It’s a pretty nice middle class neighborhood and the chief of police is my next door neighbor so I don’t think it would ever get like that. I get why some people don’t like HOA’s though. The stuff you’re describing is why they exist, but some of them get carried away with it. I used to enjoy talking on CB radios and I have a 100ft. pine tree in the back yard so I put an antenna at the top. You could barely see it and they told me to take it down. Stuff like that is what irks you.
I’m fine with the cheaper common sense HOAs. Our place in TX is about that, $500 a year.
Our place in FL…..$355 a month. ******* scam. A gate and non heated pool. That’s it.