"One thing I noticed when I moved to the Twin Cities: suburbs all looked the same."

True, but not exactly fair. The one-time housing developments in the inner-ring suburbs and cities have had decades for the individual houses to stray from the original colors, shapes and plans into what they are now. The faster areas are built up, the more they will be the same, but give it time; almost any area over 30 years old will develop its own character. There are even parts of Maple Grove that have been built up long enough for that to happen. (I suspect that you wouldn't like them anyway, Mitch, but that's probably more of a personal preference for city living. Or am I wrong?)

The mindset required to blurt out that last quote is something else, though. Do you suppose she will ever realize that there might be a middle ground between all-beige-all-the-time and "painted red, white and blue?" She sounds like a character out of a parody of life in a small town.

I'd bet that red,white and blue painted house that she's a DFLer.

Down here in Tucson, AZ we had a conversation about neighborhood associations while at a child's birthday party.
I should say that we are moving back to MN (aka God's Country!) in part because of the complete and total uniformity of all new neighborhoods in Tucson. (You have a choice: cookie-cutter new vs. junkie old.)
In our conversation there were defenders of neighborhood associations and regulations (help protect property value, I bought the house for the view and don't want someone else's palm trees blocking it, etc.) and detractors (studies show they have no effect on property value, and while they help protect against the one guy with the Chevy up on blocks in his yard they are mostly a pain in the neck dominated by people with nothing better to do than measure your weeds or determine if you put your garbage bin out 15 minutes early). Horror stories of lawsuits were told.
My wife's only requirement in moving back to Minnesota: not living in a 'burb with cookie cutter houses and restrictive neighborhood regulations. Fine with me! We chose a 1938-built house on a street with a wide range of colors and styles. It's gorgeous.
Builders are just giving people what they (apparently) want. Why they want it I have no idea. I wonder if they are just as worried about making a color choice faux pas on their own house as they are about a neighbor doing so? To me with every house looking exactly alike it feels like living in a glorified apartment. Perhaps it's because with today's smaller lots you are more aware of your neighbor's actions, and therefore feel a greater need to regulate them.
Anyway, in our birthday party discussion it seemed to be the more conservative folks who were in favor of associations as a means of protecting the value of their investment who were in favor of them.

I would tend to agree with Chriss about conservatives generally preferring the associations to maintain property values. That is my personal anecdotal experience at least. (Obviously I can't say difinitively one way or another) After all aren't the more monotonous, newer suburbs considerably more Republican than the Liberal central cities which definitely have a wider variety of architectural styles, colors, etc. in individual neighborhoods?

Why would you guess that the women in the article is a DFLer or that this issue would cut on political affiliation in any case?

"I would tend to agree with Chriss about conservatives generally preferring the associations to maintain property values. That is my personal anecdotal experience at least. "

There is probably something to that, inasmuch as 2+ring burbs tend to vote GOP.

"Why would you guess that the women in the article is a DFLer or that this issue would cut on political affiliation in any case?"

It was mostly a snark. Although her attitude - better life through more rules, don't anyone stand out, red white and blue houses are for all those yahoos in the country - sounds like someone who'd have a job working in county government, which is, of course, an AFSCME joint.

There's a purpose. The houses all look the same, so that in-laws have a little harder time finding the right house.

Joyce Dueffert runs Lil' Bears, a private daycare in Shakopee. Enough snark about a small business owner.

Duly noted. She merely *sounds* like someone who measures her neighbors' grass.

I gave up on being a Republican in Minneapolis and moved to the great state of Wyoming. Here, individuality is highly prized and a decidedly conservative trait. Those who yammer about conformity are usually newcomers and stant towards the left (fortunately there aren't very many of them).

Ditto on the entropy theory. Here in Olde Eden Prairie, where the houses were built in the fifties, the color scheme is riotous. In the newer-but-old sections, with sixties houses, slightly less variation. In the newer developments, where the builder bought paint in railroad-car-lots for the price break, yeah, pretty uniform. So, considering that changing a house color takes more paint and effort than merely repainting in the same color, it's all an age thing.

Steve is right on with his point about the need to differentiate suburbs. We live in St. Louis Park and there is a lot of variety in the style of homes (to say nothing of the color) on almost every block. When I see the acres of monotonous monstrosities going up in places like Chanhassen, Shakopee, and Waconia, I feel fortunate to reside in a neighborhood with homes that have character.

Don't bet that the woman quoted in the story isn't a Republican. I've noticed that notions of personal liberty that sound good in the abstract don't always hold up when applied to real life. There are too many NIMBY Republicans out there for my taste.

Been in an association. Won't ever do it again. Heck on earth is living in a Southeast Florida association with a bunch of NY City snowbirds who have nothing better to do than tell you how to run your house and yard. And whose idea of fun is firing off lawsuits all over the place that run up your association fees.

It may well be that the suburbs here are full of Republicans in the associations, but that's not terribly true across the country, where I've seen Leftist tyrannies in more housing associations than I'd like to admit. Places like Austin, Boca Raton, San Diego, etc.

No thanks. I've done associations and I've been quite careful in my last two houses to make certain that there's no association involved.

Anybody remember "Finlander purple" or "Finlander green" on the Iron Range? I'll bet the cookie cutter houses with the uniform paint jobs turn over a lot faster ...

It's not a DFL-GOP thing; it's a gender issue. The women insist on these washed out colors. To them, the houses are different colors because only women can tell the difference between beige, light tan, sandstone, champagne, cement, off-white, etc.

We live on 60 acres in the country....I can't imagine for 2 seconds having anyone tell me what I can do with my property. Our nephew & wife lived in a townhouse in Chanhassen and she couldn't even have more than a certain number of pots of flowers on their deck area! Who can possibly object to flowers?!

I grew up in an old mining town in Colorado-houses were sometimes 8" apart and most were from the late 1800's-they were interesting and full of all kinds of "character"! I'll take that any day over the tan/huge-garage-in-front monsters (although they probably do have better closets!). The place was alot like Hibbing & Virginia/Eveleth on the Iron Range (even smells the same up there-I love it)-some people's taste in colors did make you wonder, but what the hell.

There is a far simpler explanation for the dull, witless color schemes predominating in the newer suburbs - vinyl siding. The color palette of vinyl siding is limited to white, soft greys, beige, greige, and for those daring souls, a very soft yellow. Nor will these acres of vinyl boxes gradually take on their own character in the future since you cannot paint vinyl.

Recently, my sister-in-law's family from Louisiana were visiting Minnesota for the first time. One of their first questions was as to why all the new houses were the same color. Simple, vinyl siding.

RBMN -- Extremely good point about making your house difficult for the in-laws to find. My in-laws tried to defect to Canada after the election. Seriously. They were shocked, SHOCKED, to realize Canada was not anxious to have two more retirees ready to pull hundreds of thousands of dollars from the health care system. Wonderful grandparents, but the number of "safe" topics for discussion is small and shrinking. I should have bought in a neighborhood association with a gate that bans the gas-guzzeling camper they drive (but they get angry when other people drive an SUV)!

I THINK THAT JOYCE DUEFFERT IS A BABE!!!!!

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