New housing community in North Caroline will require 'patriots' to fly the US flag

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

The 17 June groundbreaking of a future suburban neighborhood in Gastonia, North Carolina, had all the trappings of a campaign rally. Brock Fankhauser, the real estate developer of 1776 Gastonia, waved to onlookers from the open top of a sport-utility vehicle; his wife, Nicole, was by his side, wearing a cowboy hat and matching T-shirt with the development’s namesake year, referring to the American Revolution.

Video footage of the event shows a crane dangling a giant US flag over the site where 43 lots are for sale. Parcels range from $17,500 to $75,000 for land, and homes cost $410,000 and up in this city 20 miles from Charlotte. A young girl rode a horse down a newly paved street flanked by American flags. She gripped the saddle with one hand; in the other, a giant flag. Her sandy blonde hair flowed in rhythm with the Stars and Stripes.

There will be even more flags. This development, which the company has described as “where freedom lives”, is for homeowners 55 and older. And not just any homeowners: “patriots” who will be required to fly the US flag on their properties, on a pole provided and maintained by the subdivision. Each 1776 community (Fankhauser plans on more) will also donate a home with no mortgage, free of cost, to a wounded veteran through the nonprofit Building Homes for Heroes.

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When asked how this community will define patriotism, Fankhauser responded obliquely that patriotism is a mountain landscape. “We’re in a valley right now, and to the extent that I can have any impact whatsoever on bringing us from a valley towards a peak, it would give me tremendous satisfaction,” he said via phone.

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But is requiring the flag even legal?

1776 Gastonia will use a restrictive covenant that includes the flag stipulation. Restrictive covenants, a norm in residential real estate, allow homeowners associations to enforce rules and consistency in planned communities. Fankhauser defines them as a “pledge of allegiance” to the United States and “promises” among neighbors. He doesn’t anticipate that enforcing the flag provision will be an issue and has not included repercussions in the covenant if anyone refuses to fly the flag. The Guardian obtained the 1776 Gastonia covenant via email, but it had not yet been recorded in a Gaston County, North Carolina public database at the time of publication and is therefore not enforceable.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/03/north-carolina-housing-subdivision-us-flag

[jimfields33]

1. Part of the HOA

My development as well has american flags put out for every home. But they provide and only 4 times a year. They put it next to our driveway at the end in the grass. A stick with a flag. It’s no big deal to me. They’ll come pick them up tomorrow afternoon.

[TheBlackAdder]

32. Fascists telling people how to be good fascists

[jimfields33]

34. No biggie. Why bigger issues to worry about.

[ret5hd]

2. HOA: Hell Owners Association

[TheBlackAdder]

33. It's amazing how many 'patriots' hate the government and live under the boots of fake ones.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. Sounds like a fun place. Not somewhere that I

will ever visit.

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. Ahh... Gastonia...

**shakes head and walks away laughing**

[llmart]

7. Sounds like you've been there.

So have I and I agree with your sentiment.

I live in a community where every July 4th the GOP supervisor of our township puts a flag in all 169 yards in our sub. He attaches his business card to it. I immediately take the card off, leave the flag there for the 4th and promptly take it down on the 5th and throw it in the trash.

I am not fond of excessive nationalistic fervor but I'm also not going to be ridiculous about the issue. And yes, the flags are made in China.

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. I am from North Carolina and I lived in Charlotte for many years.

We used to avoid going in that direction if we could. At the time, Gastonia made Texas look liberal. I doubt it has gotten any better since it got all big now. One has to wonder if that developer understands that people could sue his ass for years to come over the description given about being a 'patriot' community. It won't be, by the way. It will be a cult enclave and it will be shut down once they start acting like one. Which they always do.

[Thrill]

31. No Gastonia has changed a lot

Mainly because it’s grown and people from Charlotte and up north have moved there. I believe they’ve had a black mayor for several years now.

I wouldn’t let this clown developer influence you. It’s a booming area. Because Charlotte is so high, people move there now and work in Charlotte.

[llmart]

38. I'm not from North Carolina but...

I lived in Charlotte for ten years in the 80's/90's. It's a beautiful state and the weather is nice, but even back then Gastonia was the pits.

[gab13by13]

5. Of course those American flags must be made in America, Riight?

[KarenS]

6. +1.

[tinymontgomery]

8. Doesn't sound like "where freedom lives"

Doesn't sound like "where freedom lives" if you're required to fly the flag. Also what will they do
if they let the flags go to hell. We have people here that fly the flag and the flag is all faded, ripped and
some times hung wrong when they hang them in their garage.

[tanyev]

17. They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.

[onethatcares]

9. Next up

Everyone will fall out, form a platoon in each neighborhood, and sing "Proud to be an American".

Slackers will be placed in stocks in the town square.

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. You say this as a joke but... (n/t)

[Vinca]

10. I read a news article yesterday about a small burg in Downeast Maine where some idiots

have plans to put up a football field-sized American flag on a pole higher than the Empire State Building. There will also be a faux patriot park with monuments (no doubt there will be a golden Trump statue there somewhere), a museum and other things. The sane locals are, of course, going nuts over this idiotic plan.

[eShirl]

14. Columbia Falls

In 2023 the community gained national attention after a proposal to be build the world's tallest flagpole (1,461 feet high -- taller than the Empire State Building) in a $1 billion project that includes a 4,000 seat auditorium in dubbed the Flagpole of Freedom Park. The project has been proposed by local Morrill Worcester whose company Worcester Wreath Co. which expanded to Wreaths Across America and donates more than 1 million wreaths to military cemeteries and gravesites around the world.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Falls,_Maine

[yardwork]

18. I'm fascinated by the planned pole taller than the Empire State Building.

I hope somebody videos the group that tries to put that up. And how will it be delivered? In thousands of truck-length sections? That snap together? How will this pole be anchored?

I wish an engineer would create a cartoon of what this would look like. For instance, how would a skyscraper sapling behave in the wind? Would it snap immediately or bend down over the entire county? Would it whip back and forth like an alien invasion?

I have questions.

[dembotoz]

30. wonder if it would be a lightning rod

movie plot reboot...back to the future version 47 or young frankenstein episode 50

think wednesday adams could have fun with that too

[CentralMass]

13. I have no problem flying the American flag but I would have a problem

Living in a community full of assholes.

[Raine]

15. I don't mind flying the flag 🇺🇲 but I want it to be my choice

not something I'm forced into.

[madville]

27. It's not something you are forced into

It’s something you agree to do when you purchase a property in that community. 100s of thousands of HOAs across the country enforce rules that their residents agree to by voluntarily becoming members.

That’s why I live on 6 acres, 7 miles outside the city limits, no HOAs out here and very few county ordinances about what one can do on their own property.

[mwooldri]

16. As a British American...

Should I move there and fly the Union Flag (Jack) ?

[Lovie777]

19. Again...................

"freedom"

Taking choice away.

[pwb]

20. Patriots that I think of fought for our country?

Veterans often fly flags because they are proud of their service. This type of rule diminishes real patriots IMO. Probably the whole point of it. Fake patriots. If they are against other peoples freedoms they are not patriots.

[Red Mountain]

21. Boris and Natasha say

'perfect cover'.

[Thunderbeast]

22. TAKE BACK THE FLAG!

I fly the flag that the Union Army flew.

I fly the flag that liberated western Europe...twice.

I fly the flag that smart folks planted on the moon.

I fly the flag that great liberal Presidents stood before.

I fly the same flag that fly over the research universities that are curing horrible diseases.

Soon, I will fly it next to my "DARK BRANDON" flag!

IT'S MY FLAG TOO!

[CurtEastPoint]

23. JFC... look at Mrs. Funkhouse or whatever

[dalton99a]

25. A fun couple

[NowISeetheLight]

24. Flag Rotation

Im in a 55+ community with an HOA. My next door neighbor and I fly flags every day. I have a big collection and change them every couple of days. My neighbor has about 35 different flags. Today the Betsy Ross flag is on my house.

I have:

US Betsy Ross Flag
US 76 Bennington Flag
US Grand Union Flag
US 50 Star Flag (currently boycotting)
California Flag (current state)
US Navy Flag (I'm a veteran)
UK Flag (Moms family)
Finland Flag (Dad's family)
UK Royal Navy Ensign (I'm a fan)
Minnesota Flag (home state)
Colorado Flag (lived there once and loved it)
Ukraine Flag (show support)
Rainbow Flag (self explanitory)
Canada Flag (how I wish we were)
Skol Vikings Flag (football Sundays)

[Johonny]

26. Patriots? You are reserving housing for veterans?

What! He'll know. You know who serves in the military. I said patriots. You know people that fly the flag. Duh.

[NoMoreRepugs]

28. People who choose to buy and live there know what they are getting.

Fine by me. Moving on………

[Jedi Guy]

29. If it's clearly spelled out in the covenant and you agree to it, I guess you're stuck.

On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge (and I'm no lawyer, nor do I play one on TV), one can't sign one's civil rights away in a contract. I could very well be wrong on that.

My parents' subdivision in Arizona had a covenant saying you couldn't have a flagpole in your front yard to display any flag, American or otherwise; the flagpole had to be attached to the house. After a careful review of the wording in the covenant, my dad installed a flagpole, complete with lights that go on at dusk, in the back yard. The HOA approached him about it and he asked them to show him where the covenant prohibited flagpoles in back yards. They opted to just let the matter rest after that.

I think covenants are just excuses for busybodies to mind everyone else's business, in a lot of cases.

[XorXor]

35. I understand if they want to encourage it because of their feelings about what

Flying a flag means, but requiring it seems to go against how I interpret what is claimed to be our country's ideals.

This seems like fake patriotism for show that is actually anti-patriotic.

[sarcasmo]

36. Sounds like a Nationalist community, created by the Proud Boys.

[treestar]

37. conflicts with "freedom"

Funny he does not see the irony.

At least we can be relieved it's not the Confederate Battle flag.

[Aristus]

39. I'd have my Form DD-214 made into a flag and fly that instead.

Any of those bobbleheaded fuckweasels on the HOA challenge me, I'd ask to see their DD-214. if they don't have one, I'd tell them to fuck all the way off. If they do have one, I'd say "Then you should know better."