How did you handle a messy neighbor?
An unkempt lawn. Junk cars parked in the driveway. Toilets in the yard.
These are the things that drive neighbors, like Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer, crazy.
Oberholtzer recently blew the whistle on Councilman Robert Jenkins for having a messy yard. Among the offending items were a toilet and a broken-down car. Jenkins was told to clean up his act. And he did, sort of. The car is gone but he didn’t remove the toilet. Instead, he turned it into a flower planter
Have you had a similar experience? If so, how did you handle a messy neighbor? Did you do a face-to-face or blow the whistle on him?
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© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10 comments Add your comment
Lowell
March 4th, 2009
4:00 pm
My homeowners association would not follow the covenants and the neighborhood looked ragged because of the lack of enforcement. I kept warning them that I was going to plant a toilet with plastic sunflowers, as, where I am from, that is acceptable yard art. I never did it, although they deserved it. Sometimes you just have to make a statement.
nana
March 4th, 2009
5:02 pm
Thank goodness we don’t have a homeowner’s association, there are only 10 houses in our cul-de-sac neighborhood. We do have one neighbor who is in the first house on the block (unfortunately the first house anyone sees, fortunately we live in the cul-de-sac so his house is out of our sight from home) he does nothing to his home, there is pine straw on the roof that I swear has been there since we moved in here 10 years ago. Since his house is on the end of the street a lot of trash (bottles, fast food bags, etc) get thrown out of cars and land near his end of the street. My husband usually goes down there and picks it all up as well as the leaves and pine straw that the neighbor never blows off or picks up. Usually whenever my husband does this the lady occupant of the house comes out and helps him and apologizes for the mess. The male occupant never comes out. He is supposedly a home appraiser and if anyone should know that his house’s condition completely destroys the value of his home as well as our neighborhood, he should. Everyone else on the street keeps their house and yard up well. I think the last person to move in here was over 5 years ago so we’re fortunate none of the houses have been foreclosed on at least. If only 1 house is foreclosed on that’s 10% of the neighborhood, 2 houses-20%, etc.
Pete
March 4th, 2009
5:21 pm
In the Snellvile case, why in the world would a city councilman have to be told to take a toilet out of the front yard? No wonder the neighbor complained to the mayor! I too, would be intimidated to blow the whistle on a city councilman. I think the mayor did the right thing and I normally don’t agree with him.
Eleanor Rigby
March 4th, 2009
11:35 pm
Nana, I like that “pinestraw roof”. There was a house not too far from me that actually had vegetation growing out of the gutters! I lived in a neighborhood once where one neighbor had the junkiest yard you have ever seen. They were section 8. I hate to sound mean but a lot of nice working-class neighborhoods have been ruined by section 8 houses. The people that live in them don’t care. It’s not their house. The owners just want to get the money from section 8. They don’t care because they don’t live in the neighborhood. They’re basically slum lords. Like I said, I hate to sound mean but it’s not fair to working class people who work hard and buy a house. They deserve a nice neighborhood to live in. I think that section 8 houses ought to be in the neighborhoods of the people who created section 8.
Sigh -_-
March 5th, 2009
1:58 am
Post questions like these are breeding grounds for gossip and hatred. Just taking one look at this post, and I can already tell it will go sour(Let me correct myself it “could go sour” things like Name calling, racial complaints and overall whinining could muck up a generally interesting discussion.) To the AJC all I have to say is: Unless you enjoy reading people’s vicious quibs at each other, please create subjects that are as “drama free” as possible. But to the folks who post: People please act mature when posting.(That “unhappiest city” post was ridiculous) There is no need to elaborate excessively to the point that you denegrate another person. If someone has a different viewpoint then your own just deal with it and move on. DOn’t “stalk” that person down by posting about them for the entire blog. It just ruins your day and makes you angry. Don’t feed into nonsense. Just keep it simple and enjoy life. Life is to short to be angry.
For those who are commenting postively and just want to share their experinces just for the sake of sharing them: Keep it up. Keep Holding up the torch for positive internet behavior.
Although this is kind of off subject these are just some points folks should remember if they are going to post about their messy neighbors.
Sigh -_-
March 5th, 2009
2:04 am
(I meant quarrels where there is quips and denigrate where there is denegrate) spelling errors and wrong use of words :p
ATL-G-dog
March 5th, 2009
8:55 am
To say someone is a denigrate is rashist.
Cam Steele
March 5th, 2009
9:02 am
The Snellville councilman is an inconsiderate douchebag. He shows contempt for his neighbors and the public by keeping an obviously trashy yard. And then when called out on it, he takes a textbook passive-agressive tact by rearranging the junk and thinking it is cute. What a disrespectful jerk.
In this case, this guy should be expelled from office, pants in public, then punched in the face. He does not deserve in the respect of civil discussion. He certainly has shown no respect to his neighbors and the public. Isn’t this the very definition of “behavior unfit for public official?” He should sufffer the same fate as the public credit card thiefs.
Otis Leroys
March 5th, 2009
9:22 am
There is a neighbor who is a complete slob with small children in our area. This jerk uses an electric lawnmower (which normally only has enough power to cut about a third of his yard before the battery dies) and there is little or no grass to cut. His yard is made up with a bunch of tall weeds and some monkey grass. When he does clean up his yard, it is only near the sidewalk edges and the curb.
The homeowner’s property as a whole looks like a dump. There is a downspout from one of the gutters which has lost its middle section several years ago and has NEVER been fixed or replaced. The property looks like vagrants reside there, but his family includes his wife and three small children. Code Enforcement has been there on a couple of occasions, only to no avail.
Every neighborhood has at least one dump and our neighborhood is no exception. Rules that govern ones property is fine and dandy providing the homeowner can follow those rules and not be just be plain old stupid and lazy.
Funny ……..This jerk has the incentive to put up Christmas decorations for the holidays.
steve
March 9th, 2009
12:55 pm
zoning laws and code enforcement, call ‘em it works