* * * * *
                                        
      Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, associations are eeeeeeevil!
                                        
> When Southampton decided, this fall, to place a limit on the size of all
> new houses, it settled on twenty thousand square feet, on the ground that
> that figure represents a reasonable limit, given the big-house norms of the
> area. At twenty thousand square feet, a house has perhaps ten or eleven
> bedrooms, a dozen bathrooms, a six-car garage, and maybe, oh, a mini-
> trading floor for the kids. By comparison, Rennert's house, at forty-two
> thousand square feet, has twenty-nine bedrooms, thirty-three bathrooms, and
> two bowling alleys. What the Town of Southampton was saying, in other
> words, is that twelve bedrooms and one bowling alley is fine, but twenty-
> nine bedrooms and two bowling alleys is not. Think of the twenty-thousand
> figure as the community standard—a social consensus—for the maximum size a
> Hamptons monster home ought to be. With that extra bowling alley and those
> seventeen additional bedrooms, Rennert just went too far.
> 

“Sagaponack HOmeowners Association vs. Ira Rennert [1]”

It's warming to know that even the insanely stupid rich have problems with
associations. Oh, and who is this Ira Rennert to whom a 20,000 square foot
home is just too small? Oh, one of those robber barron CEO (Chief Executive
Officer) type people (Man with Many Enemies) [2] with a penchant for
funnelling money into his pocket.

[1] http://www.gladwell.com/1999/1999_01_25_t_rennert.htm
[2] http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/0722/044_print.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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