https://goo.gl/RE5QAM None will deny that not a day or week seems to go by without some major news story about a natural disaster somewhere in the world. These news and social media accounts are more than a passing interest to most, particularly to USA residents due to recent disasters in North America from coast-to-coast. Whatever the calamity, humanity is disrupted and displaced.  These topics, while not very uplifting to contemplate, have actually resulted in new definitions for these times, like: DISASTROPHE is a recently coined term to blend "disaster" with "catastrophe" in the lexicon of disaster recovery.  What follows are a series of posts on the topic during the timeframe of two serious wildfires in California.  So serious are these fires that they have well-distracted Californians from the usual calamity on their minds, earthquakes. DISASTER RECOVERY for common interest developments (aka homeowner associations or HOAs), indeed recover...

Rapid development of Inland Empire communities? Consider The Pensions Link! Many residents in the Temescal Valley are perplexed about the constant growth of this area, including traffic congestion that plagues the valley. Some believe the growth explosion has much to do with the attempts by local cities, counties, and other public entities to meet unfunded mandates for public employee pensions. Development provides perpetual revenues. The following data collection may underscore this theory. The pension obligations for local and state officials (most certainly including the state higher educational system) is astronomical. In fact, a search on TRANSPARENT CALIFORNIA ▶ https://goo.gl/9EZ3TU ▶ finds more than 1,000 records of real, raw data that is most worthy of this archive. Who in the California university system is most thankful for the state's most liberal pension plans, see TRANSPARENT CALIFORNIA? ▶ https://goo.gl/9EZ3TU If you live in the Inland Empire of Southern Ca...

Flip②▶ #SocialCurrentSee by #ALTACITIES and #CANSWERIST ▶ Circa 1985 and the origins of the California Davis-Stirling Act governing HOAs pic.twitter.com/AImrsBR9SB — Mike Foxworth (@ALTALOMAN) March 14, 2017 With more than 9 million Californians as homeowners, residents of common interest developments (aka homeowner associations or HOAs), it stands to reason that there is a specific body of law to help govern these communities. Of course, that law is the Davis-Stirling Act (DSL), extant since 1985. Did you know?  The prime-position author of that law, the notable former and recalled Gov. Gray Davis actually did not write the law, but relied upon a San Diego law professor for the content with cooperation from fellow attorney and former CA Assemblyman Lawrence Stirling. The summary story is shared in the archive above. Actually, the origin and authorship standings for the Davis-Stirling Act is not really that unusual in California.  In order to get bil...

Inspection of state government records like voter rolls county by county is a dicey matter. One would think that the most transparent practice in this regard might be the largest state, California, but that is obviously not the case. Even though the over-arching theme of our #ALTACITIES blogs is #HOA private governance, there remain a host of other #transparency concerns for the real cities of California, details that need public inspection beyond the confines of the typical common interest development, homeowners association or HOA. LINK  ▶ https://goo.gl/XLMsrh http://canswerist.com

One of the most contentious aspects of living in a common interest development, aka homeowners association (HOA) is the reality of regular and special assessments, not to mention emergency assessments. Our frequent source for commentary on such matters is the blog INDEPENDENT AMERICAN COMMUNITIES, so we invite a reading of and comments about the clip below. CANSWERIST.COM

Most homeowners have little cognizance of the topic of disaster recovery, perhaps disaster preparedness, but not necessarily recovery. When the topic does come to mind, attention often turns to Federal, state, and local agencies who may provide assistance.  But what if that assistance doesn't come?  What if your community failed to receive outside assistance because Federal agencies don't recognize your community exits Surprisingly, that is a real threat to homeowner associations (HOAs) because the Federal Emergency Management Agency treats HOAs as private enterprises, not housing sub-divisions within the larger community that surrounds these locations. Will that make a difference if disaster strikes and your HOA community needs assistance?  Look at the links in my Facebook post (above) for details. CANSWERIST

ALTACITIES ®, an acronym for “ALTERNATE CITIES,” is the web moniker for the neighborhood of sites, blogs and locations created and managed by @ ALTALOMAN , in reference to our first web journals and blogging activity when residents of Alta Loma in Southern California. In 2011, we moved but these  ALTACITIES ® remain in the form of common interest developments ▶ http://flip.it/VQOxZn  on Flipboard The SocialCurrentSee found on this site deals largely with common interest developments, aka homeowner associations or HOAs, now the dominant housing development type in California and much of the rest of the nation.  For the numbers, see this DATA . ▶ Many of the sources archived and flipped here are found in my TWITTER feed and searches like the archive found below. ▶ Whether one owns a townhouse, raw land in a subdivision, a gated-community home, a shack in zoned jungle, or part stake in a condominium complex the majority of people who live there are often n...