… because, seriously, who wants to live door to door with people who SHARE things? It’s as if Mao’s China moved in next door! Makes you wonder what else they are sharing. Just take their home and get this over with!
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I changed that because, in spite of not being biologically or even legally related there’s nothing preventing them from saying they are a type of family if they want. I learned a long time ago that the saying “you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family” is bullshit. Friends who care about you are your family, and people who may be biologically or legally connected to you who don’t or who mistreat you don’t deserve the term.
With that in mind let me echo that the zoning board needs to mind its own business. And I’d be fine with families like this occupying some of the McMansions in my area. It would beat letting them sit empty because no couples can afford them.
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OOPS! Sorry about the typo in our post. That’s 550 sq. ft. per household member. Sounds like enough to us.
JKL / MHOH
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And you also have universal health care, lots of vacation time and paid maternity leave.
#Commies!
##Fugetaboutit !
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Here’s their indiegogo page.
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Yes—this! The zoning laws should be based on square footage per adult, to do otherwise is ludicrous.
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The thing that really cheeses me off is that the people making a big deal out of this are probably just jealous that a bunch of young punks figured out a way to enjoy a similar standard of living without leveraging all the privilege it normally takes.
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In my experience with some crappy Hartford apartments back in the day, all that takes is some plywood “walls” and maybe a half-arsed attempt to put some wallpaper on it. The inspectors didn’t even care that there were four “apartments” and 3 bathrooms. My friends were convinced that the landlord that lived in the basement by himself (no cat) was using the boxes and boxes of kitty litter he would bring in for his own needs.
Maybe Hartford’s got bigger things to worry about than a couple families sharing a house.
ETA: Missed that this was on Scarborough St: It’s a very snooty neighborhood, lots and lots of old money - I’m not horribly surprised that it was the neighbors that turned them in.
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This neighborhood isn’t far from a few colleges in Hartford, that could have originally been the impetus to try to exclude “undesirables”.
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But she WAS a servant!
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Well, they are all servants of the children. Why not legitimize what every parent can tell you is reality?
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I am going completely off-topic here, so pardon me.
But are four of those guys Edward Snowden’s brothers??
[quote=“robertbos, post:3, topic:53169”]
That would invalidate hundreds of roommate-sharing arrangements near most major universities
[/quote] And that’s what the laws are for, generally: keep the nice places safe from students and poor immigrants.
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That cover story couldn’t fool the zoning board forever. And don’t forget “cousin” Oliver.
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I had occasion to drive an ambulance down a section of Scarborough Street (where the shared mansion of this story sits) last night.
The roadway is in such a state of pothole riddled disrepair that even when slowed to 12 mph it felt as though major damage could happen at any moment. My partner told me that the potholes going the other way on Scarbourough were even worse.
Hartford, CT – Where the government is so busy intruding into your home that it can’t keep the street out front passable.
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We also mustn’t forget that lots of these laws were passed to keep communes of hippies from springing up.
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This sort of thing happens all the time in Silicon Valley and Marin County. 4 or so people get together and share a mansion. You’ve got lots of single people moving in, an existing stock of mostly single family residences, no room to build many apartments, and housing costs that mean it’s impossible to afford your own residence for someone making $100k/year.
A big issue from the landlord’s perspective is that lots of people who were never approved to be on the lease can get squatters rights by living there for a period of time, making it hard to evict them for bad behavior.
The solution is to provide a legal framework for this instead of criminalizing it.
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Uh, what?
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In answer to the paperwork difficulties, might it not work where, at the beginning of each month, person A writes a big paycheck for person B, who is his “servant”. Person B signs it over to person C, who is his servant, etc. Of course, it’s all bullshit, but then, so is this whole situation.
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Well of course. Fixing roads would require [spit] TAXES.
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