The post war boom brought with it growth, wealth and seemingly unlimited possibilities.  Cars and highways made it possible for families to move out to the suburbs in pursuit of the American Dream.  Along with that dream came financial problems for local municipal governments.  The solution, residential associations, then created a whole host of other problems that seem to be getting worse instead of better. HOA living has long been called a failed experiment but despite its many inherent flaws, the last several decades have seen an unstoppable growth in this type of  housing. 
 
In his highly influential first book, “Privatopia:  Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government”, Professor McKenzie chronicled the early years of this new form of housing.  Now, almost two decades later comes the much awaited “Beyond Privatopia: Rethinking Residential Private Government”.
 
Joining us On The Commons is Professor Evan McKenzie.  Evan is a political Science Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he teaches law at John Marshall Law School, is a practicing attorney, a blogger and in his spare time writes books and articles and gives TV and radio interviews.  We’ll talk about the evolution of HOAs, what they have been defined as and what they really are.