People on this forum and others complain so much about the level of nastiness and unfriendliness, but lately I've been feeling like the net is a lot friendlier than meatspace. At least online I can turn people off, but in my day to day life I have no choice but to interact with people who I'd rather not have any contact with.
I've live in my house now for 6 years, and the more I live here, the crappier people are to each other (or maybe just us). People seem to be more concerned with property values, looking affluent, and making sure things are the way they want them than creating a community, and that's disheartening.
I have plants lining the street in my front yard, and for years they have been mysteriously dying-- something I attributed to there being too much direct sun or possibly people walking their pets. One day about 2 weeks ago, I was in my bathroom looking out the window to the front of my house, and there was my neighbor with his 3 little dogs. I watched one of the little rats lift its leg and urinate on my plant. The guy didn't even pull the dog back, he just watching him. I ran out the door and called him back. I asked politely for him to please not let his dogs urinate on my plants. Instead of just apologizing, he told me that it didn't happen. When I told him I just watched it, he insisted that the dog was just lifting his leg and didn't urinate. This man has a picture-perfect green lawn because he doesn't let his dogs urinate or defecate on his lawn-- but he has ruined the nice grassy area in front of our street that was intended for use as a play area or a picnic area. He and his wife are simply too lazy to walk the dogs very far and refuse to let them ruin their yard. I said as much to him and I'm glad I did-- though it only made him get irate. So I went back into my house, glad that I had finally gotten my say. The thing that really gets me is that his wife has, at various points, told me that our neighborhood isn't for children (I have a child), that our door handle is ugly, we need a storm door, etc. etc. I just don't think it's her business to nitpick about our house as long as it's not falling apart and is presentable. It's so hypocritical.
Fast forward to yesteday. My house is one of those 3-story monstrous townhouses with 2 car garages-- so we have about 3000 SF but very little yard. Well, the way the builder has set up the lots, a 2X20 strip of my front yard (from the front of the house to the street) technically is my next door neighbor's property, but the builder set the little front yards up such that it's a contiguous space about 15X20 and it seems to by my front yard. The previous owner and I had an agreement that we'd maintain the 2 feet since it looked like it was my yard and who wants to care for a two foot wide strip of land anyway. This new neighbor has owned the house now for 3 years and has lived in it for about a year. We're moving in 2 weeks. She chose yesterday to tell us that it's her property and we have to dig up everything that's on that side of the line. The problem is, to do that, I'd have to dig out all the plants the builder put in, a large azalea, some flowers, etc. because almost everything on that side of the door is at least partly on her property. Now, if she had addressed this a year ago, I'm sure we could have agreed on something. But instead she waited until she knew we were moving probably because she doesn't want to deal with it with the people who bought our house. I told her she was free to do as she liked with the part that was her yard, to which she responded it would cost her time and money to do so. Mind you she bought the property with all the stuff as it is now-- so it's not like anything has changed. I called my real estate agent, who thinks I should do nothing because the house, while technically mine for 2 more weeks, has to stay in the condition it was purchased in. So I'm not doing anything. What I don't understand is why she'd want to care for a 2' X20' strip of land even if she doesn't like what the builder and I chose to plant there. It's senseless.
Thank God I'm moving in 2 weeks-- to an older neighborhood with single family homes where people don't seem to have pretensions of being upper class. Hopefully people won't be quite as bad. As usual I'm not participating in the homeowners' association-- those things end up turning into catty snipe fests anyway. I don't expect people to be nice, but I do hope they will leave me the hell alone.
I know this is mostly about my neighbors, but it seems like as people get more and more isolated from each other in their communities, they get less and less tolerant. People who work retail have to deal with a lot of this as well. It's not just the internet where people can get "e-balls." It's everywhere because people have to be less and less accountable to each other because our interactions are so compartmentalized. No one lives where they work anymore-- and even among famillies, kids don't play together in the neighborhood or even attend the same schools. There's really no reason anymore to be nice to each other. It's sad.
Thank you for reading my rant. :smile:
I've live in my house now for 6 years, and the more I live here, the crappier people are to each other (or maybe just us). People seem to be more concerned with property values, looking affluent, and making sure things are the way they want them than creating a community, and that's disheartening.
I have plants lining the street in my front yard, and for years they have been mysteriously dying-- something I attributed to there being too much direct sun or possibly people walking their pets. One day about 2 weeks ago, I was in my bathroom looking out the window to the front of my house, and there was my neighbor with his 3 little dogs. I watched one of the little rats lift its leg and urinate on my plant. The guy didn't even pull the dog back, he just watching him. I ran out the door and called him back. I asked politely for him to please not let his dogs urinate on my plants. Instead of just apologizing, he told me that it didn't happen. When I told him I just watched it, he insisted that the dog was just lifting his leg and didn't urinate. This man has a picture-perfect green lawn because he doesn't let his dogs urinate or defecate on his lawn-- but he has ruined the nice grassy area in front of our street that was intended for use as a play area or a picnic area. He and his wife are simply too lazy to walk the dogs very far and refuse to let them ruin their yard. I said as much to him and I'm glad I did-- though it only made him get irate. So I went back into my house, glad that I had finally gotten my say. The thing that really gets me is that his wife has, at various points, told me that our neighborhood isn't for children (I have a child), that our door handle is ugly, we need a storm door, etc. etc. I just don't think it's her business to nitpick about our house as long as it's not falling apart and is presentable. It's so hypocritical.
Fast forward to yesteday. My house is one of those 3-story monstrous townhouses with 2 car garages-- so we have about 3000 SF but very little yard. Well, the way the builder has set up the lots, a 2X20 strip of my front yard (from the front of the house to the street) technically is my next door neighbor's property, but the builder set the little front yards up such that it's a contiguous space about 15X20 and it seems to by my front yard. The previous owner and I had an agreement that we'd maintain the 2 feet since it looked like it was my yard and who wants to care for a two foot wide strip of land anyway. This new neighbor has owned the house now for 3 years and has lived in it for about a year. We're moving in 2 weeks. She chose yesterday to tell us that it's her property and we have to dig up everything that's on that side of the line. The problem is, to do that, I'd have to dig out all the plants the builder put in, a large azalea, some flowers, etc. because almost everything on that side of the door is at least partly on her property. Now, if she had addressed this a year ago, I'm sure we could have agreed on something. But instead she waited until she knew we were moving probably because she doesn't want to deal with it with the people who bought our house. I told her she was free to do as she liked with the part that was her yard, to which she responded it would cost her time and money to do so. Mind you she bought the property with all the stuff as it is now-- so it's not like anything has changed. I called my real estate agent, who thinks I should do nothing because the house, while technically mine for 2 more weeks, has to stay in the condition it was purchased in. So I'm not doing anything. What I don't understand is why she'd want to care for a 2' X20' strip of land even if she doesn't like what the builder and I chose to plant there. It's senseless.
Thank God I'm moving in 2 weeks-- to an older neighborhood with single family homes where people don't seem to have pretensions of being upper class. Hopefully people won't be quite as bad. As usual I'm not participating in the homeowners' association-- those things end up turning into catty snipe fests anyway. I don't expect people to be nice, but I do hope they will leave me the hell alone.
I know this is mostly about my neighbors, but it seems like as people get more and more isolated from each other in their communities, they get less and less tolerant. People who work retail have to deal with a lot of this as well. It's not just the internet where people can get "e-balls." It's everywhere because people have to be less and less accountable to each other because our interactions are so compartmentalized. No one lives where they work anymore-- and even among famillies, kids don't play together in the neighborhood or even attend the same schools. There's really no reason anymore to be nice to each other. It's sad.
Thank you for reading my rant. :smile:
Anyway..
