I saw it for the first time in the nineties when this community went insane over the fate of a failed P.U.D. It is a very detailed history, but it came down to one major landholder trying to develop his private property. Small groups of connected people met in public and private meetings to discuss ways to stop him. Some thought they were fighting to protect the PUD, and others were more interested in how they could personally benefit from the inevitable event that it would be dismantled. I researched that time period through public records. We lived here while it was happening, but were not part of the connected group until everything was set in motion. It was an eye opener.
At some point, they were trying to figure out how to get around land development laws in order to dismantle the P.U.D. The most corrupt local lawyer even spread a faulty legal opinion to persuade the community, using the master hoa's monthly magazine. And it is my belief that the good ole boys in my community applied what he was telling them to try to dismantle the common grounds in our private HOA property.
And here is the thing about allowing community leaders and elected officials to meet in private meetings. Things are said that are simply not legal or sound. But the most greediest and ambitious in a community will use that information like it's gospel. There was a group of them in my HOA, and I believe they applied the faulty legal interpretations in an attempt to take over our HOAs common grounds. We didn't even know what hit us, but I was part of a small group of people that slowed them down, just long enough to understand what was going on. I believe we would have had 100% success if it weren't for a couple of local lawyers who interfered when they had conflicts of interest. It always felt like we couldn't find firm ground to stand on, because, without proper legal advice, it's a lot like trying to walk through a slippery mud pit.
What an alarming period. My neighbor was the president of our HOA, and our community also had a well-connected good ole boy down the street who had better political access. Information he brought into the community, affected the president's judgment. The first tip-off that something was very wrong came from the behavior of president's wife. She would go into conniptions whenever my husband mowed even a foot over an invisible property line. This went on for several stressful years. The best we could do was leave a mohawk of grass between the properties. She was so rattled by it, that she once pointed at me and told her workers, "There's bad blood between us." Fuck, what? How did I get caught in this deplorable country song?
For the most part, I avoided her, which is my go-to strategy for anyone that I feel might be tempted to think that Manifest Destiny is an acceptable white privilege they can use to take over common ground or someone else's private property. You would be surprised how many people will throw out restrain and good judgment when they're taking part in a bickering basket.
Those were stressful years. Nerve-wracking, and completely drained me of any trust I had in people. But it helped me to see how, in a white suburban community in Florida, the seeds for self-destruction are already planted and ready to burst out of the ground.
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