# City harassing our neighborhood **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 3, 2018, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681 "2018-04-03T00:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/21 "2018-04-03T17:59:18Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I’ve seen this recently in my town. My roommate keeps the yard nice with trimmed hedges but he got a citation because they say the hedges in front of the front windows must be cut three inches below the window. He specifically wanted the bushes to cover the bottom of the window so the dogs can’t see out, as they go nuts every time someone walks by the house if they see them. He paid for this house and the property on it. You’d think he could decide for himself how high the hedges can be as long as they’re groomed nicely and not looking overgrown. They’re nicely rounded azalea bushes but last year they had to be cut down while blooming or he had to pay 250 dollars to “let the city handle it”. They were going to do it for him if he didn’t do it by then. Since he didn’t have time to raise a stink about it we just cut them down to fit the rule ourselves and now we have to keep a mattress in front of the window so the dogs can’t see out there. Shades don’t cut it. They just tear them up. Obviously, you need city-approved dogs. Ask them for a list. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/22 "2018-04-03T20:07:24Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I’ve seen this recently in my town. My roommate keeps the yard nice with trimmed hedges but he got a citation because they say the hedges in front of the front windows must be cut three inches below the window. He specifically wanted the bushes to cover the bottom of the window so the dogs can’t see out, as they go nuts every time someone walks by the house if they see them. . . . . That one’s probably either a safety ordinance or part of the building code. Most building codes require one egress window per room. That’s a window low enough and large enough to crawl out of if there’s a fire, gas leak, or other catastrophe. The egress window is not supposed to be blocked by landscaping. Local ordinances can add to that and when they do it was usually proposed as a safety thing. Sorry about the problem with the dogs. It does sound like the bush was an easier fix for that. > [@Crazy\_Canuck](#): > > I disagree with this as an absolute statement. I had a problem with the city I was living in once, and a nasty letter from a lawyer was much more effective at solving the problem than talking to people ever was. It cost me more than just talking, but I think it was worth it. I definitely don’t consider that money “wasted.” > > Obviously, this depends on your local municipal bylaws and actually having a valid legal argument. If you aren’t pissed off enough to pay a lawyer for the initial consultation to find that out, it’s probably not worth it. Sounds reasonable. A lawyer letter is one step down from actually suing, though. The biggest benefit of paying for a lawyer letter is that you get the lawyer’s advice on whether your complaint is valid. The second biggest is that the lawyer may know who to send the letter to for maximum effect. > [@T-Minus](#): > > . . . They also made a “smart” move by putting in a school by us but filtered the traffic into a bottleneck that makes the road un-drivable in the afternoon during school hours. It’s not so much the school that’s the problem, its the way they handled traffic going in and out of there. OK, this is just my curiosity. Is the bottleneck on school grounds, spilling out into the street? Is it that the planning department didn’t require a drop-off bay for a school on a one-lane street? School drop-off traffic is an absolute bear to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/23 "2018-04-03T20:50:00Z")
> [@T-Minus](#): > > I live in a city that is right next to Las Vegas and it is Henderson. Most of the time I tell people that I live in Vegas just because it’s so well known. Also the city is tearing up a crap ton of our roads while replacing the sewer pipes on our side of town. One street that is a main road is half tore up and has been that way for a long while now; I have almost forgotten what the whole road looked like. > > They also made a “smart” move by putting in a school by us but filtered the traffic into a bottleneck that makes the road un-drivable in the afternoon during school hours. It’s not so much the school that’s the problem, its the way they handled traffic going in and out of there. About that Hispanic neighbor thing…how do you know they weren’t told to move their car? Did you ask them? Perhaps they were also told and are just defying the order to not park there. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/24 "2018-04-03T20:57:25Z")
He probably doesn’t speak Hispanic. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/25 "2018-04-03T22:09:22Z")
I’m bookmarking this thread for the next time anyone gets on their high horse about America being Free and other countries being Not Free. Council notices for not mowing your lawn? Micromanaging where you park your car? Geez. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/26 "2018-04-03T22:53:09Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I’m bookmarking this thread for the next time anyone gets on their high horse about America being Free and other countries being Not Free. Council notices for not mowing your lawn? Micromanaging where you park your car? Geez. I’m bookmarking this thread for the next time someone criticizes America without knowing what goes on in their own back yard. Your location says Melbourne. I assume that you’re familiar with places like [Hume](https://www.hume.vic.gov.au/Services_For_You/City_Laws/Unsightly_Property), [Knox](http://www.knox.vic.gov.au/Page/page.aspx?Page_Id=638), [Melton](http://www.melton.vic.gov.au/Regulations/Local-Laws/Unsightly-property-and-graffiti), and [Loddon](http://www.loddon.vic.gov.au/Live/Your-home/Unsightly-premises)? All of these places have “Unsightly property” regulations, which require proper maintenance of private property, and which allow for local authorities to enforce those requirements with visits, notices, and monetary enforcement. I lived in Sydney for most of my childhood, and over a decade of my adult life, and plenty of Sydney municipalities have similar requirements. Here’s an example of how it works, from the Knox website: > [@](#): > > **What happens if I don’t maintain my property?** > > If a complaint is received by Council that your property is unsightly, the first step will be for a Community Laws Officer to inspect the property. If the officer deems that it does constitute an unsightly property, contact will be made with you and a request to resolve the issue will be made. > > If contact is not made with an officer, a Notice to Comply may be issued to you requesting certain works be completed by a specific date. If the works are not completed by that date or alternative arrangements have not been made with the officer, a contractor may be enlisted to complete the work on behalf of Council. Once the work is completed to the satisfaction of Council an invoice will be sent to you for payment of these works. These Australian websites, and the type of requirements that the Australian laws mandate, are quite similar to those found in many American cities. And, as in the United States, the extent to which such municipal codes are enforced can vary significantly from one place to the next. Here’s a [story](http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south/black-rock-landowner-fined-for-tall-grass-takes-council-to-court/news-story/cef42454277b585c67e12646962179e6?nk=0f220b8a39a286989a108b7a78869854-1522795743) from three years ago, where a woman from Black Rock (part of greater Melbourne, for those who don’t know the region) was fined by the council for not maintaining her lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/27 "2018-04-03T22:58:13Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I’m bookmarking this thread for the next time anyone gets on their high horse about America being Free and other countries being Not Free. Council notices for not mowing your lawn? Micromanaging where you park your car? Geez. Big talk from a country that fucking bans video games. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/28 "2018-04-03T23:34:46Z")
Can I just say that I don’t think “I heard two of my neighbors got a complaint from the city over a 3 month period” constitutes harassment? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/29 "2018-04-03T23:48:36Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Can I just say that I don’t think “I heard two of my neighbors got a complaint from the city over a 3 month period” constitutes harassment? Not only can you say it, Imma quote it for emphasis. . ---
**Author:** ![Str8r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Str8r](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Str8r)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/30 "2018-04-05T02:47:54Z")
Don’t be surprised at your neighbors. Nowadays, people like to complain ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/31 "2018-04-05T13:26:30Z")
> [@Str8r](#): > > Don’t be surprised at your neighbors. Nowadays, people like to complain Yeah, this is the first time in history that anybody has ever complained about anything. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/32 "2018-04-05T15:09:04Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I’ve seen this recently in my town. My roommate keeps the yard nice with trimmed hedges but he got a citation because they say the hedges in front of the front windows must be cut three inches below the window. He specifically wanted the bushes to cover the bottom of the window so the dogs can’t see out, as they go nuts every time someone walks by the house if they see them. He paid for this house and the property on it. You’d think he could decide for himself how high the hedges can be as long as they’re groomed nicely and not looking overgrown. They’re nicely rounded azalea bushes but last year they had to be cut down while blooming or he had to pay 250 dollars to “let the city handle it”. They were going to do it for him if he didn’t do it by then. Since he didn’t have time to raise a stink about it we just cut them down to fit the rule ourselves and now we have to keep a mattress in front of the window so the dogs can’t see out there. Shades don’t cut it. They just tear them up. After I saw this, I looked around Memphis. There are a LOT of houses where the hedges and bushes are not 3 inches below the windows. and interestingly, several years ago I got cited for my gutters being not right and for having stuff on my front porch but the azaleas covering the windows were not mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/33 "2018-04-05T15:14:39Z")
> [@T-Minus](#): > > We are thinking of doing something if this crap doesn’t stop. What we have noticed that our Hispanic neighbors weren’t told to move their car that is beside their front door. Now why would they tell one neighbor to move his car by his front yard and not the other? This just doesn’t make sense. Probably because the city loves Hispanics and hates white people. Or maybe they were afraid of being called racist if they asked the Hispanics to do anything. Just another example of how whites are the true oppressed minority. :rolleyes: Also, are you really including “fix our untouched fire hydrate in front of our house” as part of this pit? ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/34 "2018-04-05T18:11:18Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > What about window film like they use to make bathroom windows un-transparent? > > [Amazon.com : window film](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=window+film) I heartily endorse the Rabbitgoo. I use it on my kitchen window. I’ve used this one: > **[Amazon.com: rabbitgoo Window Privacy Film, Rainbow Window Clings, 3D Decorative...](https://www.amazon.com/rabbitgoo-Privacy-Rainbow-Decorative-Non-Adhesive/dp/B09DFYZNGD)** > > Amazon.com: rabbitgoo Window Privacy Film, Rainbow Window Clings, 3D Decorative Window Vinyl, Stained Glass Window Decals, Static Cling Window Sticker Non-Adhesive, 11.8 x 78.7 inches : Home & Kitchen and currently have this one: > **[Amazon.com: rabbitgoo Window Privacy Film Stained Glass Window Film Mosaic...](https://www.amazon.com/Rabbitgoo-Privacy-Decorative-Non-Adhesive-Control/dp/B01JFILPIS)** > > Amazon.com: rabbitgoo Window Privacy Film Stained Glass Window Film Mosaic Static Cling Decorative Window Vinyl, Removable Rainbow Window Tint, Non-Adhesive UV Blocking for Home Office, 17.5 x 78.7 inches : Home & Kitchen ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681/35 "2018-04-06T13:37:45Z")
Property values and the taxation derived from these values … it is a fact that just one hovel in a neighborhood brings prices down … Just compare Henderson from 26 years ago to today … see the difference … hahahahahahahaha … YOU’VE BEEN CALIFORNICATED !!! … them tofu-pukers are just getting started … run, don’t walk, across the river; someplace where people are willing to shoot first, then ask where you’re from … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-harassing-our-neighborhood/811681.md?page=1)