They often turn into that. Unfortunately, in many ares you don't have a lot of choice - nearly all new housing is in an HOA, most established "good neighborhoo

They often turn into that. Unfortunately, in many ares you don't have a lot of choice - nearly all new housing is in an HOA, most established "good neighborhoods" are in an HOA, and not enough housing turns over in non-HOA, non-crappy neighborhoods. I became president of ours on a promise to reduce dues and shrink the scope of the HOA as much as possible. It's a giant PITA, but less so than if the crazy, bored and power-hungry types took it over. We remind people with truly out of control maintenance issues to clean it up, and will only get more aggressive on super egregious things. As it should be.