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Comment by Workaccount2 | Hacker News Reader

The people who most commonly hold views like this are people who live deep in the sticks. It's ideal policy for people who live in a vacuum.

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Current laws in many places do a pretty good job of accounting for that - you have a lot of leeway in your backyard, but more limits on what you can do in places visible from the street.

In my neighborhood, with lot sizes around 6000-9000 square feet, this seems like a reasonable compromise.

I live in an area with similar lot sizes, and front yards are gardens, gaudy makeshift gift shops, junkyards, art displays... it is pure chaos. I would not have it any other way. Keeps the HOA types from moving in.

Funnily enough, that's pretty close to the way it's seen "out in the sticks".

I'm happy to live next door to a grumpy old dude with six derelict cars rotting in his back yard. It keeps my property value low, which in turn keeps my taxes low and keeps the type of people away who would otherwise have an issue with my doing metalworking in my own workshop because of the noise.

I don’t live in the sticks and I don’t have a view like this at all..

Literally, the sights and sounds of the neighbor running a garbage dump is less reprehensible to me than dealing with a bunch of racist busybodies in an HOA. At least if you have a problem with the neighbor, you you can put on some headphones or build a privacy hedge. If you have a problem with the HOA they can fine you indefinitely because they don’t like you (with some convenient excuse like the flower beds aren’t trimmed right or the grass isn’t green enough), and then foreclose on your house, kicking you out on to the street.

Today HOAs hit older people more than anyone else. So, yeah, there are busybodies who complain about noise and complain about lawns and house paint.... do you know who they tend to be, immigrant professionals who've bought their first house and use the HOA to get the old folks who are slower and now of lesser means busy keeping up with the bylaws.

The irony of this is the only real solution, in a property rights framework, if you care so deeply about the aesthetics of your neighbors is to live on a large tract of land. It's totally backwards.

I believe the traditional American solution is a "homeowners association" where some neighbourhoods strictly police the length of your lawn, other neighbourhoods don't, and you can choose when buying your home which type of neighbourhood you want.

They implement this entirely through covenants and deed restrictions, with no state involvement at all, as I understand things.

Exactly. Since all member property owners voluntarily restrict their own deeds, nobody is forced to do anything. It's completely voluntary, unlike town bylaws that can oppress minorities, like those who fix cars on their own property. These bylaws are clearly subsidies, because if you'd have to bribe those who aren't disposed to agree otherwise.

That’s it. I live in middle of our city in an increasingly rare SFH-zoned neighborhood, one of three adjacent in our community council. Two have covenants, mine does not. Had a choice to buy in either, I chose the no-covenant one. We have a lady walking her two goats down the street periodically, one neighbor used to have an old square body pickup in side yard with a tree growing up through engine compartment (hood long gone). I like it. My friend across the way in other neighborhood tells me laughable stories of enforcement letters and such. To each their own. Choice is good - I like this approach better than city-wide laws. One of my key political principles is that laws should be as local as possible and the need skeptically examined.

I live in the bay area suburbs. Broken down cars in neighbors yards all around me. Idgaf. They paid for it and can use it as they please.

These are homes. Property value whiners need to find a neighborhood of empty investment houses to police.

I keep my property simple and tidy, but if anyone dared complain about it I would seek out the most absurd yard art possible in hopes of offending them and anyone that thinks like them out of my neighborhood.

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