Ah, the ubiquitous HOA mandated Morale Suppression Initiative.
Helpful in crafting and guiding these young neer-do-wells along the path towards cranky old grump, just like the complainer has attained.
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I know when I took Property Law a few years ago, over 70% of all new home construction was under an HOA. In some areas, it’s closer to 100%. The best way to avoid an HOA is to buy an older home in an older neighborhood. That comes with its own problems, though, of course.
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I don’t know about American football, but when 5 year olds play an organised game of association football you usually end up with a bunch of children chasing after the ball while there are two kids stuck in goal.
That’s assuming the goalkeepers don’t go all Jorge Campos and join in the mass ball chase.
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I know, right? 45 Minutes walk to the nearest shop, but you can’t walk because none of the roads have pavements and you’d have to cross a wide stroad with no pedestrian crossing points to get there anyway.
And no word on how long it takes to get downtown, because there is no downtown, it’s just a swathe of golf courses, strip malls and beachfront housing alll the way to the state border.
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It’s the same, except without the 2 kids stuck in goal because American football doesn’t have that position. So it’s a bunch of kids chasing the person with the ball, and dog piling each other.
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HOAs in situations where there aren’t any common infrastructure elements or amenities to be maintained tend to attract the worst kind of petty tyrants, who are focused on the community only insofar as it affects the quality of their own lives or the value of their own detached homes.
This is a good example. The killjoys didn’t do anything to maintain the field until the kids – lacking a walkable public park – gravitated toward playing there. Now, all of a sudden they’re planting trees (in a an effort to impede free play).
I know how that story ends.
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Jumpers for goalposts?
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Looks to be largely swampland, so they probably can’t play field sports at any rate.
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Let the children boogie!
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If it was anything like the parts of SC I grew up in, there are snakes a plenty (many venomous), poison ivy, spiders, mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers, ticks, and probably something rabid. Very much exploration territory, not organized games.
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To be fair,* isn’t this exactly what homeowners associations are for - weaponizing NIMBYism?
*“fair”
That is an accurate description of America, yes.
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HOAs get taken over by Karen types because the regular folks are too busy living a normal life.
We had a HOA start getting out of hand and once they ticked off enough people, we went to the next HOA meeting, voted the bastards out of office and went back to being neighbors again.
Just like government politics, if the good folks don’t take part, the douchebags take over.
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Looking at the Google Maps of this place, it’s clear that there is not a single patch of community grass without a pond or trees & shrubs in the middle for MILES, despite there being hundreds of close-packed houses. I don’t wonder that it’s an attractive place to the kids who want to play sports games. (Plenty of fucking golf fairways, though.)
If I were on that HOA I’d suggest moving the plantings to the edges of the other nearby circles so that the kids have more choices.
Also, the article says that residents “pushed for a cease and desist” but there’s no indication that the HOA caved to the push, unless I’m misreading.
What kind of community approves tracts like this without open space? One who has politicians bought and paid for by real estate developers.
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I don’t think open space is a requirement at all, at least it wasn’t on the one I managed. Ours also passed a rule about not allowing kids to play in the open areas which I thought was staggeringly stupid. And I was on the board (and voted against the measure, obviously). I said they were welcome to come fine me, as me and my kids would continue to do so.
Our closest area for open play was a really nice sports field, but it was around 2 miles away.
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Obligatory…
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Literally the only value of a lawn is that children can play on it. Otherwise it’s a large amount of maintenance to make sure bees have nothing to pollinate and rabbits only have less tasty leaves to nibble.
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FTFY
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My county is famously liberal, even for Maryland. It requires playgrounds and open spaces, sidewalks, and “Moderately Priced Dwelling Units” in every development over a certain number of units. Developers can’t use all the available space for houses, no matter how profitable.
“Staggeringly stupid” it is. Have you been fined?
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Won’t someone think of the children!
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