexibility", I thought instead of the way in which rights of the developer were emphasized and made sacrosanct and the protections of the individual home-owners from the board were minimized. When the management company hired by the developer sought to emphasize her company's independence from the developer, I thought to myself that this independence never seemed so manifest in the days before the company wanted to be hired by the new board of directors. Note to self: have dinner before attending meetings, and always wear either a smile or a blank, quiet expression.
I flirted with the idea of running for the five member board of directors on a platform of moderation and "protection from government", but the ten people who did run seemed so earnest about it that I decided not to throw my hat into the ring. Each candidate got three minutes. I kept a tally. Any candidate who used the words "enforce all the rules" got the word "no" written beside his or her name. Each candidate who said "we should work together" got an "okay" by his or her name. My wife kept a similar tally, and in most things, our tallies agreed. So we voted our ballots. Afterwards, the questions droned on and on, so we left.
My issues are all askew, I suppose. I am eager for the city to put in better sunfish in the park pond next door, and to figure out how to reduce the green algae. But that issue isn't even in the board's charge.
Small time democracy is a good thing, I suppose. But I must have a conservative streak--I firmly believe that those home-owners govern best who try to govern each other's lives least.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-13 09:42 pm (UTC)I think the biggest issue they undertook was a decision to paint a handrail yellow or white.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-14 06:33 am (UTC)We are in a small town now, and I am always afraid of the neighborhood rules and how we might offend- like dear husband's truck that broke down directly in front of our house a year ago and whether or not they would make us get rid of it)and the fact that we have a satellite dish.
Some neighborhoods have unwritten rules. The lady that lived in this house before us (it was my late stepfather's house and she was his ex-mother in law. He got the house in the divorce decree but she got the right to live here), told my mother not to let anyone with children or animals live here. Duh- my mom said she would let anyone who could afford the house buy it. Besides, the lady had to be nutty- all these old people love my daughter and my animals.
I think micro-governing's negatives often outweigh its benefits.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-14 07:10 am (UTC)Hey, did you see my new ambient music review "site"?
I'm proud, so I don't mind a little self-promotion! Add me, man!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-14 11:26 am (UTC)It gets interesting when people try to enforce home-owner's association type things through the well/road company. One person collects cars, but tends to keep them under tarps, and has about 10 of them, most haven't been moved in the 2 years I've lived there. Kinda an eyesore, but it's his land, and I only see them when going to/from the house, I can't actually see them from the house. But it got ugly, politically...
Seems like you're more "libertarian" than "conservative", but that's painting with a very broad brush.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets irked about enforcing all the rules, and worries about the enforcement of grass encroaching in the flower beds... :)
give in to your natural instincts
Date: 2003-05-14 02:11 pm (UTC)