The Trumpster Bets on His Hedges
Donald Trump has blocked the ocean views of some homeowners in Rancho Palos Verdes by planting trees (or bushes or hedges — apparently the correct term is disputed) along the Trump National Golf Course. Why? He doesn’t want golfers to have to look at some of the nearby homes.
Although median home prices in Rancho Palos Verdes are nearly $900,000, Trump said homes that overlook the course were an eyesore that distracted golfers. “They could use a coat of paint,” he said. “They use the homes as storage sites and it’s inappropriate. People come from all over the world to play the course and they don’t need to see that.”
I don’t know. Every time I ride my bike past the course on a weekend, it’s practically deserted.
I hope they fine him.
In fact, they could invite me down so I could yell at him: “You’re fined!”
what would they fine him for?
amarc (10527e) — 10/2/2007 @ 5:18 pmWouldn’t you have to know more about his zoning laws before fining? Or is planting trees while being Donald Trump enough?
Read Atlas Shrugged lately?
Christoph (92b8f7) — 10/2/2007 @ 5:23 pmOkay, that was a good one.
DRJ (ec59b5) — 10/2/2007 @ 5:27 pm[…] Max Abelson wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptDonald Trump has blocked the ocean views of some homeowners in Rancho Palos Verdes by planting trees (or bushes or hedges — apparently the correct term is disputed) along the Trump National Golf Course. Why? He doesn’t want golfers to … […]
Hollywood » The Trumpster Bets on His Hedges (167d4d) — 10/2/2007 @ 5:30 pm“The council will take up the matter in December”.
Heh! That’s responsiveness. Trump is going to own that town because the residents don’t care about anything else than their resale values and not paying any more real estate taxes. If they did, they would have taken over the golf course under eminent domain a long time ago and turned it into a public park.
nk (7d4710) — 10/2/2007 @ 6:08 pmHow many zoning and building and safety inspectors does RPV have? Are golf balls toxic waste? Is it a “wetland”? Is any hole an historic site?
He should know better than to insult the community where he does business. Bad Karma.
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 10/2/2007 @ 6:21 pmHe should make sure he never comes up here to Santa Barbara to do business… nobody here cares how much money he has and the County would kill him.
SteveG (4e16fc) — 10/2/2007 @ 6:41 pmThey absolutely tortured Ty Warner (the Beanie Baby billionaire).
His renovation of a beachfront spa at the Biltmore was halted and went over budget by millions when some lady got the lightower on the thing named to the National Historic Register.
Where can we plant trees so we don’t have to look a Donald Trump?
Perfect Sense (b6ec8c) — 10/2/2007 @ 6:42 pmThere are not enough trees.
SteveG (4e16fc) — 10/2/2007 @ 7:05 pmPlus you’d still hear him anyway so what good are trees unless they fall in the forest on him while he is speaking.
In which case I’m OK with it
As a resident, Christoph, I know that the zoning laws prohibit building that blocks someone’s ocean view.
Patterico (bad89b) — 10/2/2007 @ 7:44 pmCool.
Christoph (92b8f7) — 10/2/2007 @ 7:46 pmBut they allow a unobstructed view of Trump? Time to update those zoning laws.
buzz (e09efa) — 10/2/2007 @ 7:53 pmIs planting trees “building” or is the restriction broader than that?
DRJ (ec59b5) — 10/2/2007 @ 7:54 pmWhere’s alphie to point out George Bush has planted trees at his ranch in Texas?
buzz (e09efa) — 10/2/2007 @ 7:56 pmbuzz – alphie will likely try to make some connection between some cronies of Bush and a sweetheart deal for Trump for the land, and then mock Bush for planting trees while promoting global warming.
JD (f718d0) — 10/2/2007 @ 8:02 pmTrue. As it would require either major head trauma, or a great deal of alcohol to approach Alphie stupidity, I will cease attempting to parody.
buzz (e09efa) — 10/2/2007 @ 8:08 pmalphie is beyond parody.
JD (f718d0) — 10/2/2007 @ 8:15 pmRestrictions on the use of private property so that others can enjoy a public good? Sounds like the first step on the road to serfdom, nannystatist.
Moops (99fd9d) — 10/2/2007 @ 8:53 pmVery cute, Moops, but also completely absurd.
Where is your evidence that I oppose (or virtually any reasonable person opposes) all restrictions on use of private property? I could give you a million examples of things nobody would tolerate another doing on his own property — like playing music in the backyard at deafening volumes, for example.
Patterico (bad89b) — 10/2/2007 @ 9:04 pmBlocking other peoples’ views isn’t cool. It has a very real effect on property values and quality of life. Blocking them on purpose is incredibly crappy.
David N. Scott (5986fc) — 10/2/2007 @ 10:54 pmWhere is your evidence that I claimed you do? I simply pointed out that imposing restrictions on private property for other people’s benefit is nannystatism. Between that and all the class envy directed at Trump in this thread I thought I was reading Daily Kos for a minute.
Moops (444e9b) — 10/3/2007 @ 6:11 amThere’s the thousand-year old concept of “spite fence”, Moops. And implied easements for light, air and, yes, view. Also, if I am not mistaken, Rancho Palos Verde is an Olmsted-designed community. I don’t know how “allodial” California is, maybe the original restrictive covenants have expired, but RPV’s trustees should have tried to keep the original plan in force through zoning and building laws.
I also live in a little Olmsted-designed village and I am very frustrated that our worthless trustees are doing nothing about the condominiums and Mcmansions which are destroying its park-like character.
nk (7d4710) — 10/3/2007 @ 7:04 amYeah, I took 1L property too, nk. I was just ribbing people for expressing such enthusiasm for this particular bit of creeping socialism.
Moops (444e9b) — 10/3/2007 @ 7:17 amIt always bugs me when people use ‘socialism’ to describe things that have been around for much, much longer than the word ‘socialism’ or the concept of the workers owning the means of production.
The imprecision with which people use the word to mean ‘the state doing anything’ is breathtaking.
aphrael (db0b5a) — 10/3/2007 @ 7:23 amI live on the street Trump is complaining about, but we took the wheels off the double wide years ago.
Trump does an excellent job in getting free publicity. He has 100 empty lots and is trying to sell $15 million houses on them.
TomHynes (3b3892) — 10/3/2007 @ 7:50 amyour tree illegally blocks my view, i just come out some night soon and cut it down.
assistant devil's advocate (c14872) — 10/3/2007 @ 9:44 ami am bigger and stronger than donald trump, and my hair doesn’t look like a dead squirrel.
Aphrael, your inability to get a joke is similarly breathtaking.
Moops (444e9b) — 10/3/2007 @ 10:39 amMoops: it may be a joke in your case, but the term — like ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ — is regularly misused.
As a former student of political science, I find it maddeningly difficult to have an even remotely comprehensible discussion using these terms because of that misuse.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 10/3/2007 @ 1:11 pmWhat would Clarence Thomas say about this Kelo-like conundrum?
alphie (99bc18) — 10/3/2007 @ 1:23 pmWhat would Clarence Thomas say about this Kelo-like conundrum?
I’m sure he would be the first to vote to have your organs taken under eminent domain for transplantation, Alphie. Thomas has always struck me as a sensible Justice.
nk (7d4710) — 10/3/2007 @ 2:50 pmThe first election I voted in was to incorporate Rancho Palos Verdes into a city in the early 1970s. Developers planned to develop the coast line with high density condos. The new city changed those plans. The coastal homes are mostly single family now. Later, perhaps 20 years ago, we went back to Marineland of the Pacific to visit and were delighted by the park. Low key and friendly, good aquatic shows and refills on soda were a mere $.50, you didn’t feel ripped off. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich made huge mistake, and bought it in the 1980s. Jovanovich in particular. He’d lied about renovating the park. He closed it 6 weeks after the purchase claiming it was too run down to renovate. In San Diego, where the animals were sent, some died, and others attacked low paid Javanovich seemed to think that he had win-win before the mishaps with the sea mammels.The plans appeared to be that the publisher would have the killer whales for a new Sea World in the midwest, and competition would be cut for the Sea World in San Diego, a few hours south. Last, the coastal land in Palos Verdes could be sold for a fortune. It was the wrong city to mess with. School districts boycotted the text books and the land was locked up for years, and Sea World was sold to I believe Pepsi. I think Donald Trump’s golf course is on the former Marineland site. I would have thought that the history of sharp men who thought they could ignore the residents in RPV with impunity would have have made Trump hesitate. The developers and Javanovitch truly regretted their dealings with Rancho Palos Verdes.
HeatherC (32c3ec) — 10/3/2007 @ 3:58 pmNK wrote:
Would Alphie’s brain be amongst the organs seized for transplantation?
Dana (d671ab) — 10/3/2007 @ 5:16 pmThe conundrum is simple: the law does not and cannot always suitably address the issue of what happens when a person is simply the slang term for the human rectum.
Dana (d671ab) — 10/3/2007 @ 5:18 pmalf
you must live out on the plains where there is no view.
Where I live, an unobstructed ocean view can add or subtract $2M-$7M or more from the value of a property.
SteveG (4e16fc) — 10/3/2007 @ 9:54 pmNow if you (alf) had an ocean view property for sale at lets say for $7M that you paid $7M for and Trump paid a landscaper to install a continuous 20ft tall hedge (easily and relatively cheaply done in my experience) that effectively blocked the ocean views from your home, and then your realtor came back and said you should entertain offers at $3M because all the $7M properties have unobstructed ocean views…. what would you do?
Or lets say your parent bought the home for $500K back in the day but now want to sell the house for an expected price of $5M and split up the proceeds between you and the other six mutant spawn screenames you use. Before they can switch it to you all, they die in a tragic high seas accident on a cruise ship while binging at the seafood buffet.
Due to the hedge, the value of the property plummets to $1M
How do you feel about the hedge now?
Steve,
Looks like these are the houses in question:
http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=21354852
They mustn’t have much of a view as they are worth about $1 million each.
Externalities are my favorite part of economics, an interesting case here.
alphie (99bc18) — 10/3/2007 @ 10:52 pm