Florida Couple Gets to Keep Home's 'Starry' Paint Job Mayor Must Publicly Apologize for $10,000 Fine

Reason Magazine ^ | Jul. 18, 2018 | Eric Boehm

[OddLane]

The mayor of Mount Dora, Florida, will have to publicly apologize Wednesday afternoon for his city's overzealous code enforcement that targeted a home painted in the likeness of Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece, "Starry Night."

More importantly, the city will remove a lien against the property and drop more than $10,000 in fines it had issued to the husband and wife who own the home, according to a settlement approved unanimously by the city council Tuesday night. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the settlement also includes the payment of $15,000 to homeowners Lubomir Jastrzebski and his wife, Nancy Nemhauser.

The couple's colorful home became the subject of national media attention and legal scrutiny last year when city officials deemed the elaborately painted mural covering a wall in front of the house to be "graffiti" and ordered the couple to remove it...

[blam]

[pnz1]

Wonder what their neighbors think?

[Reno89519]

I would hate that as a neighbor but good for them on winning.

[simpson96]

The house looks godawful.

I would hate to have the misfortune to live next door or across the street from them.

[chuckb87]

If it were a U.S. flag or a nativity they would have been forced to burn the house down and pay the fines.

[Mears]

I’m just glad that I don’t live across the street from that.

.

[Constitution Day]

What an eyesore.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Artistic yes, neighborhood eyesore? Well if its a HOA, you do have to respect your neighbors. If I decided to paint my house purple with pink polka dots, I would say its art, and my neighbors may show up with a bulldozer. In the non HOA world anything goes, even a Chevy 350 engine block on the front lawn in day glow colors.

[Osage Orange]

There was a house in Corona, CA...that you could see from the Freeway...that I believe was painted like some Rolling Stones album covers...Wish I would have taken pictures....

It caused quite the stir..............

[Kommodor]

No doubt ol’ Vincent is rolling over in his grave, clawing at his remaining ear...

[FlingWingFlyer]

Yikes! But hey, this is America.

[Reno89519]

They did this to make the house easy to find by their autistic son. I think that was the explanation in early reports. Also, despite the city complaints, apparently neighbors liked.

[Calvin Locke]

Sort of reminds me of Henry Fonda in his TV show. The only scene I remember is Fonda, maybe playing a detective family man in his neighborhood, being chosen by the neighborhood to go talk to the new young couple that painted their front door electric blue or the like.

I once had a book "Painted Ladies", about Victorian houses in the US.

One house had some pastel-ish colors, and finished up in the back, white, with a swirl of the blue, as if it emanating from a large painted blue crayola.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

No doubt ol’ Vincent is rolling over in his grave, clawing at his remaining ear...

Reminds me of a joke Letterman told during one of his monologues. (I know he's a putz, but his writers were pretty funny)

If Abraham Lincoln were alive today, would he be:

A: Writing his memoir.
B: Advising the Presidency.

Or,

C: Desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin.

[blam]

My friend used to live just down the street from the Beer Can House in Houston.

[Constitution Day]

Well, that’s nice. I am glad I don’t have to see it out my window, however.

[Paladin2]

What if they painted “F Trump!” on the house?

[Hootowl99]

Ah yes, the neighbors. But perhaps more important is what would Vincent think?

I read the article expecting some ramblings on artistic expression from some partially sober artsy person. Instead, there was a uniquely simple solution to caring for an autistic son. Their reason for the jumbo Van Gogh was if their autistic son were to get lost, he could simply tell his finders to take him to the Van Gogh house. I can totally see this paint job in Santa Fe.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I remember a TV show about fifty five years ago about some guy who painted his house an horrid color.

The mayor hated it, the neighbors hated it, the aircraft pilots began to use it as a landmark to an airport. after a court case, HE WON! Come to find out, he himself hated the color.