The Californian from Salinas, California • 10

STATE 4BM0NDAY, July 7,2003 California Residential rales raise rackus Digest Compiled from wire reports ST Ll THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Bill Durston flies his United Nations flag June 20 at his home in the Sacramento suburb of Gold River. As war in Iraq grew near, Durston, an emergency room doctor and Vietnam veteran, took down his American flag and raised his U.N. flag in protest That drew a response from his homeowners association ordering him to remove the flag. Homeowner association trend bends line between rules and citizens' rights ByJimWasserman the Associated Press GOLD RIVER As the war in Iraq became imminent, emergency room doctor and Vietnam veteran Bill Durston protested by taking down his American flag and raising his United Nations flag. Citing its rules, jiis neighborhood homeowners association told him to take it down.

Citing the Constitution, Durston refused The flag remains, as does the dispute between Durston and the association It's one of many in the growing conflict between the nation's fastest-growing way of life life inside a homeowners association and traditions of liberty and free speech. Tension among the estimated 8 million Californians and 50 million Americans living under rules of a private residential government has lawmakers across the nation dealing with residents' rising unrest In a country founded on private property rights, homeowners associations, practicing what some call "micropolitics," increasingly dictate the nation's home colors, landscaping, pet sizes and placements of satellite dishes. They also restrict many forms of political expression Americans take for granted, even, until recently in many parts of the nation, flying the US. flag. Experts call this still-accelerating trend one of the most stunning transformations in how Americans live, rent and buy homes.

Especially prevalent in booming Sunbelt states, homeowners associations with corporate-style rules that limit traditional town hall democracy and keep closed financial records govern 80 percent of the nation's new housing and neighborhoods, says a trade group. A style of life originally designed for the wealthy few has exploded during the last decade into a mass phenomenon, with 249,000 homeowners associations reported nationally, and up to 8,000 new ones created every year. This year, bills are moving through the California Legislature to override association bans on political signs and give residents rights to see how their dues are spent. Nearly one fourth of the state's 35 million residents live in its 36,214 privately governed neighborhoods, reports the Congress of California Seniors and the Oakland accounting firm. Levy and Co.

Online Community Associations Institute: caionline.org Executive Council of Home Owners: www.echo-ca.orgnew versionabout echo.htm California Law Revision Commission: www.clrc.ca.gov directory.google.comTopHomeHomeownersHomeowner Associations dmoz.orgHomeHomeownersHomeowner-Associations associations, University of Illinois political science professor Evan McKenzie cited a resident forced to leave when he married a woman three years younger than the neighborhood's minimum age. Other associations banned a US. Army veteran from flying an American flag on Flag Day and took a woman to court because her dog weighed more than 30 lbs. A Houston association evicted an 83-year-old woman from her $150,000 residence for back dues of $814. But those are extremes, says Robert Browning, a national board member of the Community Associations Institute, which helps associations observe professional standards.

"Unfortunately, there are millions of people living in these communities you never hear about," Browning says. "It's just that once you start talking life, country, liberty, property and you get one voice with a sound bite you make a lot of noise that these are dysfunctional. But they're not." While McKenzie agrees that most associations don't have these the sheer number of associations can lead to "authoritarian, oppressive situations." California lawmakers, trying to defuse incidents like Durston's UN. flag, are considering a bill that allows political signs and "free speech traditionally associated with private residential also driven by revenue-strapped city halls that love neighborhoods that build and maintain their own streets and parks while providing a new pool of property taxes. Developers are equally fond, saying it puts more people comfortably on less space and sharing amenities such as pools and tennis courts they couldn't afford individually.

Indeed, growth management activists say association-governed neighborhoods have become the nation's best examples of efficient land use. But the phenomenon has spun off lampoon-worthy side effects. During California's energy crisis two years ago, "Doonesbury" cartoons mocked association bans on outdoor clotheslines. The television comedy "Seinfeld" skewered Florida condominium politics with episodes about a board president's impeachment after his son bought him a Cadillac. During last summer's drought in Colorado, newspapers criticized association rules requiring green lawns.

In his 1994 book, "Privatopia," about the rise of homeowners Nationally, an estimated L25 million Americans serve on homeowner association boards, according to the Virginia-based Community Associations Institute. By contrast, the United States has approximately 200,000 city council members, says the National League of Cities. This soaring growth of private government fits America's mobile society, where many consider property values and a quick home sale more important than small individual liberties, says Robert Lang, author of "Edgeless Cities" and director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute. "This is a perfect mechanism for maintaining your house values and predicting peoples' behaviors," Lang says. Homeowners increasingly fear "the neighbor from hell" and crave a uniformity that assures neighbors will mow their lawns, won't paint the house yellow or put a car on blocks in the driveway.

"The total brake on that is the homeowners association," he says. Experts say the movement is Dentists from Mexico Pilot Program was hammered out last year in legislation carried by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles. It was slated to begin July Arnoldo Torres, executive director of the California Hispanic Health Care Association, which crafted the bill said the association may have to try to amend the bill to remove the oversight provision. The California Medical Association opposed the bill, saying it created a two-tiered system of care because all other physicians practicing here must pass the US. Medical Licensure Exam.

The organization said it would oppose any future effort to remove the oversight provision. SAN DIEGO City finds it lost 27 percent of tree cover San Diego lost 27 percent of its tree cover between 1985 and 2002, according to a study by American Forests. The $150,000, five-month study, paid for by the U.S. Forest Service, the state of California and the city examined satellite photographs and digital maps covering 217,000 acres in San Diego and 22 surrounding communities. Trees covered 13 percent of the city last year.

American Forests said the ideal coverage for San Diego is 25 percent American Forests, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental group that conducted the study, said that if San Diego were to increase its tree coverage to 25 percent, the city could save $23 million a year in erosion and air-pollution control. SAN RAFAEL Man spends weekend in jail for office threat A 41-year-old man spent the holiday weekend in jail following allegations that he threatened to kill employees at a Social Security office, police said. Witnesses called police to report that Randall Lucien Canepa showed up at the office Wednesday afternoon to report that he had not been receiving his monthly checks, said San Rafael Sgt Tom Smiley. "He threatened to kill everyone there," Smiley said Police stopped Canepa a few blocks away. He turned out to be unarmed and was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats, a crime punishable by up to a year in jaiL He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

Last month, another San Rafael man was sentenced to 270 days in jail for threatening to start shooting people if caseworkers at the county's Child Protective Services office did not return his children to him. SACRAMENTO Woman says her dog alerted her to fire Talk about best friends. A Sacramento woman credits the dog she owned for just one week for saving her from a fire that damaged her home and killed the loyal pet. Linda Todd, said her 18-month-old Rottweiler's howling woke her from an afternoon nap Friday when thick black smoke from the fire had already filled her three-bedroom house. Although Todd escaped, her dog Bubba died in the blaze.

"I went in three times to try to get him out, but he wouldn't come out," Todd said, rubbing tears from her eyes. Todd, 53, thinks the crackling sound of the fire and her frantic commands for the dog to come out may have scared Bubba. Firefighters eventually rescued him, but it was too late. Investigators said the fire started because of a faulty electrical appliance and caused $175,000 worth of damage. WHITTIER Co-workers honor woman slain in attack Judith Fleming, killed when a former co-worker entered an Albert sons slashing away with a sword, was remembered fondly as a caring "mother hen," a tidy "Mrs.

Clean," and "Radar," for her retention of detail, at a packed memorial. The 55 -year-old Fleming was killed June 29 when Joseph Hunter Parker, a 30-year-old who bagged groceries at the supermarket in Irvine, wielded a samurai-style sword with 3-foot blade and attacked. "She truly lived life to the fullest," the Rev. Charles Murphy said during the service at Rose Hills Memorial Park on Saturday. "She leaves a legacy of love and will be truly and deeply missed.

SAN DIEGO Iraqi emigre learns 1 1 family members slain An Iraqi emigre living in San Diego learned that the bodies of 11 of her missing family members were found recently in a mass grave near Baghdad. Dalia Ali, 32, said the bodies were discovered when her relatives in Iraq found papers listing the names of people who had been executed and where they had been buried "My mom started screaming," Ali said "We grieved like it just happened." Ali said numerous other relatives who disappeared years ago still have not been found. She left behind numerous relatives when her family was exiled from Iraq in 1980. Cousins and uncles suddenly disappeared or were taken away by Iraqi police and never heard from again. Ali said she is grateful that the United States stepped in to end Hussein's rule.

A memorial service will be held at 8 p.ra "Riesday in El Cajon, to remember those killed in Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The service, which will be conducted mostly in Arabic, is sponsored by the Iraqi Democratic Unioa LIVERMORE Greyhound bus stops after shooting threat A Greyhound bus en route from Los Angeles to San Francisco was pulled over on Sunday after a passenger complained that he overheard another rider ordering him to be shot at the next stop. The passenger told the driver he heard the other man make the threat over his cell phone, telling someone on the other end of the line, "When we get to Oakland, there's a guy on the bus wearing red Shoot him," according to the California Highway PatroL Alerted by the driver, five CHP officers stopped the bus on 1-580 west of Vasco Road in Livermore at 8:45 am and escorted the man who had made the call off the bus. He was searched and found to be unarmed, but was not detained after other nearby passengers told officers they never heard him utter the menacing remark. MODESTO Man who fled with girl remains locked up A Maine man arrested in Sacramento while trying to board a plane with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet remained jailed over the weekend while awaiting his first court appearance.

Daniel Fecteau, 49, of Lewiston, Maine, was held at the Stanislaus County Jail on investigation of burglasy and child abduction. He was to be formally charged Tuesday when he makes his first court appearance, a jail official said. Fecteau pretended to be a 17-year-old boy when he met the girl in an online chat room, investigators say. When he arrived in California, Fecteau carried a picture that he said was of a younger brother the girl was supposed to meet, said Detective Doug Ridenour, spokesman for the Modesto Police Department in California. IRVINE Students say they'll fight parking lot plans Students living in a trailer park tucked in a corner of the University of California Irvine say they will fight plans to turn their homes into a parking lot The Irvine Meadows Trailer Park is scheduled to be demolished in July 2004.

The 80 trailers at the site have been sold from student to student for as much as $12,000. Students who pay the university $130 a month for their lots, which includes utilities, say it's the best deal in the county. But they also prefer the sense of community to the relative anonymity of apartments on and around the campus. LOS ANGELES Mexican doctor program in jeopardy A program aimed at bringing 30 Mexican doctors to care for migrant farm workers in rural California is in jeopardy because no medical school has stepped forward to oversee it The Licensed Physicians and You have a real estate problem? I have a real estate solution! Call me now! Direct: 831-417-7356 Hnlifnnmnn as Weekend 3 i 1 1 email: Bviarchecoeaol.com Barbara Marquez Pocheco, realtor' ERA Steinbeck Real Estate 729 S. Main Salinas CA 93901 ERA I Call 758-2000 to subscribe if Steve Buhler, REALTOR i Buying, Selling, Relocating or just Shopping Around Choose a Realtor you will like.

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