Right. It’s a fun thing to spot as you go. Like the hillbilly castle on I-80 eastbound just after Cirby in Roseville.
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It sure does! And with that kind of alliterative whimsy, I can think of no better name to take over the space.
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I think it’s cool and kitschy; it’s not unkempt or unclean, or in any way a danger to public health & safety.
So unfuck her neighbors if they don’t like it; I hope they lose.
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I am an american, and I will never understand most americans.
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Sure but installing giant sculptures on a hillside in earthquake country is going to require proper foundations (that she doesn’t have) and those will require a permit.
I don’t mind displays like this. It lets me know which houses to tell my kids to stay away from.
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Haha, wut?
So if there’s an earthquake what’s going to happen? They fall over on the lawn?
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Isn’t that exactly their complaint? It doesn’t meet the community standards for bland boringness that their town council demands. Someone may experience a moment of joy (aka sin) in their day to day life! Think of the children!
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She has them on giant concrete slabs. It appears the statues are fiberglass and relatively light. She also has them visibly chained down in the pictures.
HOAs ban much more mundane stuff than this all day long. They’ll make rules about the exact shade of beige you are allowed to use on your front door. Membership in an HOA is usually considered voluntary (you can move) and they aren’t the government so they can get away with a lot.
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Talk about desecrating the flag.
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I’m viewing that as an ironic display, and there is fork all they can do to stop me. 
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“Happy by Thought! Happy by Word! Happy by Deed!”
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Speaking of Flinstones, anyone go to that park in the Southwest? I think it’s in Arizona?
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Even better.
Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you’ll find her
A-sunning in the sun!
It’s long after midnight
Her key’s in the lock,
And you never see her chimney smoke
Til past ten o’clock!
She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon,
She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream,
She forgets she borrowed butter
Any pays you back in cream!
Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne’s lace!
–Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Portrait By A Neighbor”
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HOA’s and local government continually illustrate a very valid point about power and democracy:
-
People who want power go for power
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People normally only vote for candidates on the ballot
If we don’t want jerkoffs running the place, maybe we should start running as candidates.
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As someone who had (extended, awful) family who lived in Hillsbourough growing up, this does not surprise me one bit. The town is chock full of Boomer millionaires (and wanna-be millionaires) who have no sense of joy or taste besides getting a more expensive BMW than their neighbors just got. May the next earthquake spare nothing in Hillsbourough but the house and dino friends.
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Under US law a HOA isn’t covered by free speech protections and a municipality can regulate signage and displays as far as form goes, as long as they are content neutral.
A HOA can usually ban all but a very small number of things, because it is considered a matter of contract law rather than government restraint, but even a government zoning board would probably be able to successfully ban that under zoning rules as long as they banned based on the physical characteristics (large freestanding sign) and not the content.
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Controlling excessive noise I get, you can’t very well “avert your ears” the way you can with your eyes. And controlling use of residential spaces for commercial purposes. But I do shake my head at not wanting people to do what they will visually with their home and lawn (within the bounds of nudity/obscenity/morality…y’know, if it’s the front yard)
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You’d be wrong. Most HOAs have a term in the CC&Rs about political signs. Our HOA allows one sign up to 2’ x 2’, max height of 5’, on your own property, and only during election season. If someone has a problem with that rule, they can buy a house somewhere else.
ETA: Some HOAs are run by control freaks, but a properly run HOA really just acts as a deterrent to really stupid shit. Just the barrier of forcing people to put together a proposal for the work they are doing stops some really dumb ideas in their tracks.
Full disclosure: I was the ARC chair for our HOA for a few years. It’s not much work. The biggest problem was with people doing work without getting it reviewed by the ARC. The second was people who insisted that something their neighbor was doing was wrong, when it was fine. The worst proposal I reviewed was a backyard smelter. THAT did not get approved.
The biggest controversy was when someone wanted to put a picket fence around their front yard. It was against the CC&Rs, but I understand where they were coming from; their primary motivation was keeping people from letting their dogs poop in their front yard and not cleaning it up. I rejected it, but suggested that they put it up for a vote to amend the CC&Rs. Oops. That HOA meeting was a shitshow (pun intended). Lots of yelling and people storming off, accusations flying. In the end (rimshot), I think it turned out for the better, as I haven’t had to clean up poop on my front lawn in years. It was duly noted that a lot of people have security cameras on their property these days, and that someone who was documented as not cleaning up after their dog was subject to fine under the CC&Rs. We put up some doggy doo bag stations around the neighborhood and everyone lived happily ever after.
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