HOA Neighborhoods and trick or treat

[mom2scouts]

My city has had a set time for trick or treat for decades. It has always been the Sunday afternoon before Halloween. Since I live in a University community, it has a diverse population and income level. Some neighborhoods have more students or low income families who don't give out candy or don't have sidewalks, so many kids go to other neighborhoods. My neighborhood is an older, starter house type of neighborhood with sidewalks, young families, and close houses, so we get lots of kids trick or treating and it's usually a fun community event.

 

Our city has several newer developments and, unlike most of the neighborhoods, the new neighborhoods have HOAs. While scrolling through Facebook today, I saw someone posting trick or treat pictures and I was a bit confused because they live in my city and trick or treat is tomorrow. The people posting live in one of the new upscale neighborhoods. It reminded me of a friend who lived in another of the newer upscale neighborhoods who admitted that the HOA always wanted trick or treating early in their neighborhood to keep out "other children". They would just tell people they just wanted to trick or treat in the evening and that's why they did it. The pictures today (in a different neighborhood) were in the afternoon, but they just did it a day early. Apparently all the upper income neighborhoods with a HOA does trick or treat early and it seems to be a classism issue.

 

A few years ago, I heard a mom lamenting that trick or treating ended early in her neighborhood because a bunch of kids from outside the neighborhood came and people just stopped giving out candy. She also alluded to "feeling sorry" for some biracial children in her neighborhood because people didn't know they were from the neighborhood. So classism and racism is the job of HOAs now?

[scholastica]

Racism and classism are pretty much the reason HOAs developed in the first place. Look up "Racial Covenants".

[happi duck]

So.gross.

[bettyandbob]

Where I live people from the more expensive houses come and park in my neighborhood to TOT. They do it because it's easier. My neighborhood is townhouses. They can hit 100 houses on one street, but if they stayed on their own street their kids would only get to 10 houses. My court has a potluck during TOT so we are outside and I've met quite a few of these people. It's definitely not poorer families coming in. It's wealthier people bringing their kids to our rather diverse neighborhood. I think it's annoying because these same people will lobby for amenities near us to be closed, but then bring their children around because it's easier. 

 

 

ETA my diverse community is covered by an HOA

 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Diana P.

[katilac]

Looking at it from their point of view, even people in upscale areas may have a hard time buying candy not just for their neighborhood, but for tons of kids trucked in from other neighborhoods. It can get a little nuts in some areas, with certain neighborhoods being the place to go - around here, that's partially because some areas get blocked off to traffic and some do not, but that doesn't make it any easier on the host families. I know people who have spent hundreds of dollars and still run out of candy in less than two hours. 

[Ali in OR]

It seems weird to me that a town would regulate ToT to be any day besides Halloween.

[AimeeM]

We live an HOA neighborhood.

We do trick or treating on HALLOWEEN. Period -- even if it's a school night.

 

With that said, I have zero problems with people coming in from outside the neighborhoods -- but if the traffic becomes bad because of it, I can see it becoming a "rule." Nobody here drives cars in the subdivision to trick or treat (some drive golf carts), so we don't really have to worry about kids getting hit by cars... one less thing to worry about. We have narrow roads and parking a ton of extra cars outside of houses is dangerous when kids just pop out from around cars and into traffic -- and there is nowhere nearby to park cars outside the neighborhood (ours is on a road strip with miles of nothing but subdivisions). When we have extras for Halloween, we have them either park at our place or drop their kids off with us first.

 

 

ETA: traffic and safety is a real problem on Halloween in a lot of areas -- and has been since I was a kid. And a lot of subdivisions function as their own communities -- they frequently have events that are only for neighborhood folks. Many who live in such places chose to do so specifically because they wanted that separate, smaller community. I can't comment on whether or not the OP's specific circumstance, so I'll leave that alone.

 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by AimeeM

[Spryte]

Yes, that sounds like classism and racism.

 

We do Halloween on Halloween evening. Kids are brought in here, too. We give out candy till we run out, to anyone in costume - or even if they're not, I'd still give candy. I would not refuse anyone who said, "ToT." Or shut doors. :(

 

We plan on between 350 - 500 ToTers. It's a lot. But so much fun!

 

I love living in a Halloween neighborhood.

[mom2scouts]

It seems weird to me that a town would regulate ToT to be any day besides Halloween.

 

I doubt many people would participate on Halloween evening during the week. Lots of people teach or take evening classes or participate in evening extracurricular activities. Most of the communities around here have a set day and time near Halloween for trick or treating.

[QueenCat]

I doubt many people would participate on Halloween evening during the week. Lots of people teach or take evening classes or participate in evening extracurricular activities. Most of the communities around here have a set day and time near Halloween for trick or treating.

 

Everywhere I've ever lived, trick or treating is on Halloween, sometimes with set times. Sports teams and other activities are normally canceled. The only time I've ever seen low participation is when it's raining heavily. 

[bettyandbob]

I doubt many people would participate on Halloween evening during the week. Lots of people teach or take evening classes or participate in evening extracurricular activities. Most of the communities around here have a set day and time near Halloween for trick or treating.

 

I've lived in my neighborhood 25 years. We always have lots of ToTers. Always on Halloween. One year I had to work at the rec center on Halloween. I'd say there was at least a 50% drop off in class attendance that night, when I got home there were still a few ToTers and my neighbors were still out doing the potluck. 

 

The only difference between weeknights and weekends is when Halloween is on a weekend some people start ToT earlier and some people go later. So, it's more spread out, but with similar numbers coming through the neighborhood. On a weeknight most people will start ToT at the same time. So there's a higher density of kids coming through. 

[MysteryJen]

I doubt many people would participate on Halloween evening during the week. Lots of people teach or take evening classes or participate in evening extracurricular activities. Most of the communities around here have a set day and time near Halloween for trick or treating.

Honestly, I find this attitude unbelievably strange. My neighborhood and our previous one were busy and full of kids, no matter what day of the week it is. Certain holidays just are: October 31, December 25, July 4.

[HSmomof2]

It seems weird to me that a town would regulate ToT to be any day besides Halloween.

That seems weird to me, too. And if the wealthier neighborhoods are purposely changing the date to keep ‘certain’ people out, that’s terrible. ToT here is always on Halloween. We live in a huge HOA community where other smaller neighborhoods bring their kids by the car loads. We just buy a lot of candy. No big deal.

[Word Nerd]

It seems weird to me that a town would regulate ToT to be any day besides Halloween.

Me too. It’s always on Halloween itself here, regardless of the day of the week it falls on. There was a football playoff game on Halloween one year when our team went to state, so they had a Trunk or Treat at the field as well since so many people would be at the game.

[mom2scouts]

You know, it's interesting that none of the neighborhoods that change the date move it so they can have it on Halloween! Really though, I don't care what day people trick or treat. I was just annoyed that so many of certain types of neighborhoods make sure their trick or treat is over before most people expect to go out trick or treating. We  get lots of kids, buy what we can, and pass out candy until we run out.

Edited October 29, 2017 by mom2scouts

[AimeeM]

I doubt many people would participate on Halloween evening during the week. Lots of people teach or take evening classes or participate in evening extracurricular activities. Most of the communities around here have a set day and time near Halloween for trick or treating.

 

We've never lived in an area that did Trick or Treating on a day other than Halloween and we've always had a ton of participants. 

[kitten18]

We live in a newer HOA neighborhood. Everyone here does ToT on Halloween night.

I would guess that within a 30 mile radius of where I live that at least 95% of the neighborhoods have HOAs. So basically, everyone does ToT in a HOA neighborhood.

 

 

In my 45years, I've lived in a small town in the Midwest, a small city in the Midwest, a big city in the Midwest, and in Southern California. Everywhere I've ever lived, ToT was on Halloween night.

[mom2scouts]

NONE OF THE HOAs MOVE THEIR TRICK OR TREAT TO HALLOWEEN NIGHT! They had trick or treat TODAY and today is not Halloween! It has nothing to do with whether they trick or treat on actual Halloween. The point of my post was the all the HOA neighborhoods pick a day *other* than the community wide date. It really seems that they are picking a night other than the accepted trick or treat night specifically to exclude children who don't live in their neighborhoods. I just wondered if maybe I'm missing something or it's really just a classist/racist thing.

[Callie]

It is probably a "we only want to buy candy for our neighborhood thing".

[AimeeM]

NONE OF THE HOAs MOVE THEIR TRICK OR TREAT TO HALLOWEEN NIGHT! They had trick or treat TODAY and today is not Halloween! It has nothing to do with whether they trick or treat on actual Halloween. The point of my post was the all the HOA neighborhoods pick a day *other* than the community wide date. It really seems that they are picking a night other than the accepted trick or treat night specifically to exclude children who don't live in their neighborhoods. I just wondered if maybe I'm missing something or it's really just a classist/racist thing.

 

If they are doing it because they want it to be an event only for their own neighborhood, I'm not sure what that is any more racist or classist than any group of people hosting an even that isn't open to the public. 

 

Again, many subdivisions exist to be somewhat separate from the larger community, and function as a smaller and separate community. 

[OneStepAtATime]

NONE OF THE HOAs MOVE THEIR TRICK OR TREAT TO HALLOWEEN NIGHT! They had trick or treat TODAY and today is not Halloween! It has nothing to do with whether they trick or treat on actual Halloween. The point of my post was the all the HOA neighborhoods pick a day *other* than the community wide date. It really seems that they are picking a night other than the accepted trick or treat night specifically to exclude children who don't live in their neighborhoods. I just wondered if maybe I'm missing something or it's really just a classist/racist thing.

FWIW, I think people are understanding the point of your post.  I don't see a need to virtually shout at people.  I think they were just also surprised that trick or treating is regulated as being on a day OTHER than Halloween and then these neighborhoods chose to change the date not to actual Halloween but to yet another non-Halloween date.  For most of us apparently, that is odd.  People got a little side tracked.    

 

What you posted does seem, on the surface, to possibly be racist and/or classist.  That is truly unfortunate if so.  But HOAs are not usually known for their loving and open minded approach to...well...anything really.  At least not the mandatory ones.  You are right, though, it very much seems like this could be stemming from at least a classist issue.  I don't know about racist since I don't know your area's demographics.

 

On the flip side, I would wonder if maybe they were ending up with a traffic problem or their HOA members found Saturday an easier day than Sunday.  I know my parents and my brother and I were always happy when Halloween fell on a Saturday because it was less disruptive to our schedule, we could spend more time ToTing AND stay up later AND have more time to play with our friends while in costume, etc.  If shifting the official date could have been done, I would bet anything they would have shifted it to Saturday, not Sunday.  Plus, if a neighborhood were to decide to change the date for ToT for their neighborhood I don't really see why they would have to advertise that fact ahead of time.  While it is nice to provide candy for any child that comes to your door, the HOA is responsible strictly for their own neighborhood, not the children in other neighborhoods.  In other words, while there definitely could be an issue along those lines (and I agree it appears there may be) there is also the possibility that other issues caused the change.  Maybe.  

 

Along with that, I can see where neighborhoods might get tired of lots of traffic and being inundated with kids from other neighborhoods.  I think it would depend on the volume of kids coming through.  My SIL and her husband love Halloween and do a lot of decorating and have all of our extended family come to their house for Halloween.  Their neighborhood used to have TONS of houses covered in decorations and lots of houses participating in ToT (on Halloween night, though, not shifted to some other night).  The neighborhood got a reputation as THE place to go.  It was fun to be part of so much activity and seeing so many kids and great costumes, etc.

 

Over time, however, it became really hard to trick or treat and honestly became dangerous.  Lots and lots and lots of cars.  We had a medical issue one year and could not safely drive out of the neighborhood to get home.  Bumper to bumper traffic and zillions of kids all over the road and the driveways all up and down the streets.  Pick up trucks full of kids just leaping out to run to houses while the truck was still creeping down the road.  We would all go to SILs (and still do) but even with many family members contributing tons and tons and tons of candy we always ran out, which would upset people coming late.   Yards would get trampled from the sheer volume.  Eventually, many houses stopped participating altogether.  We don't have the option of shifting the date for ToT here so people just simply stopped.  No decorating, no one answers the door, etc.  Nothing to do with racism or classism.  It just got overwhelming.  SIL and BIL still participate but every year fewer and fewer of their neighbors do.  Last year way more than half did not.

Edited October 29, 2017 by OneStepAtATime

[Pawz4me]

Our former neighborhood (HOA) always had ToT on the 31st (I’ve never lived anywhere that didn’t). But the traffic situation was insanely dangerous. It wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually change due to that. It would certainly have nothing to do with classism or racism in their case, as it was/is a very racially and economically diverse neighborhood. It would have everything to do with the residents’ ability to get in and out, as well as EMS access if needed.

[Carrie12345]

I live in a region of civic associations. (Like HOA, but very few are what you could call "ritzy".)  They all do their Halloween thing randomly.  Mine scheduled Trunk or Treat for yesterday and Trick or Treat (basically down our main road) for today.  I have no idea why they split it like that other than to annoy me.  :toetap05:  Today will be rained out, anyway.

Our co-op did a trunk or treat Thursday.  There were a few on Friday.  A bunch yesterday. Some for today that will be postponed to next weekend. A few actually do the 31st.  I'm supposed to go to one in a tiny strip mall tomorrow night. And of course there are the non-development areas that may or may not expect trick or treaters on Halloween, since our local government doesn't mess with these matters.

 

Because of what I'm used to, it wouldn't occur to me that an alternate date would be to keep the "riffraff" out. I would just assume they wanted a special event for residents. Unless they're gated out, I'd expect the usual non-residents to still show up on the "normal" date.

 

 

[fralala]

Hey, it's trick or treat for a reason. ;)

 

Candy is cheap and little kids in costumes are sweet, and teenagers without costumes who just want candy are-- well, they're kind of a charming throwback, aren't they? Not to mention they help me empty my chocolate bag at the end of the night so that my spouse and I don't end up binging on them.

 

Of course, my kids think the fun part of trick or treating is the kind of transgressive, undaily aspect of getting to knock on strangers' doors, to get those sneak peeks into other lives, under the cloak of night, and the convivial atmosphere back at home as they dump and compare their booty.

 

(And I'm the one bemoaning the fact that others take their littles to "trunk or treats" or mall events during the daytime-- I'll have to add spoilsport HOAs to that list-- and make a stay-up-late-and-run-wild-on-sugar kids holiday into something controlled and regulated by adults, once again. I wish more kids would come knocking and walking around. Bring the neighborhood to life!)

[barnwife]

I grew up in a "ToT is not on Halloween (unless Halloween is a weekend)" place. I now live in a "ToT is on Halloween, period" place. I can't wrap my mind around it. Every year, I think, "I need to look up when ToT is." And then I look it up and lo and behold it's on Halloween and I think "Wait...what? It's on Halloween?! But Halloween is a weekday!"

My brain is broken.

(Sorry, OP I have no helpful comments for you.)

[Valley Girl]

Where I grew up, the local municipalities decided what night would be the official TOT night. It was either a Friday or Saturday night. It was rare that it actually fell on Oct. 31. Different places handle things differently.

 

Where I am now, that's not the case. The municipality is entirely hands off when it comes to dictating when TOT occurs. We stopped participating for a variety of reasons, but our HOA encourages families to take the kids out on Oct. 31 during certain hours. That way, most little ones are home before it's too dark. I'm not involved in planning, so I could be wrong. But my impression is that the plans are made to take into account what is convenient and safest for the residents, not the city at large.

 

I'm sure there are neighborhoods that have less-than-honorable reasons for setting TOT on an alternative date. Shame on them if that's the case. But I suspect that most are just looking at the needs, preferences, and budgets of the residents in their own small community and NOT making a statement to the world at large. Unless there's actual proof the motive was unsavory, why assume the worst about people?

[Element]

Everywhere I've ever lived, trick or treating is on Halloween, sometimes with set times. Sports teams and other activities are normally canceled. The only time I've ever seen low participation is when it's raining heavily. 

That's how it is here. Public school doesn't change their schedule, but almost all activities and outside classes are cancelled. Teachers usually try not to give homework that day. I'm in IL. However, I grew up 3 hours south of here, and the norm was city-scheduled TOT'ing. It was always on a weekend. It was kind of annoying because the actual Halloween would come and go with little fanfare because TOT'ing had happened 4 days earlier. (I love Halloween!  :hurray: )

 

(Edited because I do not need to say "actual" that many times in one sentence.)

Edited October 29, 2017 by Element

[Selkie]

Where I live (rural area with small towns), each town sets a date for trick or treating. Some towns have it on one of the evenings leading up to Halloween and some have it on Halloween. It's common for families to take their kids around to the surrounding towns for multiple nights of trick or treating.

[KungFuPanda]

I doubt many people would participate on Halloween evening during the week. Lots of people teach or take evening classes or participate in evening extracurricular activities. Most of the communities around here have a set day and time near Halloween for trick or treating.

We get a steady stream of trick or treaters even though it’s always on Halloween. I think most people only go out for an hour or two. The houses are close enough to get more than enough candy in that time. People just do that instead of other evening activities.

 

I teach dance classes on Tuesdays and have cancelled my classes that evening. A lot of extra classes just take that night off and embrace the holiday disruption.

 

My neighborhood is very walkable, so I think most of our foot traffic is local. (It’s also not terribly well lit. My town isn’t easy to navigate at night.) Occasionally you’ll see a slow moving vehicle full of kids, but I’m never sure if they’re trucked in or just got tired.

 

My neighborhood isn’t that fancy. I could see people driving in for the sidewalks and “the good candy†but I’m not sure they’d choose us over any number of surrounding neighborhoods so the effect is spread out. My town is also diverse, so there’s no way to identify a kid in costume as “other.â€

[maize]

Extracurriculars here are closing for Halloween. Actually the schools are closed Monday and Tuesday as well, they call it fall break.

 

Trick or Treating here will be on Halloween.

[ChocolateReignRemix]

Where I grew up, the local municipalities decided what night would be the official TOT night. It was either a Friday or Saturday night. It was rare that it actually fell on Oct. 31. Different places handle things differently.

 

Interesting.  Where I grew up TOT was never on a Friday (a large % of the town was at the football game) or Sunday (church).  I can't recall if we ever went TOTing on Wednesdays but it s possible that night was out as well.

[Wheres Toto]

Around here most of the towns do a Trunk or Treat on the weekend closest to Halloween.  Ours was Friday night.  If we wanted to, we could probably have gone to one Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, and one or two today.    Then, door to door Trick or Treating is done on Halloween itself.  I don't know of any towns that set a different date for the actual Trick or Treating, but I have seen curfews or a time range set up.    

 

We go Trick or Treating at my mom's house.  She lives on a street that is a few blocks long, all the houses close, moderate size houses.  We do see car-loads of kids coming in from other areas but I always assumed it was because a lot of areas weren't very walkable.  Our neighborhood is extremely dark, with the houses spread out and lots and lots of hills.  Nobody T or T's in our neighborhood.  There is a loop of very nice large houses around the corner from our neighborhood where I think a lot of people Trick or Treat.  They usually post on Facebook welcoming people to come there, since a lot of our town is like our neighborhood -hilly and dark.   I don't know if they get people from out of town since we haven't ever gone there.

[Guest]

Racism and classism are pretty much the reason HOAs developed in the first place. Look up "Racial Covenants".

AAAAAAAMENNNNN!

[AimeeM]

NONE OF THE HOAs MOVE THEIR TRICK OR TREAT TO HALLOWEEN NIGHT! They had trick or treat TODAY and today is not Halloween! It has nothing to do with whether they trick or treat on actual Halloween. The point of my post was the all the HOA neighborhoods pick a day *other* than the community wide date. It really seems that they are picking a night other than the accepted trick or treat night specifically to exclude children who don't live in their neighborhoods. I just wondered if maybe I'm missing something or it's really just a classist/racist thing.

nm

Edited October 29, 2017 by AimeeM

[TechWife]

Our neighborhood has a party for the kids the weekend before Halloween. They play games and have a costume parade through a small section of the neighborhood. There is no trick or treating. Then, Halloween night everyone goes door to door. We do have people that come into the neighborhood from elsewhere. We are on the edge of town and get a lot of kids that don’t live in neighborhoods. They park near the front entrance of the neighborhood and walk around like everyone else. We have over 700 homes on our subdivision and the kids can get a lot of houses quickly just by gozing down the main road. We welcome everyone.

 

We have had people move in from other areas of the country and ask what day trick or treating is - they usually get on board with no problem, though some complain when the 31st is a school night.

[athomeontheprairie]

NONE OF THE HOAs MOVE THEIR TRICK OR TREAT TO HALLOWEEN NIGHT! They had trick or treat TODAY and today is not Halloween! It has nothing to do with whether they trick or treat on actual Halloween. The point of my post was the all the HOA neighborhoods pick a day *other* than the community wide date. It really seems that they are picking a night other than the accepted trick or treat night specifically to exclude children who don't live in their neighborhoods. I just wondered if maybe I'm missing something or it's really just a classist/racist thing.

 

My dh and I have lived most of our married life in TINY towns (pop >400), The only time either of us remember a town rescheduling was when the local high school was going to compete out of town on Friday, Oct 31 for a state event. The city rolled out the barrell on main street anouncing they were changing ToT to Thursday so parents/families could go watch the hs'ers compete. For those OUTSIDE the town, maybe it seemed like they were changing  the date so others couldn't come in/local kids could go to two places. BUT that wasn't the reason.

 

Maybe it IS a race/class thing. But maybe their is another reason that affects their community that you aren't aware of?

 

 

[TravelingChris]

I don't live in a HOA, but my daughter did.  It was not a one race place or one class place and neither were other HOA places I have been too.  Not sure how they are classist or racist.  Some people of various classes choose to live in HOAs and others don't,  I do not like HOAs, for example and you would never find me living in one except as a last resort.  

[Frosch]

I lived in military housing on THE street to go Trick-or-treating on.  Hundreds and hundreds of kids came by.  They would be lined up on the sidewalk.  We had "street ToT" the night before so our own kids could visit and see all of their friends AND so we could all be home to give out candy to the masses the next night.

There were complaints that we were excluding people.

 

The next year, we all turned off our lights and took our kids ToT-ing and when we got back home we'd give out candy.  There were more complaints.

I guess we were all just supposed to stay home and not take our own kids out.  

 

I was glad to move from there.

 

[Bambam]

I live in a HOA neighborhood. Hey, in TX, almost every neighborhood is a HOA! And many of them are on large lots - think 1+ acres. So, the kids don't walk, they have people driving trucks pulling trailers with hay for the kids to ride. You don't actually go up to the house, the owners (if they chose to participate) have set up a decorated table area/scene and hand out candy right at the street. But ToT has always been - for everywhere I've seen in TX - on Halloween. The local churches have Trunk or Treats on other nights. The mall and library also have a treat night - not on Halloween but usually on the weekend. 

But, two of our last neighborhoods had lots of kids come in from other neighborhoods to ToT there. I'm not interested in being the provider of free candy for the entire town.  I don't understand why you would take your children to a different neighborhood - wouldn't they want to ToT with their friends and go to houses where they know the people and show off their costume to them? If they are driving to other neighborhoods, isn't that just an effort to increase their candy haul and potential quality of said candy? 

 

I'm not a big fan of Halloween. 

[maize]

All new subdivisions in my town are required to have HOA's.

[Kassia]

ToT is on all different nights around here depending on what community you live in.  A friend of mine just had hers on Friday night - it might always be the last Friday of the month in her community.  Another friend of mine is a county commissioner and got grief in her community when Halloween was on a Friday night so ToT interfered with high school football.

 

We live in a rural area and, when my kids were little, there were no homes on our street so we always took them to a suburban neighborhood.  There were tons of kids there - all the rural areas went to this subdivision - and I really appreciated that people didn't mind our kids being there from out of the neighborhood.  That being said, DH and I don't really like ToT.

 

 

 

 

[vonfirmath]

That seems weird to me, too. And if the wealthier neighborhoods are purposely changing the date to keep ‘certain’ people out, that’s terrible. ToT here is always on Halloween. We live in a huge HOA community where other smaller neighborhoods bring their kids by the car loads. We just buy a lot of candy. No big deal.

 

Another reason I can think of to do a neighborhood Trick or Treat on a different date -- free people up to do other activities on Halloween evening. I know we go to our church's activitiy on Oct 31, so our kids do not trick or treat door to door. Which also means we are not home to answer the door and hand out candy that night.

[Bluegoat]

It might be classist.  But it might also relate to issues about having large number of kids from other communities, or being worried about it.  It is something that can be a problem.  And while many people like the chance to see the neighbourhood kids, they don't always feel like spending a lot to feel like a candy dispensary.

 

A far as racist - maybe.  The thing is, it may be the case that for demographic reasons, the kids who come in from outside the community are of a different race the most of the kids who live there.  It's not racist to know that, as a person living there it seems hard to miss, though it's not always considered the thing to point it out.

[Word Nerd]

It could be any of the above possibilities mentioned. Why assume the worst possible motive when you don’t know anything other than that they had it early?

[mom2scouts]

My dh and I have lived most of our married life in TINY towns (pop >400), The only time either of us remember a town rescheduling was when the local high school was going to compete out of town on Friday, Oct 31 for a state event. The city rolled out the barrell on main street anouncing they were changing ToT to Thursday so parents/families could go watch the hs'ers compete. For those OUTSIDE the town, maybe it seemed like they were changing  the date so others couldn't come in/local kids could go to two places. BUT that wasn't the reason.

 

Maybe it IS a race/class thing. But maybe their is another reason that affects their community that you aren't aware of?

 

 

 

No, the city (actually small town) sets a *city-wide* date and time for trick or treat and it is always the Sunday before Halloween. These are just neighborhoods *within the city* (again, think small town "city") who always set a date earlier than the city wide date for their neighborhoods. These are neighborhoods *within* my own relatively small community! So the houses on *these* streets that are part of the HOA have trick or treat on Friday while the houses on the next few streets over have it at the time the city has set for trick or treat.

 

Several of you have said maybe those neighborhoods will be overwhelmed. No, since all the "nice" neighborhoods don't have T or T at the city set time, all the kids come to my neighborhood because we have sidewalks and lots of people giving out candy. We had a steady stream for hours and no traffic or other problems. (This is a small town, not a big city!) I don't just assume the worst motive but I've been told by people who live in those neighborhoods that the HOA doesn't want kids from outside the neighborhood (especially in the neighborhood that is right down the street from a Section 8 housing project).

 

To the person who said all subdivisions are required to have HOAs. How does that work? We really only have a few newer subdivisions and the rest of the city is traditional grid neighborhoods, some built as early as the mid-1800s. There are very general areas that kind of consider themselves neighborhoods, but only those newest neighborhoods are defined enough to even have a HOA. I'm really not a big fan of HOAs anyway and have avoided them. I can't really afford any of the neighborhoods around here that have them anyway!

Edited October 30, 2017 by mom2scouts

[bettyandbob]

Maybe the HOA group itself sees TOT as a neighborhood social event easier done on a Friday or Saturday.

 

My neighbor had a chili cook-off and kids costume event Saturday. I could easily see combining that with TOT.

 

My street gas a potluck during TOT on Halloween. We set it up in the middle of the street (sort of a cul de sac). Obviously we are combining socializing be with each other and TOT.

 

Sometimes it's easier and more fun to have a smaller event with one's neighbors.

 

Why is it bad to mostly just want to give candy to children I know. As I stated previously, the only people I know who come from outside my neighborhood are wealthier and come from larger homes with big yards. Why am I expected to give them candy. Why am I bad if I don't feel like it.

 

FTR I give candy to everyone. I'm just annoyed with all the extra kids.

[maize]

No, the city (actually small town) sets a *city-wide* date and time for trick or treat and it is always the Sunday before Halloween. These are just neighborhoods *within the city* (again, think small town "city") who always set a date earlier than the city wide date for their neighborhoods. These are neighborhoods *within* my own relatively small community! So the houses on *these* streets that are part of the HOA have trick or treat on Friday while the houses on the next few streets over have it at the time the city has set for trick or treat.

 

Several of you have said maybe those neighborhoods will be overwhelmed. No, since all the "nice" neighborhoods don't have T or T at the city set time, all the kids come to my neighborhood because we have sidewalks and lots of people giving out candy. We had a steady stream for hours and no traffic or other problems. (This is a small town, not a big city!) I don't just assume the worst motive but I've been told by people who live in those neighborhoods that the HOA doesn't want kids from outside the neighborhood (especially in the neighborhood that is right down the street from a Section 8 housing project).

 

To the person who said all subdivisions are required to have HOAs. How does that work? We really only have a few newer subdivisions and the rest of the city is traditional grid neighborhoods, some built as early as the mid-1800s. There are very general areas that kind of consider themselves neighborhoods, but only those newest neighborhoods are defined enough to even have a HOA. I'm really not a big fan of HOAs anyway and have avoided them. I can't really afford any of the neighborhoods around here that have them anyway!

It's written into the city ordinances; if a builder wants to get approval for a new subdivision that is one of the requirements.

 

In areas where HOA's are the standard they don't mean anything fancy or uppity. A basic HOA is charged with maintaining communal landscaping (as in an easement along the edge of the subdivision) and enforcing whatever standards the board or members establish--some are more into breathing down your neck than others. Our first home was in a neighborhood of small starter homes (priced under 100k) in Texas and we had an HOA.

 

Not that we personally were happy about that, but it was the way things were. Everywhere had HOA's.

 

Fancier neighborhoods had fancier and more expensive HOA's that paid for community pools and such. Ours kept the grass at the edge of the subdivision trimmed and sent us a notice if there were weeds in our front yard.

Edited October 30, 2017 by maize

[mom2scouts]

Thanks, very interesting. All of the HOAs around here are in newer upper middle class neighborhoods and people pay a lot of money for nothing more than the grass and plants at the entrance being maintained and maybe a sign (with lights or flowers!). They don't have pools or community centers and the playgrounds/parks within the neighborhoods are city owned and public. The whole point of the HOA seems to be to hassle people who dare to park their old car or work truck in their driveway, leave their garage door open, have colored curtains visible from the street, or don't keep their landscaping up to standards. My impression of them after talking to friends is that they are very much like the one in the movie "Over the Hedge".

[Bambam]

HOAs are more than just around for landscaping. While I'm not fond of HOAs in general, they do serve a useful purpose in trying to maintain a standard in the neighborhood in an attempt to maintain property values.  If people don't like them or agree with them in general, only look for houses in non-HOA communities. That is probably super hard in TX and will be super hard on anyone who needs to have a newish house due to allergies because the only ones I've seen outside of an HOA are older homes or very rural.  I personally want to live in an HOA because I'm pretty sure my dh would have his own personal carhenge and a variety of older vehicles in the back yard that the kids could use for playhouses, and we would have a meadow/field of wildflowers that never experienced a mower. 

[kitten18]

 

 

 

To the person who said all subdivisions are required to have HOAs. How does that work? We really only have a few newer subdivisions and the rest of the city is traditional grid neighborhoods, some built as early as the mid-1800s. There are very general areas that kind of consider themselves neighborhoods, but only those newest neighborhoods are defined enough to even have a HOA. I'm really not a big fan of HOAs anyway and have avoided them. I can't really afford any of the neighborhoods around here that have them anyway!

How it works where I live is that every neighborhood in my small city is less than 40 years old (most less than 25 years old). They all have HOAs.