Yet again, more proof of how widely this varies by state.

Delaware is something of an odd case.  Most of northern Delaware (the most densely populated part of the state) is unincorporated and has no local government other than at the county level (and New Castle County, where we both live, has an odd population mix combined with a geographic division - the Delaware Canal - which combines to make county government somewhat schizophrenic and ineffective).  So, there's no city/borough/township to take care of those services.  Partly because of this, partly because of Delaware post-war housing boom, the northern part of the state (and increasingly the rest of the state) is made up of little (or not so little) self-contained developments that just have one or two access roads to a major highway.  Hence the "need" for HOAs to take over some of those local government services.  The flip side is, taxes are pretty low.  Unless you live in Wilmington or Newark, there're no local taxes at all, really, other than property taxes (which are used to fund the schools, and are themselves pretty low).  Personally, I'd much rather have some kind of local government with actual elected officials and regularized public procedures, even if it did mean somewhat higher taxes.  If I could have afforded it, my wife & I would have bought a house in one of the incorporated areas, but in both cases the decent housing was priced outside what we could afford (and the cheap housing is just plain scary), so we ended up buying in an unincorporated area in one of the older developments (dating from the 1920s, before HOAs were common).  We do have a few deed restrictions, but they're mostly either outdated (like the Mayor's smelter restriction) or invalid (like the "no blacks" clause).

From what I'm seeing, they can write in anything they want, even after the fact.

It looks like you can almost manage to have fun with them if you work at it, though if you follow all the links it looks like the resulting legal battles can costing a lot more than the homeowner may anticipate.

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

The guy who moved his car into his garage with the boot on and then called the cops AND the towing company is my new hero.

{Insert amusing quotation here}

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny, but apparently they eventually beat him in court somehow and he ended up selling all his cars to pay his court costs. :(

At least it looks that way if you follow all the links to the end and read all the sites that talk about it.

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

You raise an interesting issue. Evidently from what I have read HOA's in many states are used to make up for deficiencies in local zoning ordinances.

Here in NC, most counties have fairly comprehensive, all-encompassing zoning regulations. I don't have to worry about someone building a tent city in my neighborhood because the zoning classification is very strict: no more than one fully-detached single-family residential structure per half acre. Period. No apartments, no duplexes, no tiny yards even. And certainly no businesses of any type. Home offices are only allowed if clients are met off site. And it is the county government that administers all this, so there is no problem with the ordinances being changed randomly because Gladys down the way and her bridge-playing cronies got a wild hair up their asses about satellite dishes. Likewise, there are municipal ordinances about household appliances in yards, junked cars in yards, even maximum allowable grass height.

There are HOA's here, especially in mcmansion-infested gated developments. However home-buyers don't have to search out developments with HOA's just to protect their basic property values. I think that is a function best served by local governments anyway.

{Insert amusing quotation here}

Yes, it's kind of a free-for-all here.

Anything goes.  There are no trailer parks, but you see everything from yurts to tents to shacks.

We even had some people down the road living in a tent with a grill outside and a junked car that they used as a living/dining room outdoors for a while.  They must have been squatters, because there's a family there now with a house they just built.

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

I'm intimately familiar with what you speak of.  My sister lives in a very nice house she built herself, in Volcano, but over the years she has lived in a wide variety of makeshift shelters ranging from tents to a dome made out of waiwi covered with a few layers of plastic.  The cutest one was a platform built on the stumps of a stand of ohia that someone had cut down.  She cut them off even and nailed her floor joists to them, then put a roof and short walls of corrugated iron on the platform.  Very cozy in the Fern Forest rain...

My brother lives in a shack built out of scavenged lumber in Orchid Estates.

Yup.  And some people build a nice little home, while others put up multiple shacks and gradually acquire a junkyard.  Unless you are the last person to move into your neighborhood, you don't know which type your neighbors will be until after the fact.

There's another tiny home nearby, owner-built, that is very nice, maybe 3 rooms, completely surrounded by trees.  You can only see it from 1 spot in the road if you know where to look, but even so, there isn't a speck of junk in the yard.   Still further is a home that started as a metal garage the people lived in while they built the house.  Again, no junk scattered in the yard.

The difference is, these people take pride in their homes and don't junk up the surrounding exterior, while the 'tent cities' I mentioned earlier seem to show a lack of pride in their ownership.  Sort of like showing up for a job interview or a date in dirty clothes.  A big who cares?    

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

A lot of people move to the Big Island because it's the cheapest land available.  Many of them start sketchy and get sketchier.

I guess that's the price of living in the Wild West.

It's funny you use that phrase.

I almost ended my post with 'it's the wild west out here.'  lol

It truly is a different world.  In many ways it's wonderful, but there are a lot of strange rangers, too.
We are fortunate our neighbors are all fairly normal, but we don't have to travel very far to run into some interesting folks I wouldn't want to piss off. ;)

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

"Why is looking at a truck inherently more difficult or more stressful or more whatever than looking at some eurotrash sports sedan "all day, every day"?

The persona you've created here on TnT is usually pretty laid-back and kind of retro, skeeter1. This statement seems a little out of place coming from you."

I guess I poorly stated my point.  I wasn't trying to be anti-pickup truck, but rather the people who have so much crap in their garage (and all homes around here have them) that they park all of their vehicles (some as many as 5) either in the driveway or on the street.  When a car is parked in front of my mailbox, I don't get mail that day.  That's what peeves me, not the type of vehicle.  I don't care if it's a Toyota Prius or a Ford F-350, but when they take over the street, that's where I have a problem.  I've contacted my council-woman, and was basically told "there's nothing we can do about it".  

I'm not against pickup trucks, for sure, but rather the people taking up public space because they can't (or won't) use their garage for vehicle storage.

there's only one way to find out...

Call the postmaster and complain about your home delivery. If the postman is too damned lazy to get his butt out of his vehicle to go over to your mailbox to stick the mail in, he or she needs to have an attitude adjustment from his supervisor. Not that this will help at all with your area beautification, but if people are parking in front of your property to your disadvantage, you might want to use the time-honored Philly method of reserving a parking spot -- place a lawn chair where you don't want someone to park.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

"If the postman is too damned lazy to get his butt out of his vehicle to go over to your mailbox to stick the mail in, he or she needs to have an attitude adjustment from his supervisor."

MayorBob, I've tried that, and was basically told "So what?"  It's not uncommon for us to go several days without mail pickup or delivery.  Just today, the mailman tore the annunciator transmitter off of my mailbox door and tossed it into the back.  Why?  I haven't got a clue.  

The last time I went to the post office with a complaint (a document that I was expecting, but no one was here to receive it), which isn't all that close by, I had to go the the post office, and I got the same response -- "So what?"  

The buffoons at the USPS never cease to amaze me.  If I could do all of my banking electronically (I can't quite), I wouldn't use them for anything.

there's only one way to find out...

The last time I went to the post office with a complaint (a document that I was expecting, but no one was here to receive it), which isn't all that close by, I had to go the the post office, and I got the same response -- "So what?"  

Document your problems and file a complaint up the chain of command.  Make sure you talk to your local postmaster.  If he/she refuses to do anything about it, threaten to file a complaint with the USPS Office of Inspector General.  If they still don't do anything, file a complaint with the OIG.  It might not actually get the problem fixed, but at least they'll end up with a lot of paperwork to fill out, and with someone breathing down their neck for a few weeks.

Skeeter, a story in the paper the other day said the USPS has to get rid of a bunch of employees because of a budget crunch. So, what I'd suggest is you go full court press on this one. Follow port's advice and document and take your complaint up the chain of command. Don't settle for taking guff from someone at your local post office; demand to speak to the postmaster and, if you get the same "don't give a shit" attitude, pursue it to that branch's main post office. If you don't get any satisfaction or change from that "so what" attitude, call your Congressman to complain. Also, you might want to send an email to web site like consumerist.com. They live for shit like this. Not only might your complaint get widespread publicity, but they can be quite helpful in getting you the phone number of someone who knows an answer beyond "so what" at the USPS. They can even give you some tips on email carpet bombs which might help out your situation.

I've gotta say that I'm flummoxed here because my experience in dealing with the route delivery persons as well as the post office branch people I've dealt with has been quite the opposite of yours.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

More regional variance. This is turning into quite a learning experience for me.

Here most older homes (pre-1980-ish) don't even have garages. At best, you find covered driveway ends (car ports). Why? Because the weather is really only nasty enough for a garage to be a true requirement maybe 10 or 12 days out of the average winter.

More recently, houses in developments are built from cookie-cutter plans that are the same nationwide, so you get garages (and almost comically here in the South roofs pitched to lessen snow load). Plus so much of our population increase has been transplants from places like Ohio where garages are expected.

My point is that it's never occurred to me that parking in one's driveway is a sin. Growing up here, that's what the driveway was for. Theft and vandalism just isn't that big of a deal here (yet). It may be a matter of scale, too. Here in the New South Suburbia, I'd guess that the average driveway could easily hold three or four cars. Hell you could park probably 10 in mine. (Big yard, deep setback from the street.)

Now parking on the street in front of someone's mailbox is a whole different matter.

{Insert amusing quotation here}