Need a vote here!1 Neighbor problem!1 Am I overreacting?!1

[UTUSN]

O.K., I've lived here in this neighborhood 15+ yrs. It's a quiet street. Next-door, on both sides, there have been renters moving in and out, problems.

So all that is over. NOW, neighbors are NOT renting, are buying and have lived there most of one year without any problems, no loudness, no parties, no PARKING PROBLEMS (my biggest peeve) in front of my house.

So last night it happened. Vehicles up the ya-ya-nanu-nanu all up and down the street, AND in front of my house. However, only for less than an hour (the parking in front of my house) AND there was NO noise from the party.

However, this morning there were (only) TWO pieces of trash in front of my house ---- a plastic cup and a Frito bag.

However, it's like a SLAP --------like, "I not only disrespect you by PARKING, but will also throw TRASH in front of your immaculately manicured a-hole CRAP!1"


O.K., so I need your advice. Am I overreacting? Should I send a picture (yip, I took it) saying, "WHAT A LACK OF RESPECT"?!1

Or, should I wait for two or THREE strikes?! I really value imput. Thanks.

[KitchenWitch]

1. Pick up the trash and say nothing about it

Until it happens again.

[UTUSN]

3. O.K., Thanks. n/t

[Omphaloskepsis]

2. You are overreacting.

They had people over. Those people were dicks. Bitching at them won't modify their friends behavior.

[AlCzervik]

4. yes you're over reacting.

2 pieces of trash are not a big deal especially after having a lot of people over, could have been the wind that blew them on to your yard. I totally understand your frustration over the parking though, my neighbor's sons oil leaking piece of shit truck was partially blocking my driveway more than a few times which made it a rel pain in the ass to back down the driveway, i finally asked them to make sure he didn't do that anymore.

[DarkTirade]

5. If it happens again talk to them about it.

If not, it's just one incident and they might not have even known that one of their guests dropped something outside.

[UTUSN]

7. To #s 4 & 5 - Oh, I know the hosts didn't know about their guests' behavior

but they knew they invited an overflow of guests. That's a one-sie. AND, prior neighbors have had wild-ass guests with the lassie sitting in the vehicle while the laddie PISSES IN THE STREET!1

MY problem is that I would NEVER park, much less throw trash in front of a neighbor's yard.


That's MY problem.

[DarkTirade]

9. Unfortunately not everyone is going to be a good person.

Sad fact about the world.

[Omphaloskepsis]

10. Have you ever been invited to a party....

that required parking in front of someones house? This is really common. Should they have people park in front of other peoples houses and walk the three blocks?

[UTUSN]

11. Only apartment complexes, with parking.

Yeah-yeah, I know a public street is legal. I've checked it out long ago. You can park on a public street for 48 hours, then drive around the block and park again for another 48 hours.


It just irritates the Hades out of me. *I* would never do it, that is all.

[Gormy Cuss]

43. Yes, but it's legal. If you don't like it, you could move to an area where it's banned.

My area has the same parking law. It's rare that anyone parks on the street overnight but it's common to have people park in front of the house on the weekend when there are kiddie birthday parties, all day BBQs, and adult parties/gatherings in the evenings. During the week there are often contractor trucks too. My block is a narrow two-way street and it's a bit irritating when someone has a dumpster on the street, but otherwise parking just comes with the territory.

The trash sounds minor but if it happens again I'd certainly bring it up to the neighbor - in fact, I have. Series.

[dorkulon]

6. Lighten up, Francis.

Everyone has a party now and then. Parking on the street is legal--you don't own the street in front of your house. Two pieces of litter? I'd say you got off easy.

[UTUSN]

8. LOL, "dorkulon" - (similar to "Francis")!1 n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

12. Heh, parking.... try living near a church. People go to church on all

sorts of holy days, not just Sunday, and we don't have a driveway. I don't go grocery shopping on holy days!
We have friends who live on the walking route between downtown (lunch) and high school. Wrappers, cups, etc., are tossed in all the front yards along that route.
I don't know why the "Don't be a litterbug" campaign stopped such a long time ago, we seem to need it now more than ever!

[marzipanni]

14. Hey, BB, I feel so much the same way, I could have written that!

In fact, I did! (How did you log in so fast while I was in the kitchen for a minute?) :crazy:

[UTUSN]

13. O.K., all, I'm letting it go. I've got documentation/pic. If it keeps hapening

I'll take the next weenie step (mailing them a polite request plus pic).

Thanks, my DUers. Nighty nite!1

[Blue-Jay]

15. You took a picture of a FRITO BAG?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

16. Like C.S.I.: Crazytown.

[SallyMander]

45. ...

:spray:

[bettyellen]

62. ROFL

[Shakespeare]

19. OMG. You took a picture? Of two little pieces of trash?

I have no words.

But I do feel sorry for your neighbors.

[hisownpetard]

40. Oops! Time to join "OverReactors Anonymous." Run!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Way overreacting, hon. Count your blessings this is the worst that

has ever happened. :hug:

However, let us know if the 3 strikes do happen.

[Ellen Forradalom]

18. Sounds like your nerves have been strained

by years of difficulties with previous neighbors.

Give these folks a chance. Really, most of a year with no problems, then one night they cut loose & invite the friends over, and there's only two pieces of trash? It's okay. Really. Just toss them out and forget about it. If they maintain this once-a-year average you're doing well.

[petronius]

20. I would let it go, until the next time.

I generally don't get angry to the point of taking action until things become frequent - a party once or twice a year is well below my threshold. As for the street parking, unless it involved a spot that you personally had dug out of the snow or they were blocking your drive or something, I don't think you have a leg to stand on. Residents park in their own driveways, and the street is for everyone else...

Keeping a record is a good idea, however - if they do become problem neighbors you'll be able to deal with it much more quickly with documentation.

[Catbird]

21. It's sometimes hard to tell who left the trash.

It may in fact have been from the neighbors' guests.

However, it may have been the result of careless trash pickup, random passersby, or wind gusts.

Look for repeated trash problems.

If the is the worst problem you have with neighbors, pick up the occasional trash and count yourself lucky.

[Dastard Stepchild]

22. I didn't realize homeowners disliked parking in front of their property...

We must live in very different areas. Around these parts, you never park remotely close to your own place and people are not at all proprietary about the spaces on the street in front of their house. So I wouldn't let that bother me, but again, that's how things are in my hood.

As for the garbage, it was disrespectful of the guests of your neighbors, but it wasn't something your neighbors had control over. So, bringing it up with them might only cause unnecessary ill will between you and the new neighbor.

[Duer 157099]

23. I'm confused

OK, I get the part about the trash, that's not OK no matter where it happens.

But if someone has people over (and from what I hear, that's fairly normal behavior), where are the friends supposed to park? I always thought street parking was a strictly first-come-first-serve proposition, except in areas that require permits so only residents can park there.

Now, having said, that, it *does* bug me if someone parks in front of my house on trash day so that I can't put the bins out where they go -- but that's sort of different.

[CC]

24. Yes. n/t

[puerco-bellies]

25. Oh please,..

You could be living next door to me!!! Our neighborhood is pretty well gentrified and we have one of the worst houses on the block. Our neighbors have paid close to a million dollars for their homes and have to live next to our crapshack. We have a drought proof yard with natural grasses and other drought resistant crap. I can't get the kids to do the work consistently and I'm not to diligent at keeping it up too.

Our house has gone from a gardening problem to a Negligent Wildlife Management situation, I got faced down by a raccoon last night while in my driveway.

Your lucky!!!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

26. A bunch of cars for a short time?

Sounds like a Presidential candidate was doing a TownHall next door. If they are quiet and normally don't get much traffic, they're probably Republicans.

Plastic cup and Frito bag? Standard dinner for Secret Service agents. Probably a high-caffeine soft drink. Gotta keep them on their toes no matter how boring the meeting.

Use gloves to pick up the two items, place them in a plastic bag, and put them in your freezer. Then you have the evidence in case they turn out to actually be Republicans. We can use that to disgrace their candidate in November.

Good work, comrade!

:rofl:

[Midlodemocrat]

27. Hate to tell you this, but you don't own the street in front of your house.

You are beyond overreacting. Two little pieces of trash in front of your house? Get over it.

[conscious evolution]

28. Best reply yet.

[Connonym]

29. I don't mean this in a disrespectful manner

but I think you're really blowing this out of proportion. What you mention is but a very, very minor inconvenience and even that is too strong a word for it. If you came to my house and complained of that I'd think you were a raging asshole. If the garbage becomes a regular thing and you know who's doing it that might be something to complain about but random garbage one time and parking in front of your house? Jesus, I wish I lived in a neighborhood where that was the worst thing a neighbor would do.

[SPKrazy]

30. OMG YOU ARE OVERREACTING BIG TIME!!!!!!

AND lose the picture of 2 pieces of trash.

[Tyler Durden]

31. I'll trade you my neighbors...

A decrepit old lady and her unpleasant daughter who watch and listen for ANY excuse to call the cops on ANY of their neighbors (except the trial lawyer across the street).

[Genevieve]

32. Overreacting.nt

[Maine-ah]

33. is it legal parking infront of your house?

and did they block your driveway?

[Ikonoklast]

34. I'm trying to figure out if this is performance art, or reality

If it's reality, it is skeeving me out. No one can be wound that tight about such petty nonsense.



As performance art, you need to use MORE CAPS to convey strong emotion, and increase the use of exclamation points!!!!!11!!1!!1!!

[KG]

35. heh

a Burger King is my next door neighbor. every day is trash day.

[flvegan]

36. Nah. TRUE overreacting would have you

yellow-taping the crime scene then having forensics come out and determine the exact time that the trash was left behind. Then full fingerprints and evidence bags. A full questioning and guest list from your neighbors. Background checks on each one to see if there are any perpetual offenders. Then, once the prints come back, journeying to the offenders house and shooting the Frito-loving asshole right in the face. Because, well, nothing sends a more crystal message than splattering the brains of the one who wrongs your property all over their family and home.

[LynneSin]

37. I'm not sure what you're getting upset over

Finally you have neighbors that for the most part, keep quiet and don't overflow into your parking. The fact that your neighbors are now NOT renting means you have people on either side who have investments into their home and will probably take care to keep the value of that home doing well.

You could throw a stink and solve what? A major rift between you and your neighbors? I think that's kinda silly.

Perhaps your best bet is next time you see the neighbor who had the party - just joke about, yeah sounds like you had a great time the other night. If parking is the issue then just politely ask your neighbor to let you know next time there is a party and if they could ask if their guests would refrain from blocking your parking. I'm sure the neighbors would be happy to help out.

As for the trash - it happens. If there is only 2 pieces be lucky. My co-worker is fighting her new neighbors who are regularly leaving dog crap on her lawn

[Blue Diadem]

38. Yes, I think you are overreacting.

What you experienced is what I would consider a normal neighborhood. When parking is not plentiful, it's common for people to park in front of other people's houses. Hey..I don't even have legal parking on my street but during town functions, there are cars in the grass out by the road and yes we get trash in the front yard that people drop or that blows out of their car. I've even had a stranger's car(turned out to be a neighbor's relative) parked in my driveway one Christmas day, and strange cars driving around the larger unfenced portion of my backyard(yes I had a fit over that one)but people parking legally in front of your home for a party is nothing to get yourself worked up over.

You know, I've had some really awful neighbors over the years, I'm talking vandalism, theft, weapons and just plain nastiness. Maybe you could get to know your neighbors and a minor inconvenience wouldn't seem like such an insult.

[TrogL]

39. You'd love it where I live

the guests leave their used condoms, needles, broken drug paraphanalia all over the place.

The panties I can live with - just add them to the collection.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

41. lol! i think you should call dept of homeland security

[youthere]

42. Did they throw a frisbee on your begonias too?

Lighten up. You are overreacting.

[Darth_Kitten]

44. it's disrespectful.........

assholes probably think they own the neighbourhood.

I would store up all the trash and give it back to the neighbour, when they aren't expecting it. But then again, I'm evil. :)

[IndianaJones]

46. I think you are underreacting. nt.

[UTUSN]

47. Summary: I accepted the consensus back in post #13 & am surprised the thread survives.

Questions continued to pop up, whose answers were already stated.

Yes, they blocked my front entrance but it was at night when I wouldn't be using it and my vehicle is in the back via the alley, into the garage.


While I myself brought up the "overreacting" part and accepted the vast consensus that I *was* (or actually, would be if I went any further than I did), the context is that this situation is new to THESE NEIGHBORS, but not to me, who have hassled with a slew of renters before these (buyers)---including some who had HUGH parties EVERY Saturday night, outside with loud music, and guests who urinated out in the street, also in front of my house.

No, I will not discard the pic of the Frito bag, and it's not so ridiculous as it seems. Later on, if serious problems evolve, I will have documentation of EVERY escalation.

Yes, it is a public street, and I fully realize that parking is totally permissible. When I first researched the possibilities years ago a cop said this parking can continue up to 48 hours and then the vehicle needs to drive around the block and can re-park for another 48 hours. AND that I can't DEMAND, but can ASK that they not park there. Yeah-right, like the likelihood of a polite response is high---NOT!1

Talking to the neighbors is not an option---by THEIR choice. The first thing they did was to put up a wooden privacy fence at their alley, although not between our two properties, where there is a chain-link fence. They seldom are outside. They do not clean or cut the grass in the alley outside of their wooden fence. Their yard in the back is littered with cardboard boxes of their various purchases. They pay a yardman, who doesn't come very often. They don't pick up the free- Bargain newspapers on their own front yard.

Believe me, two pieces of litter is nothing to me. I even sweep the edge of my curb, and cut the grass and pick up the more extensive trash in the alley, not only my section, but the two lots east of mine.

The whole issue for me was respect. The people who parked went out of their way to show contempt by dumping their two pieces of litter, one of them on top of an asparagus-fern plant.

Also, since beginning the research on the extent of our rights, I found out that I am required to tend the strip of ground outside my fence, am required by the post office to keep my mail box out there for the mail truck to drive by, and I paid for the walkway including the part outside of my fence-------but I have NO say-so as to what people do out there.

To those who replied politely to this discussion, thank you. To the rest, well, I never fail to be surprised and taken aback by rudeness and ugliness.

[Midlodemocrat]

48. I didn't mean to be rude to you. I had a far more serious

problem with my neighbors across the street and I did think you were overreacting a bit. I have had entire cases of beer empties tossed on my front lawn when then teenaged drug dealer was living there, so I did think that two pieces of trash was an overreaction.

Peace.

[dropkickpa]

53. You seem to be confusing these people

with the previous tenants. You said the new people have lived there for nearly a year with NONE of the problems you had with previous tenants. And, unless you saw someone from their home dropping the garbage, what's to say their guests did it? You are taking your prior frustrations and placing them on the new neighbors, who had absolutely nothing to do with your earlier experiences.

[crim son]

49. I'm a fan of giving them three strikes.

Maybe somebody won the lottery, or an adoption was finalized, or an engagement was being celebrated. People gotta live, and sometimes they live loudly. As long as it's rare, I'd hold my peace if I were you.

[zanne]

50. During the summertime, every Sunday morning...

I find beer bottles on my lawn. (And sometimes, underwear). When you live in a neighborhood, you have to expect some things to happen. I just pick up the bottles and forget about it. (The underwear I pick up with a stick.)

[Bake]

51. Eh, just throw their trash in the neighbor's yard and call it even.

Mr. Grumpy Neighbor ...

:rofl:

Bake

[Zornhau]

52. Overreacting

look on the bright side, this was the view of our neighbors when they were evicted (finally)

[WHAT]

54. don't know...

coulda been a funeral.

Maybe they have an agenda that doesn't take you into account but does not disrespect you. For example, my agenda was to reach 800 posts and,now, I'm done "littering".

[AngryAmish]

55. To paraphrase John Riggins, Loosen up... you're too tight

People are allowed to park on the street. Period.

It is in no way disrespectful.

If you consider it to be disrespectful it is your problem, not theirs.

Garbage: a cup and a frito bad (please post the picture) is not a big deal.

I'm glad I am where I am and you are where you are.

[UTUSN]

56. Last summary, since the previous one hasn't stopped the repetitions

No, I am not confusing the current peeps with the prior ones. But my previous experiences had upped my level of vigilance, like what now? The previous peeps did THESE SAME THINGS, albeit more things that were more serious.


Now, perhaps for some less contentious replies, I might have posted an o.p. with an open ended questions, like, "What do you think about this?" Instead, I made it a premise that it WAS a problem AND that I might be "overreacting."


So, the "overreaction" part was pounced upon. Now, let's get down to reality: What, exactly, did I DO?!1

1) I took some pics---no, the Frito bag is not the point, the point was the location, the glimpse of fence, mailbox, walkway, property lines. AND there is NO doubt that the guests were the ones who did the littering (for those who continue to speculate on that point): I daily look out and pick up, K?

2) I did, indeed, pick up the two pieces of litter, inconsequential compared to the amount I pick up in the alley and in neighboring sections of the public parts of the neighbors' domains.

and 3) I asked for input here.


NOTE that I did *not* approach the neighbors, their guests, did *not* demand, scream, threaten, or anything ELSE.


So, it would seem that my "overreaction" needs re-definition: It's my own emotion contained within myself and my blood pressure. Nothing that I *did* to the neighbors.


I repeat, I would never ever park in front of their house, nor would I litter anywhere. And, yes, I still consider these things disrespecting a neighbor.

[Ediacara]

57. You are overreacting big time

You don't own the parking in front of your house and you have no proof that the trash came from your neighbors or their guests. You don't have any data for ONE strike. Sending the photo with a snarky note will cascade into mutual acts of increasingly assy behavior that will only end with police intervention.

[MissMillie]

58. you are seriously over-reacting

yes, trash sucks, but two pieces... considering there were that many vehicles.

And by the way, if parking is allowed on the street, people can park in front of your house, as long as they don't block the driveway.

[IzaSparrow]

59. Yes.

Are you messing with us? Because if you are, this is a very funny post--I mean you could probably get on Letterman with this!:bounce:

[Jamastiene]

60. Damn, your neigbors are that well behaved and you are upset

about it? Chill out. Yes, you are overreacting. I'd give anything if my neighbors were less trashy and for god sakes much much quieter. Actually, let's trade neighbors.

[Westegg]

61. You see this as shapes of things to come...

...(if I may quote The Yardbirds), and it has you worried. Naturally. About your immediate domestic bliss, but also about the fate of the whole neighborhood.

If these things start to happen with regularity (and by that I mean once, twice, or more), you have a genuine reason to be concerned. If not, let by-gones be by-gones. Don't immediately assume the worst and get into catastrophic thinking. That way anxiety lies. Believe me: I KNOW.

[distantearlywarning]

63. Eh. No big deal.

People have parties sometimes, and a few pieces of trash isn't anything to get worked up about.

I've had much worse neighbors than that. I've had neighbors that dealt drugs, neighbors that had alcoholic screaming fights, neighbors that started fires in the vacant lot next to the house, etc. When I lived in a duplex last year, my downstairs neighbors (who looked completely normal on the outside) had screaming fights at 3 am, left piles of their gross crap all over the shared basement, never helped shovel the driveway, abused their animals, and eventually got evicted and left their apartment in a state of disrepair that was so bad the whole place had to be gutted (and both hubby and I got horrible allergies and sinus infections because everything was mouldering down there for a year, including animal feces and rotting food).

If the worst my neighbors ever do is have a party once in a while and throw a Frito bag on the ground, I'd count myself lucky.

I definitely wouldn't start a fight with them over it. Be nice to them and put up with their minor misdeeds lest they move away and people like my last neighbors move in instead. And hopefully they'll put up with your minor irritations too (because nobody's perfect).