[sickoflibs]

Those who live in Columbia Maryland have to pay a association fee based on the value of the property, even though it's not tax deductible. They also set the rules of house and paint colors and what you can put in your yard. And this is ontop of the local HOAs for condos and Townhouses.

The pools and gyms come for an extra fee, although it's discounted for those that live in Columbia zones. And there are areas inside Columbia that are not controlled by the association that dont have to pay.

The founder Rouse setup Columbia as groups of planned villages each with single family homes, town-homes, condos rental apartments and a town center stripmall. But the apartments in the older areas are taken over by Section 8 housing and it's not pretty.

[Finny]

Wow ... sound like a nightmarish place to live. Yikes.

[the OlLine Rebel]

“And there are areas inside Columbia that are not controlled by the association that dont have to pay.”

This is where I grew up. But they are NOT “Columbia”, per se - they were independent homes/developments before the behemoth/God of James Rouse came in and swallowed up the surrounding areas. I started life officially as Ellicott City but by 10yo I was Columbia postal code.

“The founder Rouse setup Columbia as groups of planned villages each with single family homes, town-homes, condos rental apartments and a town center stripmall. But the apartments in the older areas are taken over by Section 8 housing and it’s not pretty.”

(Actually it’s an honest-to-God mall, not a mere strip mall.)

James Rouse is treated as an absolute God - these people are WEIRD. I officially in every single way lived in Columbia for 3 years, and the local paper is always hailing Rouse, everything is being named for him, and people are constantly asking, “What would James Rouse do/think?”

[Marine_Uncle]

I lived in MD from 1966 to 1979. I can remember when Columbia first opened to the public. My wife and I checked it out early on.
Now as you say, section 8 stepped into the picture and changed what years back was a nice place to shop etc..
As for as the will to submit to Islam, indicative of this article. Shame on America. Why don't the super rich Arabs, Iranian, other Muslim controlled peoples, who have taken up residence in the country build private swimming pools for their kind. The bull shit just keeps piling up.

[markomalley]

Those who live in Columbia Maryland have to pay a association fee based on the value of the property, even though it's not tax deductible. They also set the rules of house and paint colors and what you can put in your yard. And this is ontop of the local HOAs for condos and Townhouses.

And the one thing that absolutely fascinated me about these little planned communities is that there were no churches. None. Yes, I know that there have been some churches that have gone up in formerly agricultural areas.

But part of the "plan" was to have "interfaith" centers. My guess is that they were rented out by whatever congregations wanted to hold services (though I don't know for sure). Anyway, I could picture a scenario where the King's Contrivance Interfaith Center could be rented by the Catholics at 10 o'clock and the Wiccan coven at 11.

Shudder.

Columbia has no soul.

It shows me what the dhims would love to do everywhere if they had half a chance.

[Impy]

Homeowner’s associations sound unconstitutional to me.

[jimtorr]

the apartments in the older areas are taken over by Section 8 housing and it's not pretty.

I live in one of those older complexes. While what you say was true 5 - 6 years ago, it has been greatly cleaned up since. The problems were created by, first, not doing proper background on prospective tenants, and then not requiring them to abide by civilized rules.

Most of the problems were solved simply by enforcing the rules, and evicting people who refused to follow them. The Section 8 people who remain are those who simply and genuinely needed a helping hand to get them out of the cesspool of the inner city. I have little problem with them, and there is hope for their children.