# The evil that homeowners do **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 2, 2000, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534 "2000-04-02T23:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shagrath\_Borgir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@Shagrath\_Borgir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagrath_Borgir)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/21 "2000-04-04T02:56:00Z")
\ To quote George Carlin… > [@](#): > > We’ve got a thing in this country called “NIMBY”, you’ve heard of it, NOT IN MY BACK YARD! People are so against something that will help anyone else, even if it’s something they believe in! Like prisons, they say " **BUILD MORE PRISONS!!!** …but not _here_. I would think that’d make the crime rate go down! You think a bunch of pimps and crack heads are gonna be hanging out in front of a prison?! And what if one or two people do escape what do you think they are gonna do, _hang around_?! Check _real estate trends_?!?!?! Bullshit, the whole idea of breaking out of prison is to get the fuck as far away as you possibly can! \ 😃 * * * “Through twilight, darkness and moonrise My scarlet tears will run As stolen blood and whispered love Of fantasies undone” ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/22 "2000-04-04T11:21:00Z")
But they might steal your car to get away in. More rants:Subdivisions. What’s the idea? I liked the old grid city plans. Waferboard.The subdivisions will only last 30 years, as long as the waferboard roofs etc hold up. ---
**Author:** ![Glenoled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Glenoled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glenoled)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/23 "2000-04-04T13:50:00Z")
I think the “white-flight” phenomena can be summed up this way: Percieved property value is, say, $200k… African-American family moves in. Home owners in the neighborhood panic, and put their homes on the market. Since they want to sell it as quickly as possible, they’ll take damn near any offer that comes to them. \<— \THAT\ is what lowers the property value. (Boy, all those houses in that neighborhood are selling cheap, these days, aren’t they? property value must have gone down.) Now, that’s just a theory off the top of my head… how close to base am I? * * * I don’t suffer from insanity… I enjoy every minute of it! ---
**Author:** ![aenea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@aenea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenea)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/24 "2000-04-04T14:22:00Z")
Some of you are just full of shit today. My husband and I just bought a house - in a neighborhood that has {gasp} folk of the colored persuasion. ## Not all white people are as ignorant as you make us out to be. Carpe Jugulum ---
**Author:** ![RonaldBarnhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@RonaldBarnhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RonaldBarnhardt)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/25 "2000-04-04T14:33:00Z")
We live in the southeast, on the outskirts of a large city. White flight does not exist. Our subdivision is about 60% white, 20% black and about 20% hispanic. Our property values have gone up about 5% a year consistently for almost ten years. A reasonably priced home will sell in about two weeks. I cannot thick of a “white” area in or around my city. The south has come a long way indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/26 "2000-04-04T15:40:00Z")
I think there are also two seperate issues. On one hand, I’m talking about “Low-income” housing. Those housing units that have people on welfare, or other government subsidized income. You’re talking about people that move because someone of color moves in next door. Those are two different issues. I could care less what color the people down the street are, but I’d fight like hell to keep a section 8 houseing area going up. ---
**Author:** ![eden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@eden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eden)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/27 "2000-04-05T05:28:00Z")
I live in Florida…my neighborhood is maybe 60/30/10 white/black/hispanic. Our values have just increased over the last five years. I think it’s actually kind of odd, considering the generally large latino population here, that there aren’t more in my neighborhood. [hijack] My only rant is not with homeowners but with the neighborhood associations that restrict a lot of things and can be petty beyond belief. Don’t get me wrong, I’m GLAD they don’t let people paint their houses hot pink (oh, it happens!) or park their eighteen cars in their yard, but sometimes things happen that are so absurd, they’re hard to comprehend. Case in point: recently, the development built a park, complete with lots of climbing and swinging-type objects for the kiddies to frolic on. The showstopper? The slide was shaped like a large purple dragon. Now, even though this park is (1) not viewable from anyone’s house or future house, and (2) for KIDS, for crying out loud, the adults in the association put on an incredible two-month display of whiny peevishness and insisted that the dragon too closely resembled Barney the Dinosaur, and such a monstrosity MUST be repainted to exist in this elite community. (And no, it was not a legal issue at all.) I could not believe that letters to the editor poured in, day after day, complaining about the purple dragon. JFTR, there are so many more important issues the area faces, like the fact that we have a four-lane, four-way stop at a busy intersection that has been approved for and DESPERATELY needs a light before someone is killed, or water issues, or zoning laws. But no, all eyes had to focus on a slide, for kids, that resembles (faintly) a cartoon character kids love, so adults could show how cool they are, they don’t like Barney! So, the damn dragon is now green, and there’s still no light at the intersection. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534/28 "2000-04-05T05:32:00Z")
> [@](#): > > When you want to buy a house, to raise your kids, and support your local schools, where do you want to do it? Next to a local tavern? Or surrounded by other neighbors who are seeking the same things that you are? What would be wrong with living by a tavern? I live several blocks away from one, and every time I go by it, it has people drinking and socializing, occasionally music playing, and sometimes a guy outside that wants to shine shoes. I can’t imagine anything that goes on there being bad for families nearby - maybe taverns in your areas have gunfights every day, but around here, people just drink in them. No problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evil-that-homeowners-do/15534.md?page=1)