[cappyjon431]

Years ago my wife and I bought a beautiful home in a covenent restricted neighborhood in Wilmington, N.C. While we were not big fans of living with all the rules and regulations (we had never lived in that type of neighborhood before), we knew what we were buying into and agreed to follow the rules. When enforcement started to slip and the neighborhood started to decline a little my wife and I both joined the HOA executive board and returned things to the way they were supposed to be.

Opportunity knocked and we sold our house and moved out of the country. We were sad to leave our neighbors but were proud that when we left, the neighborhood looked better than when we moved in.

We went back to look at our old neighborhood this past July and were shocked at what we found. Run-down is an understatement. Grass three feet high in front of numerous houses, cars up on blocks, some driveways had six cars in them (one of our old neighbors said that some of the houses now had extended family--as many as twelve occupants!). I've seen more attractive ghettos. I was glad me moved when we had, but we were also very saddened to see the rapid decline of this once beautiful neighborhood. We felt bad for some of our old neighbors who had stayed behind and now couldn't sell their homes.

Ignoring one rule leads to lack of respect for ALL the rules. I don't want to see this happen here.