Critique of The Citadel from Idaho: "Truth be told, it’s something of a regional embarrassment. . ."

From Patrice Lewis, who describes herself as "a practical constitutional conservative stay-at-home gun-toting homeschooling cow-milking rural-living Christian mom."

You can’t own private property in The Citadel. Approved applicants “receive a Lifetime Lease (paid off in only 30 years).” So what happens after thirty years? Personally after paying something off for thirty years, I’d really like to OWN it. But there’s no private property inside those walls.

Again according to the website, “One of the primary reasons for a lease paradigm versus private property inside the walls is our desire to make the community for Patriots only. The model will be similar in many ways to that of Disneyland. It is walled, gated, private property with controlled access. People pay to enter and agree to the rules because they see value in doing so. It is all based on a voluntary agreement between the owners of the property and those who want to come inside. Millions of people visit Disneyland and interact peacefully. It's exceptionally rare to hear of any serious problems. The key is that those people want to be there and understand what is expected of them. Surprisingly similar to what we are doing.”

In other words, this isn’t a free-hold. In some ways, to me at least, this seems more like modern-day feudalism in which inhabitants must obey the Citadel’s rules. Presumably the Citadel “corporation” will own the land. And who owns the corporation? Who’s living in the castle in the middle? Just asking.

I can’t take particular issue with the concept of The Citadel, I suppose. It’s just that I don’t like planned anything, whether it’s planned health care or a planned economy or a planned community. These are all plans made by other people, and the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, leaving you (as often as not) more fettered and frustrated than free.

LATER -- Another reader forwarded me this bit of Kerodin lore from 2003:

Call Security!

Kevin Shelton and Christian Hyman proved to be mall security guards' two worst nightmares. Shelton, the self-proclaimed “Money Man” of Florida, shot $2 bills into a crowd gathered at Sembler Co.'s Bay Walk in St. Petersburg. The resulting melee caused 12 injuries and brought a mountain of bad publicity. In Washington, D.C., the Office of Homeland Security arrested Hyman, who billed himself as a security expert. Hyman allegedly attempted to extort $120,000 from major mall owners in exchange for keeping mum about security violations he claimed he had found at their shopping centers. A subsequent search of Hyman's apartment uncovered explosives.

The reader also made this comment along with the link:

"(A) few points stand out here which are clearly evident in the man today. 1) K has some ideas and intentions, but they aren’t always good ones. People got hurt at this event, something a security expert should have been able to foresee. Which brings me to point 2: K promotes himself as being knowledgeable in things he has little experience about. Call it hype, inflated ego, whatever you want; but that kind of ignorance gets hurts people (legally, physically, financially, etc.). 3) This is another example of K being directly linked to money, in this case someone who called himself the “Money Man”. Why am I not surprised?! He absolutely LOVES money, which explains his numerous businesses which have little to do with each other (HVAC, talent agency, book publishing, charities, etc.) K continues all three patterns of former behavior with the Citadel project and some people hate us for pointing out the obvious warning signs.