I’ve got news for you, in a lot of places you cannot store more than 5 gallons of fuel in your garage, cannot unilaterally add a second storey to your home, cannot park a vehicle in your front yard, cannot raise chickens in your backyard, cannot raise goats in your back yard, cannot have more than 3 dogs, cannot have more than 3 rabbits, cannot have ham radio towers, cannot have any vehicles visible from the street that remain unmoved for more than 72 hours, cannot have weeds higher than 18 inches or a yard that is untended for more than one month, there are other things I haven’t mentioned and probably a bunch I don’t even know about.
Anyway, if you think that just because you shell out an obscene amount of dollars for a property that you can do whatever you want with it, you are mistaken.
He wasn't rich, he was simply not keeping his house up. So your apparent hatred of wealthy homeowners has little relevance to this argument.
Second, the fact that property rights in this country have, as a matter of fact, been greatly eroded by creeping socialism doesn't mean that, in theory, this creeping socialism is a good thing.
The main issues are these: why do Mr. Wolk's neighbors get to decide how he deals with his own property? Why do their personal preferences outweigh his own preferences with regard to his property? Do the terms of his deed impose upon him a condition to repair his property? If not, why is he compelled to do so? Why is this a criminal and not a civil offence? What is the standard, and who decides, which house is in an acceptable and which house in an unacceptable state of repair? Was it necessary to smash down his door?