Community is what you make it. I’ve been fortunate enough to have great neighbors
It’s missing the part where some boomers complained to the city council about noisy delinquents and got a curfew enacted.
or the head of the HOA giving a $500 fine for the $100 basketball hoop not being approved before “installation”
Yeah i guess we can make up a bunch of shitty what-ifs if you want to lol
This is not the norm. And quite frankly, I’m tired of people stating it as if it was.
BE the change you want in your city. Get informed. Get active, not reactive.
It is 1 billion percent the norm around me. I personally have been fined for three different basketball hoops in two states by boomer ass HoA board members. They (boomers and HoA’s alike) are literally the anti fun police.
I got a hoop. Kids from blocks around played on it. City shut it down.
What city did you live in?
“Why are you setting up mosquito attractors? You don’t have a bug zapper.”
“To keep those nosey HOA dipshits from hanging around the edge of my property looking for things to complain about.”
“That’s not nice…”
“No, it’s not. But it’s legal.”
At least it’s not bear lure.
Why do you choose to live in an HOA?
It’s not really a choice when accounting for location and affordability. Sometimes it’s HOA or renting forever… or renting in an HOA if you’re truly damned.
Same reason I “choose” to work for a shitty employer or do business with a shitty company or live in a shitty city/state/country - sometimes my options are limited and I can’t afford to opt out of society entirely. When it comes to HoAs, in the area I live my options were severely diminished. Choosing a house without one means that I’d just be complaining about some other compromise I felt forced to make.
Most new build neighborhoods in the last 2-3 decades are part of an HOA. Finding a house not contractually part of one is not the norm
Its not always that simple. Finding newer construction by me that is not part of an HOA is borderline impossible, and anything older that might predate the HOA-ification of new developments are still priced close to the new contruction because the locations are usually much more desirable, even if theyre literally a full gut or straight up unfixable and have to be knocked down.
My wife and I spent well over a year looking for a house that was within the price range of a “normal” house for here because I told our agent right off the bat that I do not want to live in an HOA due to bad experiences with my last one, which was $1000 a year for literally nothing paid to a corporation based on the other side of the country that literally just manages HOAs.
The 1000 bucks a year for mowing the common areas that never got mowed, clearing the paths of snow that never got cleared, and taking care of the plantings at the signs at the periphery of our neighborhood that were dead withon a month of being planted due to lack of care. So yeah, done with HOAs lol…and I had a “cheap” one.
Not all HOAs are bad. You just hear about the bad ones because people who live in good ones don’t complain at every opportunity.
There’s just one school-age kid living on my block for several years now. It’s a little sad, he has no one to play with, but he’s often outside in the afternoon while his mom smokes pot in the garage.
That’s terrible.
His mom should share her pot.
What a cunty bitch! Who raised that woman?!?
I’m not sure if it’s what you were implying but without anymore detail, I don’t really see a problem with that.
It’s kind of the same as having a beer out in the yard while your kid plays? Maybe you’re not directly playing with them but you’re hanging out with them as they play. I’d have been perfectly happy with having that as a kid
Thing like that happened in my neighborhood a couple of years ago - city council decided to tear down one of the bench spots and make a skate park instead. people fucking hated it and even protested the construction site. but now it is full of kids and teenagers literally all the time and every now and then you can even catch an actual music concert or literary reading and its a bustling place all round.
Kids don’t play outside anymore in the US because streets have been designed primarily for cars.
That was true back in the day when kids played outside.
The sad truth is that a cul-de-sac hoop is a massive and instant property value killer. Most, if not all, HOA rules in high priced neighborhoods prohibit them, and many prohibit front driveway hoops too.
Yet another reason to never live in an area with an HOA
Ya, this is an hoa problem not a cul de sac problem.
It’s so sad that HOAs are like that over there, because in principle they could be just as good a thing as what the xheet is about. Bureaucratic, yes, but basically about community. We have HOAs here, and they make questionable decisions, too, but they never meddle like this.
The US have an extraordinary ability to ruin anything. Things are either capitalised or policed
Good ones exist, you just don’t hear about them.
Oh noes, bUt tHiNk of tHe eCoNoMy
How
So, these groups of neighbors spend all of their time telling homeowners what they can put in their yards instead of lobbying their local government. Whoever accomplished that coup must be very proud of themselves.
HOAs can be ridiculous. A colleague was forced to repaint his dining room because the red walls could be seen from the street when the curtains were drawn.
Where was the Mouseguard? Defend Redwall(s)!
That makes no sense. HOAs have no say over home interior, only exterior property and maintenance.
I hope your colleague took them to court over this.
Many things are accomplished extrajudicially when it comes to HOAs. They’ll make threats, hire lawyers, etc, and generally make the case its worth the time and/or money being compliant, even if they don’t have any basis. They know, that’s not the point.
I personally love when it backfires and HOAs bankrupt themselves with lawyer fees.
Before I read the post text I was going to yell “Fake!” because surely a Karen would ruin this.
…
What’s the meaning of the past tense there? “I’ve been fortunate enough”
- Guy sets up hoop
- Kids play basketball with hoop
- Kid twists his ankle playing basketball
- Hoop is removed as a safety hazard
- Guy sued by parents (optional but likely)
Yep, also likely is someone is driving and can’t park their ultra power diesel 4x4 placebo truck into their garage and demands the hoop be taken down, running over a kid optional in that case, and karens all get together saying how dangerous it is for kids to be playing in the street.
OR, old couple get mad at children laughing, they control the HOA with an iron fist, and pass new bylaws saying no obstacles in parking spaces or something. Kids go back to loitering at gas station and causing trouble, so older people can say “kids these days, never play outside anymore”.
I’m jaded, but as an example. We had a youth center that our town made for kids so they wouldn’t be hooligans and have a place for them. Well, the seniors noticed this nice open building was just empty, claimed it was a waste of money, and started going there during school days. Which started fine, until eventually they stayed later and later until school got out and those pesky kids came by. So naturally, the seniors demanded that it no longer be a youth center but instead a senior center. So it was changed. Ending of that story is eventually those seniors got bored, stopped going, and now it sits empty.
More like
- Guy sets up hoop
- Kids play basketball
- Crazy person thinks they’re too loud.
- Crazy person calls cops.
- Cops do nothing.
- Crazy person kills kids.
Jesus, where the fuck do you live.
Yes, that’s where I live, too. Most of us are pretty chill. Our gun laws are ridiculous, which is why stuff like that happens, but the vast majority of us are not walking around and shooting children.
As a Canadian(and not the guy you replied to) I can pretty comfortably say that I don’t trust the US at all and “the vast majority” is not nearly good enough. Thank goodness I’m not a person of colour because it’s wild how frequently people will shot those folks through their door for the crime of knocking on it.
Fuck the US.
Nowhere close to where this would happen. But I’ve watched The Perfect Neighbor
crazy person also drives by every day with LED headlights and flash bangs every living room in sight, while idling their car for over ten minutes every morning in the winter
because it’s not about what’s actually intrusive, it’s about their own selfish concerns
“I’ve been” usually implies a “so far” and is broader than strict present tense (includes previous places of residence). Another way to phrase it could be “I’m fortunate enough to have had great neighbors everywhere I’ve lived”
Thanks for explaining. English is my second language, and I’ve forgotten that present perfect can describe actions that are still ongoing.
i’m assuming that they don’t get a constant influx of new neighbors, so the fortune is in the past.
I moved recently. Looking forward to starting it up again in my new neighborhood
We have a few kids in the neighborhood that are close enough in age to hang out. Initially you hear everyone complain that kids never play outside anymore. Well, they all found each other and started playing outside. When that started, a whole different group of neighbors complained about all the kids being unsafe and loud in the streets. To be clear, these kids watch for cars, don’t damage yards, and generally just try to keep to themselves. I understand why kids prefer to be in of doors where they can just get on discord with their buddies.
If you let your kids out you get arrested. https://youtu.be/AzZE422gJP4
But isn’t it just easier to point at the problem and complain online about it?
