Letters to the Editor
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Am I an upity neighbor?
Planting things is going a bit overboard, but I sympathize a bit with the neighbor who planted them.
When I moved into my house in a "neighborhood in transition," the house next door was a major concern. It was a big old house that had been split up into a duplex. It was owned by the family of the downstairs guy -- a 500 pound guy who never left the house. The tenants upstairs (a family) wanted to buy the house, but the owners weren't selling.
The fat guy died last winter. The tenants offered again. The family thought they could get more. The house went into probate. The tenants got kicked out. The block was abuzz with the possibility that this house would change hands -- anyone would be better than the current owner.
Over year later, the house is still vacant. Last spring, my husband and I cleaned the garbage -- yes, garbage -- that the dead fat guy left in the back yard and porch. Between the neighbor across the street and us, we kept the grass in decent shape. Now it's spring again and my husband is eyeing up the front yard.
The irony is that the longer the house remains vacant and unmaintained, the less it's worth. The offer the owners turned down last year is gonna look like a windfall by the time the family gets done fighting over it.