You’re not likely to see tractors, but you’ll be able to take your Macbook to the Genius Bar.
Sometimes BoingBoing’s reaction to anyplace not on the U.S. coasts makes me think of that guy I met in college who thought everyone in Africa lives in grass huts, or people who think that Texas is all cattle ranches and oilfields.
We’re talking about a KC suburb where the median household income is double the national average, which means this kid’s more a victim of affluenza than anything.
Fair enough. But if what you say about the town in question is true, it sounds pretty insufferable. I never really understood gated communities or restrictive covenants. And these things have a long and pretty dubious history connected to segregation. So yeah. Lawn gnones never hurt anyone, though.
Most dumb hicks I know are suburbanites with too much money sunk into fancy trucks and Harleys. Dumb hickness has become a pose, an intentional choice.
smh More fascist “nanny-state” government intrusion in the so-called “land of the free”!
WHEN (and where) will it END? When will the majority of the people put down their iPhones, and Xboxes, and rise up against the rapidly-increasing tyranny in the world!
Crap like this is EXACTLY why I created & run Occupy Our Yards (http://www.facebook.com/OccupyOurYards) for like-minded people to band together to reclaim OUR yards!
If you are sick & tired of corrupt, fascist corporate-controlled municipal governments and Hitler-esque HOA’s (Homeowner’s Associations) constantly bossing you around, controlling every aspect of people’s lives – including dictating how they can use THEIR OWN yards that they paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for, and deserve to be able to use AS THEY SEE FIT (within reason – barring extreme/dangerous uses like building a toxic nuclear waste dump in a residential neighborhood) then 'like" the “Occupy Our Yards” Facebook page to join a new grass-roots (no pun intended!) community made up of people who are just plain FED UP – and END the FASCIST “nanny-state” government intrusion into EVERY ASPECT of people’s lives!!
Even though I did live in an area with a fairly active (though not over bearing) HOA, yeah, I am with you. I’d rather not live in really restrictive areas. I understand the point of trying to keep things nice and not bring down property values, but there is also a lot of room for abuse from HOAs. Some of them can really fuck you over if you get on their bad side.
[quote=“aamladi, post:86, topic:34896”]
Crap like this is EXACTLY why I created & run Occupy Our Yards [/quote]
Yeah, but HOA tyranny can be largely avoided by not moving there.
My ex-wife use to waitress at a restaurant Burroughs frequented.
I live in the KC metro area and I can confirm that code enforcement is serious business in some of these neighborhoods. For example, these are two real complaints submitted to the planning office of one of the local municipalities.
Homeowner goes out to get newspaper dressed each day as a different “Village People”. One day a cop, the next a cowboy…I am just wondering what is next, the Indian? Please not the biker.
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Homeowner is pruning his bushes to represent the members of the “village people”. If it was the beatles or the rolling stones I would not mind, but come on…the village people. I can’t even go out in my yard without feeling like somebody is watching me. It’s a little spooky.
Here’s a new video that shows that ACTUAL neighborhood this took place in. It turns out that the mom and son in the family (not the son alone) erected the library on Mother’s Day. She’s a teacher and likes the idea of “getting books into people’s hands”. Also, the little library (a tiny thing) is full of children’s books.
The code the city’s enforcing is “no free-standing structures in the front yard”. They’re basing the decision on four walls and a roof alone. So, the family can attach it to their house, but that’s well away from the street, and would be hard to see. I wonder what the signage codes are in their area?
If there’s one thing I’ve noticed on this website, first there’s the knee-jerk reaction, then a lot of 'splainin when people get called out on their crap.
What I see in this thread is a lot of bullcrap joking about how those goofy Kansans are just against readin’ because there might be some of that librul learnin’ involved.
I don’t know about tipping, but I guess he had that kinda creepy old man voice of his. He was nice though. It’s rather odd this sort of beatnik pioneer ended up in Lawrence, KS to end his days.
I’ll admit that that was my mental image of Africa for quite a while. The only times I’d see Africa mentioned on TV were commercials pleading for money to feed a malnourished kid or to treat someone with leprosy. That and whatever war was going on at the time. They’d never mention or show large cities with normal houses, normal apartments and chain restaurants.
Don’t really care about your experience when I see too many “dumb hicks” who live in the suburbs spouting bullshit as if they were mountain men opening up the frontier by fighting the man by buying all their dumb expensive bullshit from the GM/gunporium/Walmart superstore.
It’s not a real thing, it’s just a pose based on a rejection of outside information. It’s fine if that’s your thing, but don’t claim that it’s a real thing outside of a protected enclave.
Dude… what horseshit? I live in the south… you think I don’t get sick of people dogging on the south all the time, at times for no reason. While I’m happy to defend people here when it’s warranted, sometimes some southerners can be assholes - racist, backwards, stubborn, overly religious, bigoted assholes. Sometimes it’s a good idea to point that out. And that doesn’t mean such people can’t be on the coasts, too. Because they are.
This whole story smacks of jerks being mean. Why shouldn’t we mock them for call the authorities on a kids mini-library? It’s a shitty thing to do. If you really think that’s about the “snobs” at boing boing putting down middle America, go ahead, but you’re kind of wrong on that point in this case.
