Just as the mayor is telling everyone to be ‘neighborly’ they decide to send out this insert telling you how to turn in your neighbors for having old cars and such. Don’t forget to post it on your refrigerator!
Just as the mayor is telling everyone to be ‘neighborly’ they decide to send out this insert telling you how to turn in your neighbors for having old cars and such. Don’t forget to post it on your refrigerator!
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Under the first category, Health: apparently we’re encouraged to report ADEQUATE garbage cans? I’m confused…
What is the number to report a neighbor that routinely keeps 250 vultures in their backyard?
Next time I’m to the neighbors I swear I am checking to see if that A-hole has enough smoke detectors.
Is there a number for excess credit card fees?
CPA- I am always on the lookout for talking green muppets in them that want to teach me the alphabet.
You must not have a POS car that the neighbor’s kid parked in front of your place a month ago leaking oil and taking up your off street parking cause it never moves? Or a neighbor that quit using garbage service 8 months ago because he don’t care if the backyard is full of trash or not – cause he’s just renting.
If you did, I’m sure you’d be calling and probably complaining that city didnt get it moved/and cleaned up fast enough (IE branches because after all you’re paying their wages).
I’m glad Soo Foo actually cares about the little stuff so we dont become a stinkhole like a lot of our neighbors (Sioux City anyone?). I know…”Big Brother blah, blah, blah” but for I guess I don’t have a problem with the city actually trying to keep the town clean.
Lemming, trust me, I don’t defend ratholes. But I also don’t care if my neighbor has a late model car. Lets use our judgement.
My neighbors have had dead tree branches on their lawn for days….
I like the insert – it is an example of yet another city service just like tree trimming or snowgates.
The whole “broken window” philosophy applies and it harms our older neighborhoods. You can see when people stop caring it spreads like a virus, and soon enough you have houses that are falling apart, junk all over the yard, broken cars on blocks, unregistered junkers on the lawn, missing and broken windows, lawns that consist of nothing other than dirt and a few weeds, barking “tough guy” dogs on chains in the back yard etc, etc.
If every neighborhood had a resident “busy body” it would go a long way towards keeping neighborhoods in good condition. Granted often people go too far and expect everything to look like an Oak lined street from a 1960s television show, so we need to be realistic about it.
I had a neighbor who had a junk car sitting in front of my house for something like six months. It had flat tires and didn’t run, and it had a circle of rust around it from what washed off when it rained. Eventually after they had to plow around it a few times the next winter he pushed it into his driveway where it sat for the next two years. He eventually started using it to store his lawn clippings because he was too cheap to pay for disposal of them like most people. Then once every few months he could collect all the rotting bags of clippings in his pickup and drive off to dispose of them – which probably means they ended up in a ditch.
After almost two years of this nonsense I finally called the city. The car was gone within a week, which meant his other junker could actually park in his own driveway. That one little example resulted in significant improvements to the neighborhood – so I never felt bad about “ratting him out”.
After moving to Sioux Falls I noticed that nuisance junk in yards and neighborhoods was much more of a problem than in other places I’ve lived or spent time. South Dakotans (at least from outside view) are packrats and they sometimes don’t care what something looks like to others. I see my own parents in Minneapolis doing this kind of crap and I’m tired of it. It ruins neighborhoods.
Maybe if the city were really serious about this stuff they could offer a bounty-type discount on the water bill for every violation turned in. Until then, I’m sure my neighbors will continue milling puppies in peace.
This brochure is not about ratting out rodents or junk cars, it is about busybody neighbors not having a constructive hobby.
Code enforcement in Sioux Falls is operated as a neighbor harassment system. It is not run equally or fairly. The system operated in Sioux Falls is an “I am mad at my neighbor, so I will rat them out for whatever reason currently available.” and the city participates happily. Fees might help pay the employees wages.
When a neighbor or neighborhood no longer has property covenants, the city ordinances are the deciding factor. If a neighbor decides to landscape, remodel or decorate in a different style than the rest of the neighborhood, the city should stay out of it. The city should simply tell the neighborhood about property rights and their value to society. The city has no business in dictating what a commercial or residential building style should be. This is the purpose of neighborhood covenants (when in force by the terms of the land purchase agreement), not neighbors upset because their tastes don’t sync. There are general rules for safe environments called ordinances.
There should be limits on the abuse a property owner can experience from the hands and mouths of busybody neighbors. There must be a limit on the abuses and the use of city employees on the part of vengeful neighbors to hurt a legal property holder.
This is a “let’s make it pretty” campaign to nowhere. I already see it reminding vengeful neighbors of all the additional nastiness they can place on anyone they are not happy with.
There are neighborhoods in Sioux Falls where homes built 30 or more years ago by the first owners and are now being sold to much younger people. These younger people are now working on the property to fit their tastes. The city has no reason to participate in neighbor abuse caused by differences in style. The cost to the city and state in legal action caused by more established neighbors destroying very legal private property is only increased by city employees encouraging the behavior.
The ability of busybody neighbors to hide behind a city employee just to get their way in a style disagreement must be outlawed. The city employees and officials must tell the busybody neighbors to get a hobby and leave the neighbors alone.
WHen I see these things I can’t help but think of when Bush suggested everybody do the same to find “terrorists”. I can’t even imagine how much money was wasted because some paranoid morons with grudges were turning in neighbors who were only guilty of being a bit non-mainstream.
GEESUZ people….have you ever had a situation where you needed to call about something, i.e. street light out, car that hasn’t moved from a street in over a month, etc and not known where to call?? I LIKE this…I HATE having to figure out who to call, where to go, etc. It’s a simple reference. Nothing like making a HUGE mountain out of a small ant hill.
It’s the phrasing used in these publications. It encourages the busybody to get to work. Maybe code enforcement didn’t think they were generating enough revenue?
A busybody is going to be a busybody whether they have information at their fingertips or not. It sounds like what people really want to do is SOMEHOW control the busybodies…which is NEVER going to happen. I’m assuming the REAL busybodies probably have all the phone numbers memorized, know each employee almost personally…
Would agree with Testor. Why so many references? They should have ONE number to call about code enforcement. Send it out on a 2 x 3.5 refrig magnet.
SIOUX FALLS CODE ENFORCEMENT
000-0000
See how easy that was?
Once you live in a neighborhood of Gladys Kravitz wannabes you have not lived!
Or maybe I should have said: “If you have not lived in a neighborhood of Glaydes Kravitz wannabes you have not lived”. Alcoholic / retired / frustrated because they are old / fill in your own reason, is no excuse to abuse the code and law enforcement system of Sioux Falls.
This pathetic excuse for a public announcement is badly worded and then executed. Again.