I beat city hall

[UTUSN]

A couple of weeks ago I complained here about parking in front of my house with attendant littering outside my property line, how I am required to cut the grass outside the line, how the post office forced me to put my mailbox out there, how I paid for the walkway including outside the line----yet how I have no say-so (it's a public street) on the parking (except for not blocking the entry). I got jumped on here for making a big deal, and, yes, there were examples of much more extreme situations from other posters than my own.


So, imagine my surprise (not about THAT situation). For 15 yrs I have not only maintained my own yard, but have swept the street in front and picked up the occasional litter from drive-bys (fast food containers, beer cans), and picked up the HEAVY TRASH from three other neighbors in the alley---we're talking: carpet from full rooms, t.v. set, roll-up wooden curtains, automotive parts, tires, and much much more. Things have much improved from my house down to the east. On the other side, it's bad: knee high grass with who knows what stuck inside there, large cardboard boxes, Xmas tree, and more.

So the surprise? Why, I got a letter from the City saying I have a "weedy lot--a nuisance" and telling me to clean it up within 30 days or the City would do it and bill me for it. HaHAH!1


So, with my outrage in a fine state, I went to City Hall and talked to the inspector. She was a young girl in her uniform blue trousers and white shirt. She said not to worry, that she had sent the letters to ALL of us on the two streets sharing the alley because she couldn't see the house numbers from the alley. I asked her to meet me at my place NOW so that she could verify it wasn't my infraction, so that they couldn't say I had cleaned up AFTER getting the letter. She did and just kept repeating this would just mean a computer entry saying the letter didn't apply to me. I said 1) it was a BAD POLICY to send letters both to Guilty and Not-Guilty and 2) that the way things are the computer ether will probably pop my name out with the false infraction in years to come.

I later talked to her supervisor, who elaborated on the policy, saying that it was for wooded areas, like along canals, where the house numbers were inaccessible, so they then send the letters to everybody. He apologized and said he had verified my name had been cleared of the notice. I said it wasn't an apology I was looking for, that it was a WRONG policy or a policy mis-applied, since we're talking IN TOWN, where the inspector just had to drive around the corner to see all of the house numbers.

So I wrote the letter detailing all of the above. I got a letter in response saying that, not only has my name been cleared, but that THE POLICY will not be applied as a "blanket notification" again!1


One old man neighbor was truly hurt, saying, "My yard isn't the best looking, but it's not the worst!" I told him what happened so it shouldn't happen to him (or me) again.



I'm leaving for a few hours. Please, I hope there won't be a post saying, "I'm glad you're not MY neighbor!1"