5 ms·

Here's one thing I don't understand: how did it get this way? It seems like a generational thing, but I can't relate at all to people's petty concerns about ne

by tdeck 4y ago

Here's one thing I don't understand: how did it get this way? It seems like a generational thing, but I can't relate at all to people's petty concerns about neighbors' lawn maintenance and paint colors and AC units. It's waning now but evidently there were several decades in American culture where these things were of paramount importance to a vast swath of the population. Why? Has anyone read a good book about this phenomenon?

BeetleB 4y ago
I honestly don't know. I always assumed racism was a significant factor at some point (let's make rules that seem innocent but target a particular demographic). From what I can find on the Internet, while they existed for over 100 years, they were rare. The main growth of HOAs has been since the 60's, as people moved to the suburbs.
- emodendroket 4y ago
  Suburban development requires new infrastructure to serve a relatively small number of homes so it is logical that we'd see more of them if more people are living in suburbs.
dangerlibrary 4y ago
"The Color of Law" covers it a bit. HOAs became popular as a means to enforce racial covenants on property deeds after courts ruled that the only parties "harmed" (and therefore with standing to bring a suit) when a racial covenant was violated were the previous deed holders. Previous deed holders often were no longer around / didn't care if their house was now owned by someone with an incorrect amount of melanin in their skin. HOAs were a legal entity that could be a party to the lawsuit that suffered harm from the breach of the racial covenants, occasionally succeeding in getting courts to evict the new owners. This is why you so often hear that their purpose is "protecting property values" - the concern was that property values would tank when black and brown people moved to the neighborhood. This was a valid concern, not solely because of any racial animus on the part of the neighbors (though there was plenty of that to go around). When any black and brown people moved in, the Federal Housing Administration might redline the neighborhood, and then nobody could get FHA loans to buy a house there. Once the Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned racial covenants and curbed the practice of redlining explicitly based on race, their usefulness in court rapidly declined. I assume dues were still collected and there were still meetings to attend, and so they started inventing new ways of harassing undesirable neighbors...
kneebonian 4y ago
It's very simple. Imagine the people with the least amount going on in their lives, the pettiest most small people, the people whose children refuse to talk to them because they are narcissistic nutcases, the people who don't have any friends because people can't stand to be around them, the people who when they see you driving quickly purposefully slowdown and get this feeling of satisfaction and moral superiority. The people that in older days would've ended up getting punched in the face regularly. Take those people and give them a legal mechanism to pass any rule they want, to inflict terror upon their neighbors and to control their lives at the threat of their homes. It's pretty easy how it quickly becomes a situation in which "Reasonable men must sometimes do unreasonable things"[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer

by tdeck 4y ago

BeetleB 4y ago

I honestly don't know. I always assumed racism was a significant factor at some point (let's make rules that seem innocent but target a particular demographic). From what I can find on the Internet, while they existed for over 100 years, they were rare. The main growth of HOAs has been since the 60's, as people moved to the suburbs.

emodendroket 4y ago
Suburban development requires new infrastructure to serve a relatively small number of homes so it is logical that we'd see more of them if more people are living in suburbs.

dangerlibrary 4y ago

"The Color of Law" covers it a bit. HOAs became popular as a means to enforce racial covenants on property deeds after courts ruled that the only parties "harmed" (and therefore with standing to bring a suit) when a racial covenant was violated were the previous deed holders. Previous deed holders often were no longer around / didn't care if their house was now owned by someone with an incorrect amount of melanin in their skin. HOAs were a legal entity that could be a party to the lawsuit that suffered harm from the breach of the racial covenants, occasionally succeeding in getting courts to evict the new owners. This is why you so often hear that their purpose is "protecting property values" - the concern was that property values would tank when black and brown people moved to the neighborhood. This was a valid concern, not solely because of any racial animus on the part of the neighbors (though there was plenty of that to go around). When any black and brown people moved in, the Federal Housing Administration might redline the neighborhood, and then nobody could get FHA loans to buy a house there. Once the Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned racial covenants and curbed the practice of redlining explicitly based on race, their usefulness in court rapidly declined. I assume dues were still collected and there were still meetings to attend, and so they started inventing new ways of harassing undesirable neighbors...

kneebonian 4y ago

It's very simple. Imagine the people with the least amount going on in their lives, the pettiest most small people, the people whose children refuse to talk to them because they are narcissistic nutcases, the people who don't have any friends because people can't stand to be around them, the people who when they see you driving quickly purposefully slowdown and get this feeling of satisfaction and moral superiority. The people that in older days would've ended up getting punched in the face regularly. Take those people and give them a legal mechanism to pass any rule they want, to inflict terror upon their neighbors and to control their lives at the threat of their homes. It's pretty easy how it quickly becomes a situation in which "Reasonable men must sometimes do unreasonable things"[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer