Park City

 

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“Civil disputes between neighbors should be handled between neighbors.  Do not call the office to complain about an issue that’s best handled by communicating with each other.” (Park City Informer)

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Living in a community like Park City in Broward County can be a bit stressful for some neighbors.  As you can see, the main note of the Park City Informer, emanating from the management’s desk, highlights the inconveniences that conflicts between neighbors pose to the management of this peaceful neighborhood.

Conflicts between neighbors, however, must be elucidated in a civilized and respectful manner, without threats, without insults, without proliferating obscene words.

Conflicts have many nuances. There are eminently racial conflicts, others dispute areas according to the empirical and festive interpretations of the surveys, the taste of each one in terms of how the neighbor’s house should look like, if they have propane gas tanks, if the garden is neglected or saturated with weeds and let’s stop counting.  In many cases we find what is known as “profiling.”

Profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity or religion or even looks, rather than on individual suspicion. Profiling involves discrimination against minority populations and often builds on negative stereotypes of the targeted demographic.  Racial profiling, however, is not limited only to an individual’s ethnicity, race or religion and can also be based on the individual’s nationality.

For example, this week there was a dispute between two neighbors.  One neighbor told the other that his home looked like the lair of drug dealers. That’s called profiling.  She suggested her neighbor that for $6,000 he could demolish his home and install a new house on the lot.

Just this week, in the spirit of intimidation, a neighbor assured her neighbor that his late father was a member of the Ku-Klux-Klan, an American white supremacist terrorist and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Catholics, Native Americans as well as immigrants, homosexuals, Muslims, and atheists.

The Motives

The reasons for elucidating the differences between neighbors, whatever they may be, are multiple. They look for an excuse to accuse the neighbor of a code violation.

In Matthew 7 1:6 we read: “Do not judge, lest you be judged. 2 For with the judgment with which you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure by which you measure, it will be measured for you. 3 And why do you look at the straw that is in your brother’s eye, and do not look at the beam that is in your own eye? 4 Or how will you say to your brother, let me pull the straw out of your eye, and behold the beam in your eye? 5 Hypocrite! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see well to pull the straw out of your brother’s eye.”

Fire Hydrants

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The law appears to be absolutely clear. You cannot park a vehicle less than 15 feet around a fire hydrant.  The law does not publish any exceptions. There is a legal saying that goes: “where the law does not distinguish … interpreters can’t distinguish.”  There is another millenary in Latin: “dura lex sed lex“. The law is rigid, but it is the law.  On the other hand, laws are made to enforce them, not just to read them.

So this other neighbor, in open dispute with her next-door-neighbor, called the police because she saw that her neighbor was building a driveway near a fire hydrants, which was intended to distance itself from it way beyond the 15 feet required by law.  The most interesting thing about the case is that the complainant neighbor is violating the aforementioned 15-foot law.

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We might agree that 15 feet are like too many feet, but we are not experts. If the fire department says it should be 15 feet around: it’s 15 feet around!  However, there are “interpretations“. It is alleged that if the fire hydrant was placed after the construction of the house, that law does not apply. And one might ask: then a vehicle belonging to an owner of a house built before the installation of the hydrant, which is parked right next to it: does not offer any danger at the time of a fire?

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We took a tour around our neighborhood and discovered that the vast majority of homes do not comply with the aforementioned law.  At the end of the day, it may seem that some neighbors have the right to violate the 15-foot law and park their vehicle within inches of a fire hydrant, however: other neighbors do not have that privilege.  The sauce that is good for the bull, should be good for the cow.

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This poses a major challenge to county legislators. What to do with all those homes whose parking lots are right next to a fire hydrant, which vehicles, at the time of a fire, could produce a misfortune in terms of, even, loss of life and homes?  If the experts of the fire department decided that it could threaten the lives of human beings and their property to park a vehicle less than 15 feet around a fire hydrant, allowing a violation of this law would create a complicity against the safety of neighbors and their properties.

In the event of a misfortune in terms of loss of life or property due to a vehicle being parked within 15 feet of a hydrant with the blatant consent of the authorities: who could be sued? The competent authorities who did not demand compliance with this important law? The city of Davie? The Park City management? Who!?

Parking on The Streets

When a Park City neighbor wants to harm another neighbor, he or she could go to the administration and accuses him or her of parking one or more cars on the street. It is true that you should not park cars on the streets, but it happens that many neighbors do not have enough space to park them – especially at night – in their garages.  Those reported vehicles receive a sticker in their windows, as a warning. However: not all! Last night we toured the neighborhood and discovered how many vehicles are parked, during the night, on the streets and we wondered how many of them received stickers.  By the way, all these “tourist inspections” within our neighborhoods have been partial. We haven’t taken the time to tour the entire neighborhood because for sample: a button!

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We are aware that parking vehicles on the streets, especially at night, could cause an accident. This is not our case, by the way.

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Parking on the Grass

The lawns give a decent look to our neighborhood. We should not park our vehicles on the lawn. But – sadly – that’s a common practice in Park City.

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Unfortunately, some receive stickers and others do not.

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Eye Sore

When something is not pleasing to OUR eyesight, we call it eye sore.  There is another saying that says: “for taste… colors have been made“. There is another, however, that says: “there are tastes that deserve punishment“.  If a neighbor doesn’t like the color of the neighbor’s house, he claims it’s an eye sore.  If the neighbor’s garden is not as spectacular as theirs: eye sore!

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Here is a good example of what I mean.  To this neighbor his home is beautiful…!

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But there are more…!  

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It is a matter of taste…!

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In 2017 we bought a lot in Park City and brought in a brand-new house. Many neighbors consider our house one of the most beautiful in the neighborhood.

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So we invested in Park City and bought an old house built in 1967.  It was a “shack”.  However we tried to turn it into an “interesting property”. Unfortunately a neighbor did not like it, because she said it looked like a Hawaiian house and accused us before the Building Department. It is fair to clarify that we violated some codes, which many neighbors in Park City had violated. But we decided to return the property to its original state: a shack!

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This is what we bought

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This is how we fixed it.

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So we returned it to its original state: a shack!

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When you buy a home here, Park City management doesn’t care if the property is old, ugly or wonderful. The administration did not do what the governor of Lanzarote did, in the Canary Islands, where all the houses had to be new, painted white and with the doors and windows painted green.

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Or what was done at Leavenworth in Washington state, where all structures had to have an Austrian theme.

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Or what was done at Helen in Georgia state, where all structures had to have German theme.

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Or what was done at Colonia Tovar in Venezuela, where all structures also had to have German theme.

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By the way, my late mother lived many years in La Colonia Tovar. At her death, because my sister – Maria Conchita Alonso – is a famous Hispanic-American Hollywood star, today it is a museum.

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It is very true that in Park City there are many properties that make the eye hurt, as well as there are many gardens that do not need vehicles to be parked on in order to make them look atrocious.

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Some houses don’t even have a grassy garden, which is perfectly valid by the association’s standards.

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Of course, not everyone in Park City has the taste and especially the money, to have an elegant garden. However, there are those who neglect their garden, but the administration doesn’t seem to care much.  In fact, if we are going to refer to the neighborhood canals, we see that it is not a priority to avoid eye sore.

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Propane Gas

Last week there was an altered argument, because a neighbor was demanding that her neighbor remove the propane gas tank, because it looked very ugly. The neighbor told her that the tank had been there for decades and that it belonged to Amerigas. In fact, he sent her the company’s phone – (800) 427.4968 – to call for an appointment in order to know everything about propane gas. The neighbor wanted her neighbor to buy an electric stove and remove the horrible gas tank.

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Weeds

To conclude this long publication, I want to refer to the vast majority of the gardens of Park City, invaded by a pandemic of bad weeds. Many have beautiful flowers, however, the grass is saturated with weeds that contaminates the neighbor’s lawns: and nobody says anything!

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According to Park City’s management: “Homeowners are responsible for their property taxes, water bills, homeowner’s insurance, mowing and WEEDING of their lawn.”

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Conclusion

Park City is a lower-middle class community, for ages 55 and up. Many of us are already retired and living on a lousy pension. There are other options for the more demanding neighbors. This is what we have and “with these horses we have to plow our land“.

Fortunately, my immediate neighbors are sensible and permissive people. I feel comfortable living in Park City. I think the administration is doing the best it can, although it’s not easy. The least I can tell my neighbors is that “it is as good as it gets…!”

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Davie March 8th, 2022

Robert Alonso

Hispanic-American citizen 43 years serving the USA

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IMPORTANT – If you have any difference with a neighbor, I recommend that you contact Agent Sara Perreira (Police Code Enforcement), whose phone is (954) 693-8082 – She is very professional and interested in listening to all parties.

Letter to the City

To clarify this controversy about the distance at which a vehicle should be parked from a fire hydrant, we send the following letter to the City of Davie’s Code Compliance Department:

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We are waiting for the response of the aforementioned department.