The ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ is banging the drum for property rights
Four years ago, Colorado native Taralyn Romero had no idea she’d soon become one of the biggest property rights activists online. In fact, she had no idea property rights would play a role in her life at all. But life is funny that way: Sometimes you don’t realize how important an issue is until it shows up in your own backyard—literally.
In 2021, Taralyn and her fiancé bought a home on .68 acres in Kittredge, Colorado. What was meant to be a mountain sanctuary quickly turned sour when she discovered that her backyard with a creek running through it—private property she legally owned—was treated as a public park. Although she allowed access at first, visitors abused her generosity, often leaving trash or harming the vegetation. When she ultimately had to put up signs asking visitors to be more considerate, she was verbally accosted and smeared as the town’s “Wicked Witch of the West.”
Worse still, the County joined the chorus against her, suing to seize her land in order to appease her small-town neighbors who believed she should be forced to share. Refusing to surrender, Taralyn took her story to TikTok. Her unique brand of “sass and facts” garnered a national audience, which rallied behind her, seeing her not as a villain, but as the heroine standing up to government overreach.
Eventually, she reached a settlement with the County. And while she has been happy to put the ordeal behind her, it has changed her in ways she never anticipated. Taralyn has stepped into the role of property rights renegade, not necessarily by design, but by necessity.
Renegade by necessity
Taralyn is not an activist by trade—she has a career, family, and personal life outside of defending property rights. But after receiving such an outpouring of support from the public, she felt a responsibility to help others who find themselves in a similar situation.
“It was a feeling of being called to pay it forward. People came to my aid. That karma needs to be returned back to the people,” she says. “I’ve learned so much. Maybe I can help someone avoid some of the common pitfalls and mistakes and tricks that the government plays.”
She may not get paid for her activism, but it keeps her busy, and her social media following has helped connect her to those who need her help most—people like Arizona property owner Gina Schuh.
In 2003, a diving accident left Gina quadriplegic. When she bought her home in 2012, she spent $150,000 on renovations to suit the needs of her wheelchair. But in 2019, the Town of Gilbert asked to buy a portion of her land to expand a road—a plan that would put a busy street just feet from her door, infringing on her privacy and safety.
Knowing she couldn’t stop the project, Gina decided to sell but wanted to make sure she’d recuperate the money she had poured into the home. She realized the solution was to rezone her property as commercial before selling. The Town agreed and told her that first she would need to demolish her existing home, at a whopping cost of $40,000.
But the government didn’t tell her that rezoning meant she would have to donate $400,000 worth of land to the Town through what was called a right-of-way dedication.
As Gina explained on Change.org:
They are claiming I am a developer. They are claiming because I am rezoning my property, I am now technically a developer. The property I was forced out of. The property I wanted to keep. The property I put so much love and energy into. They just want to take it for free. They do not want to give me any compensation.
Taralyn connected with Gina, and the fight was on. Her network of social media activists—who call themselves the “flying monkeys” as a nod to her Wicked Witch moniker—organized around town hall meetings where as many as 400 people would show up to support Gina. Activists also wrote emails and put public pressure on the town in the media and online. The plan worked. The Town rezoned Gina’s property as planned and properly compensated her for the land.
And the best part: Gina’s victory was won without ever having to go to court, which is the ideal outcome according to Taralyn. “That had a really nice resolution where our public pressure immediately kind of got them sitting up straight without having to go to court,” she says.
The first time Taralyn ever helped with a case that wasn’t her own was in San Antonio, Texas, where a local bar owner was fighting the government for just compensation. The bar owner describes his case as “egregious in a very different way.”
To make room for a new theater at the Alamo, San Antonio was using eminent domain against Vince Cantu and his Moses Rose’s Hideout bar. And as in many eminent domain cases, the City was offering far less than the property was worth. Taralyn recalls:
It blew my mind because they were claiming it was to honor the history of the Alamo and the men who fought and died to preserve their land and their way of life. And then here they were trying to take a man’s property.
Taralyn helped Vince amplify his story on social media and rallied the community behind him.
I saw the power and it worked. We banged the drum. He worked very closely with me. We worked closely with him, and we just got really loud.
What counts as a victory varies from case to case—some want to keep their property, while others, like Vince, want to get the fair value they deserve. With the help of Taralyn and her network of activists, Vince was able to reach an agreement with the City that pleased him.
Like most people Taralyn helps, she has never met Gina or Vince in person, but social media has allowed her to show up for them regardless of the physical distance. And beyond helping people who are actively fighting for their property rights, Taralyn’s activism has also been a symbol of hope for anyone who has ever had to stand up to bullies, government or otherwise. She recounts:
I got this message from a woman in the UK. She sent me a picture of her 8-year-old daughter, and she said, ‘she loves you because you stand up to bullies. She’s being bullied and because of you, she knows how to be strong.’
Another supporter wrote to Taralyn about having to testify against her brother’s murderer in court. “She sent me a message and said, ‘I thought of you that day and how well you speak, I channeled your strength so I could be articulate and I could speak from a position of power.’”
It’s moments like these that keep her going on the days when the task at hand feels daunting. “I always come back to the letters. I save them and I reread them. It gives me fuel for the fire.”
Bang the drum
Taralyn’s motto is “Bang the drum, change the outcome,” and she has more than lived up to this creed. On social media, banging the drum often means putting government officials on blast when they go after property rights, which has proven to be an effective strategy. So relentless is the online pushback that weary officials now come to Taralyn asking what they can do to make it stop.
As Taralyn explains:
If we can avoid litigation through an apology, let’s do that. I don’t want to keep dealing with you. You’re not my favorite. I don’t actually enjoy this. I just want you to do the right thing, admit the mistake, and then we’ll both move on.
Taralyn believes not only in holding government officials accountable, but also in incentivizing them to do the right thing through public praise.
“If you are a government entity and you apologize, I’ll make a post congratulating you on doing the right thing, because we don’t see it often enough. I will lift you up and uphold you as an example so that hopefully we see more of it in the future.”
What started in her own yard has spread all over social media, proving just how powerful a medium it can be. And for any government out there that underestimates Taralyn’s potential to effect change, she has a message.
I love to change the game. It motivates me immensely to be like, oh, you think nothing’s going to happen? You think I’m just a social media influencer? You think me and my little followers from around the world aren’t going to have an impact? Watch. Bet.
Defending property rights is a fight that must be won on multiple fronts. While Taralyn is helping people win in the court of public opinion, PLF is helping them win in the courtroom. We are thrilled to be partnering with Taralyn, to join forces and bang the drum of awareness to make sure individuals understand their rights and that governments are held accountable to the Constitution.
