24 Comments

Good to see LA’s government hard at work.

All the fire re-building permits must have been reviewed and approved.

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Maybe the family should consider relocating to Florida or Texas? Ca is just too fascist.

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I truly despise these people.

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Petty bureaucrats in every town love to flaunt their “power” over the lessers.

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Even in rural West Virginia you have your snoops. My 32 property HOA is an oddity in West Virginia- liberal Democrats have the majority and they have a small cabal who are busy-bodies. They even asked our immediate neighbors- of whom we are in very good terms- whether we were a nuisance so the cabal could pressure us to leave. Fortunately nothing came of it. Property rights tend to prevail in West Virginia.

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If one could determine how much public salary money was vaporized on pursuing the removal of this non-threat to public safety I am sure it would be outrageous. When people imagine the dark doings of an overly powerful government thoughts often turn to domestic surveillance, corruption and graft on a massive scale, etc. But a lot of what oversized government does is just pointlessly harass citizens and makes compliance impossible while extracting tons of fees/fines.

I own a multifamily property that was converted into apartments from its past use as a church. The structure was built in the 1890s and is in a historic district, so when originally redeveloping the property I had to get approval from a historic review board for every exterior element, including the custom windows. A separate city health and safety department recently decided that a large permanent window that is not accessible without a ladder in one of the units must be made able to open and shut for safety's sake, and began issuing weekly fines until this change was made.

Since it's a custom window it's very expensive and would take months to manufacture. Even if I thought this was reasonable (it's not) we still would have to present the design of the replacement window to the original historic review board for approval, which would also take months because of their review and hearing process and obviously production couldn't be authorized until the design was approved. When it was pointed out to health and safety lady that it hardly seems fair to make us spend a load of money on this and fine us when the city's own processes make it impossible to comply for an extended period of time, she just laughed and said that was our problem.

We managed to contest this in a local administrative court (which obviously involved us paying an attorney) and got the fines waived but still have to get a custom window made since one city department retroactively decided another city department's plans approved and implemented over a decade ago should have required something different.

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Next Halloween we should visit the neighborhood, knock on the neighbor's doors and ask where the treehouse is.

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I'm down...in costumes, I assume

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Just put a few homeless people in it.

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good call!

and buckets of fentanyl and narcan for trick-or-treaters

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fentanyl and narcan seems like a mixed message.

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$40K to permit a 110 sq foot structure? Can't the ADU law help? Rhetorical of course as I assume this rich guy's lawyers went through all the possibilities. How disruptive is the tree house over and above just trick or treating? I'm a Grinch about most holidays and the big ones always come with inconveniences. Would that the authorities put this kind of effort into stopping amateur fireworks on an ever widening circle of holidays (which to the uninitiated American have no relation to fireworks)

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Our current mean girls matriarchy government exists to pound out any creativity from anyone’s brains so no one stands out for any reason.

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We took the kids to Boney Island at Rick's house many times. The games and jokes and wit were next level. Best amusement park in LA. So tragic.

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Too bad he voted communist. He's getting what he deserves.

Hoisted on his own commie petard.

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Communist shocked and dismayed and whines when communist system turns on him.

Let the bastard suffer. He voted communist, works in a communist industry, and his show promotes pro-communist themes. Probably has an "Impeach Trump" sign on his lawn in the off-Halloween season that never gets taken down.

Let him rot. No sympathy.

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In “Marriage Story”, Adam Driver’s loss of control in the custody battle is symbolized by his failure to compete with an awesome Valley Halloween party (he tries to take his kid trick or treating in Hollywood and ends up just buying candy from a convenience store).

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D'oh!

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24 years isn't long enough?

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Citizen Kang was the source of the famous retort: Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!

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“Nine angry lesbians.” -Adam Carolla

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