When we first moved into our home in Silver Creek we got a visit from one of the community security officers. The house next door to us was vacant, but the owner had not yet put it on the market. He would come by weekly to mow the yard and check on things, and this time around, he found that someone had defaced the sidewalk.
At the time, both my kids were in middle school at Connally, and apparently, that was enough to trigger suspicion that my kids could be the culprits. I never did harbor any ill feelings toward the neighbor or security for jumping to such a conclusion; after all, we were new people moving in from “the barrio” where graffiti is as common as stray dogs. But make no mistake, graffiti is not something that I would ever take lightly, and my kids know it. And once the security officer and the neighbor next door had a chance to meet me and my family, they knew it was not related to us.
But that little incident left me with mixed emotions regarding the new ‘hood. First, some dumbass kids were out there writing graffiti on the sidewalks, which was very much part of the reason we moved. On the other hand, instead of me having to be the “lone ranger” dealing with it by confronting little hood rats on my own, there were security people on the job, which made me pretty happy. And as I posted earlier, the whole Home Owner Association and all the order and such that comes with it was a big factor in why we selected Silver Creek.
I recall seeing a story on the news years ago about how some guy had painted his house this bizarre shade of green – like chartreuse or something. The HOA took his ass to court and threatened to seize his property if he didn’t come to his senses and paint his house a normal color.
But “normal”, by whose standards? Yes, it is a double-edged sword, but I know what side I’m gonna be on if my neighbor up and paints his house in some psychedelic color pattern.
Another HOA tried to sue a lady who painted a US flag on her garage door. Hey, I’m as patriotic as the next guy and we fly both the US and Texas flags at our house, but your garage door needs to look like a garage door, not some wall mural in the center of the projects.
So anyway, I’ve taken a pretty long way around the barn, as John Wayne might say, to make it clear that I’m a big fan of the idea of an HOA. So you’d think that I would attend the monthly meetings or participate in some way. But I don’t. And other than sending a check every month and seeing the security patrol driving up and down my street several times a day and night, I am totally oblivious to what these people do with my money. As long as there are no chickens running in the neighbor’s yard, no psychodelic colored paint schemes and no graffiti on my sidewalk, I am one happy camper.
But apparently, not everyone else feels the same way I do.
The Great Northwest which is the bigger umbrella community of which Silver Creek is just one participating sub-division, has an “official” newspaper, an “official” web site, and, imagine this, a competing “unofficial” newspaper and “unofficial” web site. Further, it turns out that the board of directors of the HOA is made up of two factions who apparently have an ongoing feud like the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s.
So, I try to keep up on community events by reading the propaganda issued by both factions, and frankly, it is clear that we have a lot of cranky people involved, but other than one group is offended by the other group, I hadn’t found a whole lot of substance to what the complaints were.
That was until I read some of the materials printed by the “unofficial” faction. According to their own propaganda, this one guy, who I should note is a candidate for one of the board of director positions, has an ongoing lawsuit against the HOA. Okay, I’m not sure what my HOA did to piss this guy off, but I know now that not only is he suing them, he wants me to vote for him so he can replace them. And then what - drop his lawsuit?
It gets better.
And this is based on the literature provided by this guy’s own team. The man in question, one Guy D. Pucci, has already spent $60,000.00 on the lawsuit against the HOA that he wants to sit on the board of.
WTF?
Let me get this right. This man has spent $60K of his own money in such a frivolous manner (my opinion), and now he wants me to trust him with my portion of the HOA assets? The hell you say.
Sir, if you have $60,000.00 lying around in an envelope under the mattress and you suddenly don’t like the people running the HOA, that kind of cash would make a good down payment on a house in a much better neighborhood than this one!
Good God, Mr. Pucci! Did you win the lottery and suddenly go nuts like all the other people who win huge prizes? What’s next; fully functioning quarter scale matching Lamborghini’s for the grandkids?
I am a guy who does a lot of things purely for the principal of it, but forgive me if my jaw drops in your general direction.
So, my next door neighbor, a very reasonable, smart thinking person recognizing that this little feud is going to carry on until some new blood can get involved to offer a change in point of view, has selflessly accepted the nomination of the people on our street to run for one of the board positions.
I hope he gets elected.
But if he does, I hope the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s don’t take it out on our street by purchasing $60,000.00 worth of spray paint and turning it into a graffiti covered gang zone.
I’ll let you know what happens. If you live in Silver Creek and would like to offer your point of view, or if you have an HOA story of your own, e-mail me.
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