Brickbat: This Land Is My Land

Louis Cherry got a building permit and all the government approvals necessary to build a new home last year. He thought he'd be able to move in by May of this year. But the house is only 85 percent complete, and Cherry has no idea when or if he'll be able to complete it and move in. His neighbor across the street, Gail Wiesner, says the house's design is too modern and she has convinced local officials to reverse Cherry's building permit, and now Cherry is fighting to reverse that reversal in court.

Comments

[UnCivilServant]

It is neither the neighbor's nor the city's business what someone builds for a house.

I sentence Gail and the entire local government to thirty days in the stocks. Angry crowd and rotten fruit optional.

[Drake]

I would think twice about purposely destroying several hundred thousand dollars of somebody else's savings. People have been killed for much less.

[Jerryskids]

I've often wondered about this myself when somebody sticks their nose too far into somebody else's business - I suspect that if you ask around in the right area you can find a guy who will take a couple grand to go burn down somebody's house or run them off the road or rape their dog. People should be more careful.

[Free Society]

If the guy has Ordinance and Law coverage on his insurance policy, he may be okay.

I gotta love the market, where you can even be insured against political destruction of your wealth (with limitations).

[invisible furry hand]

Some of the staunchest supporters of the Cherry-Gordon house are, says Mr. Cherry, "people who believe in property rights and are sort of libertarian." However, those live-and-let-live types feel as if they're in a minority.

They obviously haven't read The Declaration of Independents

[WTF]

Say, is that a book someone has written?

[SIV]

What really matters is how do Millenials feel about the Chery-Gordon house.

[db]

This is why I try not to live around other people.

Wiesner sounds like the kind of person who really knows how to make friends with her.neighbors, so I'd be super surprised if lots of anonymous tips on code violations were to.be reported against her in upcoming years.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

His first mistake was to try to build in a historic district. Busybodies and petty tyrants abound, each with their own desires to enforce conformity to their standards.

Historic districts should be banned as they are unrecompensed takings.

[Doctor Whom]

I once suggested to an acquaintance that people who want to control what other people do with their land should buy easements. He was horrified, but he never did get around to explaining what was wrong with that idea.

[Free Society]

Probably because he doesn't know what an easement is and assumed it's libertarian-speak for trial-by-combat.

[HazelMeade]

Yes, but once he got the permit and started building the house, the permit should be irrevokable.

You can't just fuck someone halfway through having a house built. Most people don't have the kind of money to suddenly make alterations in the middle of construction, or to wait several extra months for a resolution.

[Drake]

Rocks flying through her windows and her car spontaneously combusting are other unexpected events.

[datcv]

http://www.zillow.com/profile/House-Lady/

Or lots of reviews on her Zillow page letting everyone know what a miserable cunt she is.

[db]

So if THAT house is too "modern," please post pics of the others in the area.

[invisible furry hand]

It's Euclid St - check it out

http://www.instantstreetview.c.....z2lgzosz2u

[db]

Wow, that neighborhood is true museum of historical architecture. I'm glad someone is standing up to the Modernists and drawing a line in the sand over acceptable design criteria.

[Brian D]

SUVs and minivans?! Those are too modern to be allowed to remain in such a valuable historic district! I demand they be sold and the residents purchase proper horses and buggies.

[Bean Counter]

I loved the 19th century plexiglass basketball backboard! And the premodern window screen leaned up against what must be a perfectly preserved miner's shack truly brings the historical importance of the area into focus!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wiesner argued that past attempts to engage in similar stylistic treachery had been made by architects who had been "churned out from a very modernist school," and like to "show off their abilities."

I don't remember the character of Gail Wiesner from The Fountainhead. Did the NYT misspell "Wynand"?

[Colin Fraizer]

Even at his lowest point, Gail Wynand would not have acted like Ms. Wiesner.

She is clearly working with Elsworth Toohey.

"'...toothbrush in the jaw toothbrush brush brush tooth jaw foam dome in the foam Roman dome come home home in the jaw Rome dome tooth toothbrush toothpick pickpocket socket rocket..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

The complaining neighbor is a real estate agent. And quite a looker.

[invisible furry hand]

Well she does prefer old facades

[db]

There's nothing like the stout construction of the 1940s.

[Atanarjuat]

She looks a lot like the EPA bureaucrat Rand Paul excoriated in front of Congress. Probably because both of them have the same rot in their souls.

[Atanarjuat]

The EPA busybody

loathsome creatures

[Atanarjuat]

The architect should have the demolition done in the shittiest manner possible, leaving a broken concrete slab and a gash in the earth, and the condition of the neighborhood worse than he found it. And then come build the house on my street where no one will bat an eye.

[anon]

I'd buy some roosters, a couple of chickens, a couple of dogs and maybe 2 cats. The rooster is obvious, the chickens for the stench, the dogs to shit on the sidewalk in front of her house and the cats to fuck her cars up.

[anon]

After looking at photos of that house, I think I actually like it. It's one of the few displays of architecture I've seen lately that I actually enjoy.

Might brave the dreaded i-40 for an hour to go check it out.

[wwhorton]

I mean, there's someone like this in every neighborhood. They're vile creatures who should be shunned, true. But the real problem here is the city council that actually gives a floor and an audience to shit like this.

[Brian D]

Giving them a floor and audience is fine. Heeding their cruel wishes is abominable.

[croaker]

If this cunt's house burns down, not a single fuck will be given. I'll spray-paint the X on her driveway myself.

[Rich]

Ms. Wiesner argued that past attempts to engage in similar stylistic treachery had been made by architects who had been "churned out from a very modernist school," and like to "show off their abilities."

Fucking Frank Lloyd Wright.

[Bardas Phocas]

Stylistic treachery - what fuck does that mean?

[Ivan Pike]

Stylistic treachery - what fuck does that mean? - "I don't like the way it looks."*

*I don't either, but it isn't my house so I don't care.

[PM]

...but it isn't my house so I don't care.

Clearly you are a style traitor in your own right.

[Bardas Phocas]

More like a style refusnik, or style colaborator.

All that is necessary for the triumph of stylistic evil is that good men do nothing.

[PM]

SLD, if there were some pre-existing stipulation established by a HOA or some other voluntary association that was understood and agreed upon with the sale/transfer of title, then tough shit, you should have purchased property somewhere else. Otherwise, how the fuck is this even legal?

[Free Society]

City council: "I am the law."

[Art Stone]

The next line of the song is "your land is my land"

[PM]

Ironically enough, that's actually the central of the message of that song with the full lyrics intact.

[PM]

*central message

[Mike Laursen]

To be fair, Woody Guthrie didn't seem like the kind of guy who would interfere with what style another man wants to build his house in.

[HazelMeade]

Meanwhile this guy is in financial straights because he has to pay rent and the mortgage on a house at the same time.

Is the city going to compensate him for the extra rent he has to pay while he waits for them to decide whether he can finish building his house?

Are they going to compensate him for tearing down and rebuilding?

LOL, of course not. This guy will end up in bankruptcy court before that happens.

Thanks Assholes, another life ruined by government regulation.

[Richard]

This land is my land.
This land ain't your land.
I got a shotgun,
And you don't got one.
I'll blow your head off,
So you'd better get off.
This land is private property.

[datcv]

*claps*

[Free Society]

Look at the other houses in this neighborhood, like the ones immediatly next door to their house. Those houses look like 1940's shit built anti-aesthetic houses. Why the fuck would they not want a newer nicer house on their street?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rhood.html

[Free Society]

Oh and their neighbor has female pattern baldness. No wonder she's such a cunt.

[Stilgar]

What needs to stop is pretending that pieces of shit that happen to be "old" are somehow historic. A town I know well passed up *free* government money to replace an 80 year old, dangerously decript metal bridge - about 25 yards long - because people thought it was "historic" and should be preserved. Thanfully, common sense eventually prevaiied and it was destroyed but only after another three years of being an eyesore and unsafe.

[brokencycle]

I bet this guy gets a lot of work out of this whole issue. He's getting news coverage, and his work doesn't seem half-bad. People will call him to design their own homes.

[Anon E. Mouse]

The city counsel and neighbors should watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJcB1_EogXc