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Neighbors block new home for injured double-Bronze Star Afghanistan veteran ...
Daily Mail ^ | UPDATED: 08:24 EST, 27 September 2013 | James Nye

Posted on 09/27/2013 11:00:28 AM PDT by Pan_Yan

Neighbors block new home for injured double-Bronze Star Afghanistan veteran because 'it won't look right' next to their properties

He may have served two tours in Afghanistan protecting the freedom of his nation, but double-Bronze Star veteran David Wood has returned home only to battle ungrateful NIMBYS.

Gifted a charitable home through the efforts of his local congressman, Aaron Schock, for his wartime efforts, Wood, who has lost the hearing in one ear was told that the property plans for his family's house were opposed by his potential neighbors.

Indeed, an unidentified cabal of neighbors in the Peoria suburb of Morton, Illinois, has clubbed together to oppose his wooden home saying quite clearly, not in my backyard.

...

The plan was broken down so that Habitat for Humanity would provide $50,000 for the labor in building and the Wood's will pay the other $80,000 spread over the next 20 years.

However, the anonymous petitioners don't want the house to go up for the simple reason it is built of wood and not brick, like all the other homes there.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Local News; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: illinois; veteran
If this were my neighborhood I'd be knocking on doors asking the neighbors to pony up some bucks to build him a brick home.
1 posted on 09/27/2013 11:00:29 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: Pan_Yan

Our neighborhood also forbids wood homes. Everything must be stucco and stone, no siding of any kind.


2 posted on 09/27/2013 11:03:46 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: Pan_Yan

So these same “anonymous petitioners” can host a fundraiser to make up the difference of the new home, then.

I’ll bet it won’t take long or huge effort to reach their goal.

But if it were me, I’ll think twice going to that neighborhood.


3 posted on 09/27/2013 11:08:08 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: Pan_Yan

Really, really bad karma, neighbors.


4 posted on 09/27/2013 11:08:41 AM PDT by Adult Dog
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To: Pan_Yan

Boy is this a tough one.

I can’t imagine telling a vet this - but - can the vet tell me (no guarantee me) that he will keep the house through his life? And if he decides to move away, will it be knocked down?

Like it or not, the value of your home is hugely influenced by the value of homes around you.


5 posted on 09/27/2013 11:11:34 AM PDT by I cannot think of a name
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To: Pan_Yan

How about these idiots get over it. Man lost his hearing for his country, and these idiots are worried about aesthetics?


6 posted on 09/27/2013 11:13:05 AM PDT by Braak (The US Military, the real arms inspectors!)
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To: Pan_Yan

There’s no restriction on the materials. Add brick to the front. The homes are nothing special.


7 posted on 09/27/2013 11:21:53 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Pan_Yan
Though I feel the neighbors are petty elitists, I wouldn't want to live in a neighborhood occupied by neighbors who are unappreciative of the veteran's sacrifices. However, I expect donations are being collected for the brick since this has been made public. Wonder why residents who objected felt a need to be anonymous.
8 posted on 09/27/2013 11:24:43 AM PDT by Bronzy
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To: Pan_Yan

I don’t care if he wants to live in a wigwam if’s he’s a vet that served our country I’d let him.


9 posted on 09/27/2013 11:27:26 AM PDT by Morgana (Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Pan_Yan
guys come back from war missing limbs, blinded, or paralized...

why is this fellow getting a $50,000 dollar contribution for a house when there are so many guys coming back in horrible conditions...

okay...he did lose hearing in one ear.....most farmers and plumbers are deaf or nearly so...I'm sure the vet will get a nice disability check for the rest of his life....

and he WORKS....he has a job....he's not broke...and he's still in the guard...

is this just an overblown media story?...I think yes....

and if the neighborhood is old fashioned quaint brick homes, I don't blame them......it'll destroy the theme of the neighborhood and lesson its value...

the neighbors are annoymous because its politically incorrect to say what has to be said....

10 posted on 09/27/2013 11:40:36 AM PDT by cherry
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To: Pan_Yan

More information from the article:

-snip-

Indeed, ‘someone’ from Peoria has allegedly been knocking on doors, drumming up support for the petition and phone calls have been made to the local Habitat for Humanity office protesting the Wood’s new home.

This has held up construction beginning on the Wood’s home and in the meantime they are having to stay with relatives.
Matt Sommer was one resident willing to speak to the Peoria Journal Star.

He has lived in the upmarket neighborhood for four years and said that an older lady, who he estimated to be in her 70s, knocked on his door with the petition.

He claims not to have seen the wording, but saw around 10 signatures. ‘Do you realize,’ she asked, ‘that it’s going to made of wood, not brick?’

Sommer claims that he quizzed the lady on whether she knew that the home was intended for a veteran, to which she replied, yes, but that was not the point.

One caller backing the petition said that there was a ‘covenant’ in the neighborhood, requiring all homes to be built of brick.

However, an investigation by Phil Luciano of the Peoria Journal Star found no such legal agreement in any local or county records.

-end snip-

Let’s see, they don’t have an HOA nor any other legal agreement to dictate the style of house. I say they should all STFU and let someone do what they want on their property!

(BTW, that link was aweful! It kept trying to load crap and would lock up.)


11 posted on 09/27/2013 11:42:33 AM PDT by CSM (Keeper of the Dave Ramsey Ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
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To: Pan_Yan

How much more expensive is a similar brick house?

It can’t be much.

One letter to the AL or VFW would raise the $ in a heart beat.


12 posted on 09/27/2013 12:06:24 PM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: cherry

There was a time (I think) when veterans were treated with respect. Especially disabled veterans. Only the idiot leftists had contempt for vets. Especially Vietnam vets.

But things have changed. What with Obama removing DADT and his cabal of Pentagon Generals who are too concerned with diversity and queers in the barracks and all that - there natually is less respect for the military.

It’s a shame that this disabled vet and thousands more like him are being treated like dirt - and again I blame Obama - but there’s the reasons why these things happen.


13 posted on 09/27/2013 12:14:27 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: I cannot think of a name; All

Has any person in the area ever read the constitution ?

It’s his property. His home.

I hope he puts up a HUGE flag pole in the front yard.


14 posted on 09/27/2013 12:20:15 PM PDT by maine yankee (I got my Governor at 'Marden's')
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To: Pan_Yan

It might be enlightening to check the voter registration rolls for the neighborhood, to see how many registered RATs are included. He should pretend to be a homosexual Muslim; then they wouldn’t dare oppose his new home.


15 posted on 09/27/2013 12:27:22 PM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: Braak

But the rules! Someone think of the rules!


16 posted on 09/27/2013 12:30:26 PM PDT by drunknsage
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To: Responsibility2nd

You left out that these military men are vying for stars on their shoulders along with what you mentioned. I suspect that star reaching wives are also an influence. Being an overseas vet of WWII and having an only brother killed on Okinawa I thought that ‘killed in action’ would be pushed into the far distance future. No such happening because Truman felt a communist Korea was a danger to our new subservient Japan. I didn’t much argue against such but when we got on the track to ‘new world orders’ I began looking askance at many of our so called ‘engagements’ I came to believe that such ‘engagements’ were more for the world financial and oil interests than for the benefit of ordinary struggling USA citizens. With Obama and his enablers the Nation is still on this ‘new world order’ path.


17 posted on 09/27/2013 12:37:02 PM PDT by noinfringers2
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To: Pan_Yan
"an older lady, who he estimated to be in her 70s, knocked on his door with the petition.

He claims not to have seen the wording, but saw around 10 signatures. 'Do you realize,' she asked, 'that it’s going to made of wood, not brick?'
"

That's typical. Brother Wood should find a rural area without commie HOA hags and their effeminate pet weirdos. He should prepare for the deserved 20 years of real estate bust and the best part of the default process ahead. Then he should have fun and enjoy the slide with the rest of the real men and their families.


18 posted on 09/27/2013 1:16:13 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Braak

So their property rights arent worthy? He fought for those rights too.


19 posted on 09/27/2013 3:03:01 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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