Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
Theoretically if we pool our resources, share in the costs, even the most modest of Americans can live just like the rich and famous we see in the movies.  With that in mind, recreational amenities were dreamed up, designed and made part of the projects of the future.  Swimming pools, golf courses, tennis courts, jogging and riding trails, hangars are part of this new fangled private world we have all been delegated to.  So what is so terrible about having access to a pool?  And horse lovers are drawn to places with stables and riding trails and golf course views command premiums.  Welcome to the dwelling units of the future.  What possible downsides could there be?
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Jan Bergmann.  Jan, the energetic president of the Florida based Cyber Citizens for Justice (ccfj.net) has his finger on the pulse of the issues facing Florida’s condo and HOA residents.  In addition to presiding over CCFJ  , Jan has been a panelist at many Town Hall meetings, maintains a blog for the Sun Sentinel and works with legislators to enact homeowner friendly legislation.  Please join us On The Commons. We’ll get caught up on the news, talk about property values and find out just how well all those amenity loaded projects are doing. 

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
 We have been told repeatedly that homeowner associations protect property values.  With that in mind, many Americans have been willing to trade control over their homes for the promise of enhanced values.  Given the current economic situation, the fallacy of the values argument has been exposed.  With unprecedented foreclosures, values have plummeted and associations are struggling with trying to pay the common expenses and make ends meet on a greatly reduced budget.  Raising assessments thus making it financially tougher for the remaining residents who are stretched to the financial limit does little to foster a sense of community or enhance property values.  Common sense would dictate that associations would do their utmost to keep as many members in the association as possible.  But then, as my husband keeps reminding me, there is nothing common about sense.  And the current situations bear that out.
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Melvyn Hobbs.  In our first ever transcontinental interview, Mel will explain why, after owning his dream vacation condo in Florida for 16 years, spending 10 years and $500,000 fighting in court to protect his rights, he just walked away from his condo and vows not to return to Florida.   Please join us On The Commons. We’ll find out what went wrong and what he intends to do now. 

It’s that time of year again when your state representatives gather to figure out ways to strip you of more rights and this year is no different.  Homeowners should find the bills that have been filed in their respective states and think them through very carefully.  That is something your elected officials claim they don’t have the time for before they sponsor and vote on the bills.  Most of the laws that have been enacted have been pro association, tilting the balance away from the individual. 
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Frank Short. Frank is a frequent guest on the show and a long time advocate for homeowner and individual rights.  Frank has been following the bills proposed in Virginia this year and gives us a run down of the bills, who sponsored them and what they mean.  For more information on what those pesky legislators are up to in VA, check out http://www.richmondsunlight.com/.  Find the bills, vote on them and comment on them. Please join us On The Commons. We’ll talk about the bills, go a little beyond the pretty words and focus on what they really mean. 

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
Conceptually communal living may sound positively Utopian.  Under ideal circumstances, in an ideal world, there may be an outside chance that association living might have a shot of working – for a brief period of time.  But as we all know, circumstances are hardly ever ideal and never for prolonged periods of time.  The architects of this newfangled housing plan obviously did not take into account human nature, greed, outside influences when they came up with the blue prints for what has become residential America.  If they thought about it at all, they did not plan for all the problems that would undermine the structural integrity of a massive housing implosion.
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Marjorie Murray.  Marjorie is the founder and President of the California based Center for California Homeowner Association Law.   The core purpose of the Center is to protect the rights of homeowners through consumer education, training, and referral services.   The Center maintains a website that is rich with information every American property owner should have access to.   Please join us On The Commons this Saturday, We’ll talk about the programs they have, the training sessions they hold, discrimination in associations and legislation. 

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
“But you agreed”  is the mantra used by defenders of HOAs.  We’ve all heard it.  The association industry members use it when lobbying for greater powers for associations.  Attorneys representing HOAs in court use it.  Managers and other proponents of the system spout it out ad nauseum every time the discussion revolves around the sorry state of affairs in association controlled residential America today.  And while it may be technically and legally true that by buying into an association of some sort or other, we “agreed” to it.  But what exactly did we agree to?  And what happened to the alleged benefits of HOAs?  We have also all heard the other, equally tired mantra of HOAs “protecting property” value.  In this topsy turvy, economically upside down world today, where are the values?  How “affordable” is all this luxurious living we have also been promised? 
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Jan Bergemann. Jan, President of the Florida based  Cyber Citizens for Justice  has recently been on a town hall panel discussion HOAs and was inundated on a marathon internet chat session in Orlando where the existing streams were maxxed out “by a few isolated incidents”.   Please join us On The Commons this Saturday, November 28, 2009.  We’ll talk about how well values are holding up in HOAs, we’ll hear why so many people are being made homeless and we’ll find out what is on the mind of the thousands of “isolated incidents: who called in for help.

If you are in an HOA, it really doesn’t take much to turn your otherwise peaceful and quiet world upside down.  Maybe you chose the unit you occupy because of the views from the living room window or the size of the kitchen or the proximity to work or public transportation but whatever tugged at your heart strings, you probably thought you were buying a “home”.  And heaven help you if you end up in an HOA controlled “hood” because sense and sensibility are non existent and you run the risk of finding yourself with a “One Way Ticket to Hell”.
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Robin Klar Lent.  Robin has just ended a long battle with her HOA.  She says she has been to hell and back all because she agreed to help prevent erosion and water problems on an empty lot in her neighborhood. It was all downhill from there.  Please join us On The Commons.  We’ll get the details of what happened and talk about some of the really ridiculous demands made by the “other side” (I’ll give you a hint: “You may not use the words CAI conspiracy”) and the plain stupid questions asked.

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.  John Kenneth Galbraith  US (Canadian-born) administrator & economist (1908 – 2006) 
 
Right from the very beginning of the mass produced associations, problems cropped up that needed to be dealt with.  At first the solution to all problems was “education”.  When education failed to fix things, the association industry started lobbying state legislatures to enact laws to “protect associations”.  Those laws did little more than stir the pot and make things worse so more laws were lobbied for and more problems reared their ugly heads and more laws found their way into the hallowed halls of state Capitols across the country – and the vicious cycle continues, for the most part, unabated. 
 
A very small handful of legislators had the foresight and the backbone to try to try to make the owners and tax payers whole by sponsoring homeowner friendly bills.  Some of these bills survived the brutal attacks of the opposition and their “hired” law makers but most were either gutted or went down in defeat.  And yet the problems continue to grow.
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Representative Julio Robaina. Julio, Florida’s extremely energetic, hard working and charismatic representative has spent his two terms as a state legislator listening to his constituents and trying to put an end to the tyranny that exists in their neighborhoods.  As he nears the end of his current term, and before he is termed out next year, he is taking a look back on his wins and his losses.   Please join us On The Commons.  We’ll talk about what he has planned and whether this is the end of the road.  Will Florida OWNERS lose their champion legislator?  What can we ALL do to help him and ultimately ourselves.  Tune in for a wake up call like no other.

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
Home!  Ah, a word that can make us all feel nostalgic, especially when the memories of “home” are happy ones.  A place where you grew up as a child, a place you came to when starting off your new life as a married couple, a place to raise your family, a place to celebrate the joys of life, the milestones you reach, the successes you enjoy.  A place where your children grow and become adults, a place that is full of memories.  A place that wrapped its arms around you and kept you safe and warm and offered you a safe harbor when you needed it most.  A place of your own.  And for those of us lucky enough to grow up in a traditional neighborhood, in a real home, a home that was our own, where we could be ourselves and where we had a certain degree of autonomy.  A place we loved to be.
 
But wait – what happened?  Why is it that home no longer seems to be that safe harbor?  Why do we fret about “going home”?  Who are those people who have been living in the house next door for all these years?  And the people across the street? 
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Nancy Hentschel.  Nancy lives in Sugarland, Texas and owns 3 houses in three separate HOAs in Texas and she maintains a web site at http://www.newterritorysentinel.com/.  Prior to moving to Texas, Nancy and her family lived in a real, HOA free, community on the East Coast so the added expenses, the fear, the closed books and records, the creative ways the association raises money were new experiences and real eye openers.   Please join us On The Commons this Saturday, October 24, 2009.  We’ll talk about her observations, the fear that seems to keep neighbors from being neighbors and building real communities and we’ll find out why her house in Arizona does NOT have an HOA. 

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
Remember the bully in the school yard?  Remember the big kids who took your lunch money, called you names and threatened to really hurt you if you so much as breathed a word to anyone?  Remember the people who made fun of you and the way you dressed, spoke, walked and pretty much did anything?  How about the chronologically older folks who spread lies about you and made up stories of things you allegedly were or did?  Whatever happened to these people?  Did they grow up and become honest, productive citizens or did they find a more permanent niche in today’s 300,000 plus residential associations where they continue to bully, harass, threaten spread rumors and generally make life miserable for their neighbors? 
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Barbara Billiot Stage. Barbara, an attorney who was admitted to the  Florida bar just 2 short years ago and who represents homeowners, has seem the bad, the worse and the really ugly of what the HOA boards and their mentors are capable of doing and how these overgrown bullies have made life a living hell for her clients.  Please join us On The Commons.  We’ll hear all about some of the bizarre cases that have found themselves on her desk and find out if there is anything that can be done to put a stop to the abuses and horrors that are rampant in residential America today.    

The US Constitution requires that a census be conducted every 10 years to count the population.  The first census was taken in 1790.  The census provides statistics – from the most basic, such as what is the population of the United States to some of the more specific.  The next census will occur in 2010 and virtually every household in America will receive a short census.  In the past, a few households got the “long form” which was considerably longer.  In 2005 the long form was eliminated, in its stead Congress introduced an ongoing survey called the American Community Survey.  This survey is sent out on a monthly basis to 250,000 households asking such questions as to educational levels, military service, health insurance, disabilities, number of languages spoken etc.  There is an almost 3 page section on housing.  Why are there no questions on the public policy shift that has sent 60 million Americans to association controlled developments?  Is Congress unaware of this demographic shift or are they intentionally overlooking it?  And just why is the government aping HOAs by threatening to fine people $5,000 for not answering the survey?
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Ron Brown and Vellie Dietrich Hall.  They both work for the Census Bureau and are responsible for ensuring that everyone is counted and accounted for.  This is Ron’s second go around.  Vellie is responsible for reaching out to the minorities, making sure they understand the reasons for the census.   Please join us On The Commons  We’ll talk about the census in general and find out what it will take to try to bring about an awareness of the fastest growing segment in residential America. You can find out more about the census by going to www.census.gov  .