HOA company responds to swastika flags in Caldwell
Editor’s note: This column has been updated with statements issued by Boardwalk Association Management and CBH Homes.
A pair of flags with swastikas in a Caldwell subdivision are raising issues of free speech and appropriate forms of protest.
The flags flying from the house are apparently a form of protest by the homeowner, who has a dispute with the subdivision’s builder, CBH Homes, and the homeowners association, Boardwalk Association Management.
No one answered when I rang the doorbell twice Thursday morning. I left a note and my business card at the house requesting a call back. The homeowner later called me from an anonymous phone number, but he did not identify himself and he hung up before I could ask him his name.
He said he has a much bigger story that he will unveil at the beginning of the legislative session, but he would not talk to me about it unless I agreed not to write anything about the flags. I said I could do both stories, but he said if I write about the flags, he wouldn’t talk to me about the other story.
Before he hung up on me, he did tell me that he put up the flags as a statement that the homeowners association was acting in a Nazi-like manner when it comes to assessing violations. He said it’s not a declaration in support of Nazis or fascism.
He said he has a disability and has difficulty getting his garbage cans in his garage, for which he has received a notice of violation. In addition, he received a notice of violation when his grass was too long, which he said got that way when he was in the hospital.
He also said he was overcharged on the sale of his house, which he bought this summer, by $3,000; he was inexplicably charged a $475 fee by the homeowners association when he moved in; and he was charged $325 in annual homeowners association dues, for which, he says, homeowners receive nothing in return.
He also wrapped his van with meat-wrapping paper with the message that HOAs are Nazis and urged people not to buy homes from CBH.
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His house sits on a prominent corner lot near the entrance of the subdivision, Pennsylvania Park, off Kcid Road in Caldwell, near U.S. 26. It also sits across the street from a CBH Homes sales office, not the best advertisement for potential homebuyers.
Boardwalk issued this statement Friday: “Boardwalk Association Management is a hired management company that handles the day-to-day business operations of the Neighborhood Association. Boardwalk helps communities enforce the covenants, codes and restrictions (CCRs) that are set by the Association. These rules are intended to preserve and protect the communities’ property values. Boardwalk helps the neighborhood maintain compliance by conducting inspections of the community, sending out friendly reminders and issuing subsequent notices for items that are in violation of the community’s CCRs. Buyers are given a copy of the CCRs before they purchase their home.
“Boardwalk has assisted in getting decision makers and contributing parties together to communicate and find a resolution to this matter promptly.”
CBH Homes also sent a statement on the matter: “We do not support his views or behavior and have been in touch with the property management company who is working to rectify the situation. It is unfortunate that they are unwilling to follow the (covenants, conditions and restrictions). We’ve called our homeowners in that community to apologize for his behavior and are hoping to have this resolved quickly.”
I spoke with two neighbors, Nunia Anaya, who lives across the street, and Sarah Ybarra, who lives around the corner from the house.
Both said that the homeowner had contacted them in advance, as early as this summer, to let them know he was planning on doing this.
“He actually came over to my house and wanted to speak with me,” said Anaya, who moved into her house in July. “He left a message with my daughter that he was going to be doing this and to not be offended.”
Anaya said the couple living there are nice people and she hasn’t had any issues with them. She said the flags didn’t bother her, but she also said she wasn’t aware of the meaning of the swastika or its history.
The swastika has its roots in religious symbolism but was later appropriated by the Nazi party in Germany and has since come to be a symbol of fascism, white supremacy and ethnic cleansing, and a reminder of the Jewish Holocaust, during which Nazi Germany exterminated more than 6 million Jews.
Ybarra said the homeowner had come to her over the summer and let her know that he was going to be putting up the flags as a statement against the HOA.
She said it raises all sorts of issues. She recognizes that he put up Nazi flags as a statement about HOAs and not some sort of declaration of pro-Nazi political sentiment. But it doesn’t look good, said Ybarra, whose husband is Hispanic and was particularly upset by the flags. The flags could also attract retaliation, Ybarra said, and it feeds into Idaho’s reputation and history of white supremacy.
She’s also concerned about homeowners making political statements in general, noting that one neighbor has a large Trump flag draped across the width of their porch.
“It brings into question, if you can have a Trump flag, or some other political flag, why not that flag?” Ybarra said. “If you can express yourself that way, where do you draw the line? You don’t want to pull into your neighborhood and see a sign for Trump, then a sign for Obama, then a sign about abortion, whatever.”
She said she hopes the subdivision, which is relatively new with new houses still going up just down the street, will develop some rules and tighten up regulations that are fair and improve the subdivision. She and Anaya said a lot of neighbors have been dissatisfied with the HOA over various issues, including a swampy drainage swale that didn’t get taken care of.
Ybarra said she also has been written up over garbage cans left out too long or grass too tall. A lot of residents are unhappy with Boardwalk, she said.
“I get it, and I get why he’s doing it, but it’s over the top,” Ybarra said. “It shows kids, this is what you do when you’re (upset). ... We try to teach our kids not to behave that way. It’s just a poor example overall. It’s negative attention we don’t want. It’s a concern.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
