Controversies: Woman's Confederate Flag Continues to Rile Up Neighbors

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, September 28, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Photo: AP via AOL Real Estate

Today in the great American pastime of NIMBYism, a South Carolina woman named Annie Chambers Caddell is still totally pissing off her neighbors by refusing to remove the confederate flag she's been proudly exhibiting next to her home in a historically black neighborhood in Summerville. According to the Associated Press, at first community members protested before the town council, which upheld Chambers Caddell's right to keep the flags up. Undeterred, neighbors then erected an eight-foot-tall fence to block the view. In return, Chambers Caddell raised the flag so it would fly higher than the fence. Accordingly, her next-door neighbor (who so happens to be black) raised an American flag as a sort of, ah, rebuttal. (Note to both: wouldn't it just be easier to build a giant middle-finger sculpture and be done with it?) Anyway, "I'm here to stay," Chambers Caddell told the AP. "I didn't back down, and because I didn't cower the neighbors say I'm the lady who loves her flag and loves her heritage." Then, smugly: "People driving by here because of the privacy fences, they tend to slow down. If the objective was to block my house from view, they didn't succeed very well." Amen to that, sister!

· Confederate Flag Gets South Carolina Neighbors Up in Arms [AOL Real Estate]
· "Neighbor From Hell" Erects Sculpture to Flick off Neighbors [Curbed National]

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House of the Day: Moroccan-Style Manse Might Make Houston Neighbors Wince

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, June 27, 2011, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Houston, Texas
Price: $8,900,000
The Skinny: After a tipster slipped us a link to this Moroccan mansion in Texas, we checked and rechecked the location. Surely, this convincing replica couldn't be planted in conservative Houston, but no, it was, all 20,000-square-feet of it. In the inner courtyard, vistors wouldn't be blamed for thinking they were ensconced in a Marrakech manse, with tile detailing, fountains, and no view of neighboring McMansions. With eight bedrooms, eight baths, two guest houses, pool cabanas, and a petting zoo, this palace isn't without its extravagances. At least the owners brought in an authentic Moroccan architecture firm, Arabesque Moresque, to design the unique structure.
· 4 Rivercrest [HAR]

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Video Interlude: Man Erects Replica of "The David" on Lawn; Pisses Off Neighbors

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, May 13, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

In the quiet Texas town of Abilene, which has adorably named streets like "Sugarberry" and "Cindarella," a man has ruffled feathers by erecting a replica of The David on his front lawn. Of course, this is not the first time some overzealous chap has gone a little overboard with the work of Michelangelo, but all Renaissance supremacy and greatness aside, this guy's neighbors are none too pleased that the genitals of David greet them every time they drive down the block. And apparently the neighbor kids are asking, "Mom, what is that?" The homeowners maintain the statue is "just art."

VIDEO: Nude Statue of David Upsets Neighbors

· Texas Neighborhood Very Upset About Statue Of David’s Penis [Buzz Feed]
· Guy Paints Sistine Chapel in Every Single Room of His House [Curbed National]

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Rude Interruptions: Church of Scientology Kicks Neighbors Out to Expand Golf Course

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 7, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

The Church of Scientology wants to get down with its bad self and expand the golf course next to its San Jacinto, Calif., headquarters. Sounds fun—we assume scientologists are pretty good with a 7-iron—except two residents of Sleepy Hollow trailer park are the last ones standing in the way of the construction. Although 19 of their neighbors have moved—whether happily or not—Candice Savage and Joseph Neely maintain that the park is protected by a law that requires mobile-home tenants be given a year's notice, filing court motions to prolong the eviction. They were supposed to be out yesterday after the Church gave them $800, waived their rent, and gave them two months to leave. The things people do for the man upstairs!
· SAN JACINTO: Tenants evicted from almost-vacant trailer park [The Press-Enterprise via Gawker]

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Dispatches from Crazyville: Prissy, Perturbed Neighbors Say Heck, No to "Baron of Ballsbridge"

Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, December 14, 2010, by Sarah

Photo: David Ames/Greenwich Time

Quelle scandal! Today Greenwich Time publishes a completely manic story about the rather public Irish real estate developer Sean Dunne, AKA the Baron of Ballsbridge, and the controversy he has caused along the swank shores of Belle Haven, a tony enclave in Greenwich, Conn. The three-page account is filled with a dizzying variety of he saids, she saids, and whodunnits, so here's a Twitter-friendly rundown: SD buys house, starts tearing it down. Neighbors cry. SD denies owning house; denies ever meeting neighbors. Demolition at a standstill. Now, remember, this is Greenwich, so when the townspeople rise up, they do so with their own particular language and their own particular set of complaints. One even summoned the wisdom of his "tree expert."

· "He's just so out of character with Belle Haven," said Elaine Buss, who lives across the street from the house.
· "I said, `Send someone over because the house is coming down in front of my eyes,'" said Buss, who has lived on Bush Avenue for 15 years.
· "If he has troubles in Ireland, that's none of my business," Case said.
· "It's certainly an eyesore right now. Every time it rains, it puts mud in my driveway and my tree expert says it's suffocating the root system of a couple of trees I have in my backyard."
· "Frankly, one of the things that is most upsetting is it's not clear to me that there's a resolution," Case said.
· "He had people working on Saturdays," Buss said. "Everyone in Belle Haven objected because the land association does not permit work on Saturdays. But his response was that the Belle Haven rules have no legal standing."
· "He got one of the neighbors to invite him to the Belle Haven Club for a commissioning, clearly presenting himself as a potential resident who would become a member of the Belle Haven Club," said Buss, a club member.

· Irish real estate tycoon alienates Belle Haven neighbors [Greenwich Time]

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