Your ugly snow shovel violates our community rules

Is a snow shovel left on the front porch a violation of neighborhood association laws? This email exchange shows what happens when suburbanites stop being polite ... and start getting real.(Thanks, Mark B.!)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Dan

Obviously, neither #1 or #2 never lived in an HOA controlled neighborhood. There’s a very good chance this is real.
Zombie

I used to work for a management company that handled the majority of HOA’s in San Diego. It paid well for a college student, lots of ways to make extra cash – typing the newsletter, taking minutes of board meetings, etc. But let me tell you, HOA’s seem to collect the worst of humanity. Petty, snide, hypocritical, spying … and the complains people used to make to us! Someone hung red curtains in their living room and they *gasp* visible from the street. Someone planted (decorative) kale in the front yard and were clearly trying to farm. One woman actually called on all her Hispanic neighbors and tried to make us call the FBI and have them deported as terrorists.
phisrow

I am very, very glad that I don’t live under the iron heel of an HOA; but their existence kind of warms my heart.

I think of them every time I hear some naive interwebs-libertarian droning on about how we would all be better off if we replaced government with contract…
dculberson

Being a Dave, I can totally not wait to piss in Kevin’s mouth.
Anonymous

Have you read “A Flock of Lawn flamingos” by Pat Murphy? It’s an amusing story in which she pokes fun at HOA rules and idiot rule nazi neighbors.
oasisob1

I am just under 3 weeks from moving into my very first ‘home of my own’. The neighborhood is actually under TWO HOAs. I can hardly wait.
lasttide

Be careful oasisob1, apparently children run amok in the suburbs searching for sharp snow shovels.
- oasisob1
  
  I think I might surround my yard with rusty rakes to defend against razor-sharp snow shovel theft.
Chevan

I have no doubt this is legitimate.

And HOAs are like many things in life: good ideas that often fall apart when you put real people in the mix. They work fine and make things easier for homeowners as long as nobody is abusing the system.
- Halloween Jack
  
  You know what else was a good idea until you put real people into the mix?
mstoddard

Do not mess with the Neighborhood Watch.
Hawley

oh man i would love to live in that kind of neighborhood, i could troll these retards all day long!
- stegodon
  
  i like your style amigo
RustyTrawler

Funny? Yes.
Real? Highly doubtful.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Real? Highly doubtful.
  
  Someone in my complex just poisoned a tree to spite the HOA. I don’t find it doubtful in the least.
  - RustyTrawler
    
    You’re right. Whether or not this exchange is actual is not the point, because pettiness this bad or worse happens every day.
    
    Besides, yelling “FAKE” is tiresome, I should know better. Mea culpa.