New puppy!

No, not me.

My neighbors. And because they leave him out all night, i get to vicariously experience the joys of raising him.



Fortunately i live in a community that has enlightened and progressive noise and animal abuse ordinances, and the resources to enforce them.

Continue reading New puppy!

Late chihuahuas

You may recall a couple of posts here and at Mrs D's place about our neighbor's chihuahua quartet leaving their property, chasing one of our cats off of ours, and in general making a nuisance of themselves. The upshot of that event is that one of the chihuahuas was impounded by Animal Control, a second was hit and killed by a car on Avondale Drive, and the other two made it home safely.

Yesterday morning, for perhaps the 50th?, 100th? time in the past year, the two surviving chihuahuas and their pit bull mix mate engaged in a 90 - 120 minute barking session. The only thing that happened differently was that a call to DPD actually resulted in a citation for violating the Durham City noise ordinance. (Thank you Sgt. Dale Gunter).

Here's some emails that circulated on our neighborhood list the last two days.

I just went to take my dogs outside, and we had three dogs on our porch. Two chihuahuas (one tan, one black) and a large black dog. They headed east toward XXXXXXXX.

-----------

My sister and I were driving around 5:30 this evening, turning onto Knox from Roxboro St. and saw a large black dog, a small black dog and a small tan dog crossing Roxboro, unfortunately the small tan one did not make it across, the other 2 went running down Knox. My sister got out of the car and removed the tan dog from the street but he was dead.

I can not imagine anyone in their right mind letting dogs run loose near such a busy street but if anyone on the list serve knows the owners please inform him/her theat the tan dog - a little larger than a chihuahua is dead and to please confine the other 2 lest they end up the same!

-----------

Those dogs belong to people that live at XXXX Avondale. They get out constantly and we have called animal control several times because the big black intact male pit mix is pretty aggressive (he growls at people unprovoked). Unfortunately, the people really don't seem to care about those dogs because that is the second of 3 chihuahuas to die from being hit by a car.

Is it possible to develop an ordinance which requires people who are serial dog abusers or neglecters to take a class in responsible ownership before another license is issued to them for owning a dog? The larger of the dogs in question here is an aggressive animal who may or may not have his vaccinations. He should not be running loose. Previous dogs residing at this address have also spent most of their lives wandering through our neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods. It's time for the county to figure out a way to deal with this issue.

Continue reading Late chihuahuas

Animal Control

If you call the Durham County Animal Control Department on a Sunday morning, you'll get a recorded message telling you that their office hours are from 8 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday. If you've got an emergency, such as a dog bite, or a dangerous situation such as a pack of animals or an injured animal, you're advised to call 911. For non-emergency situations, there's an extension at which you can leave a message, presumably for a weekend duty officer who will be paged.

If you happened to call this morning, at around 9 am, what you heard when you dialed that extension was a message telling you that the mailbox was full.

Our situation this morning involved the 4 pack of chihuahuas who live behind us. They were wandering the block in that cute/obnoxious way that chihuahuas have, bouncing and yapping excitedly. None of them have collars or tags, and i suspect they haven't received any vaccinations either. So we took some pictures of them (to be posted later when i have some extra time), and planned to email them to AC in the morning.

Until the little fuckers crawled into my backyard and chased my sleeping cat halfway across the neighborhood.

Of course, no one was home when we knocked on the neighbor's door. More distressing, though, was the "mailbox is full" message from Animal Control.

Dog catching is such a basic municipal service that it's the brunt of many jokes about politicians getting their start. But because it's so basic a service, there's just no excuse for not getting it done right. I understand that it's difficult and expensive to staff a department 24/7. But if you're going to go to the trouble of having a paging line for people to call during off hours, can you at least make sure the person responsible for it actually checks the message and keeps the line clear? Is that really too much to ask?

I prefer not to deal with my neighbor's dogs on my own. That's why i pay taxes, and that's why the county has a department for dealing with these problems. But if i can't get service from the county on an issue like this, i'll have no problem doing what i need to do.

The comedian Ron White once said "I love dogs. No, let me restate that. I love my dog. I don't give a shit about your dog."

Just so.

Continue reading Animal Control

Meanwhile, in Raleigh

From the N&O:

The city police sergeant whose Southeast Raleigh rental houses repeatedly draw fellow officers on drug, prostitution and assault calls has filed for bankruptcy.

Court records show Sgt. Tommy Newman of Wake Forest and his wife, Deborah, will surrender seven houses and lots in Southeast Raleigh, plus an eighth in Zebulon.

On all those houses, they owe nearly $4,500 in property tax, and $22,000 in federal and state income tax.

Newman, a 24-year veteran of the Raleigh police force, declined to comment Tuesday.

His Southeast Raleigh properties are frequent topics at community meetings, where outraged residents describe a steady stream of prostitutes and drug dealers.

Newman earned $79,247 in 2007 and $119,185 the year before from his rental properties, his bankruptcy filing showed.

The story's hook is that the landlord happens to be a police officer, whose neglect of his properties, which appear to have netted him just under $200K the past two years, costs the city a lot of extra money in police resources.

Many Durhamites will recognize Tommy Newman's actalikes, landlords who live out of town, or out of state, and whose continued neglect and lack of involvement in the community places a burden, financial and otherwise, on the residents and taxpayers of our town. It doesn't matter to us whether they're police officers in their town or ours, or just former Duke students who happened to pick up a few distressed properties during their time in Durham 20 years ago and have been milking them for cash flow ever since.

Blight grew so bad at a row of Newman's duplexes on East Jones Street that the city bought them for $320,000 after photographing holes in the walls stuffed with squashed beer cans.

. . .

Since then, the council has considered adding tenants' criminal activity to a set of rules that can trigger fines and mandatory classes for landlords -- a debate that continued at City Hall on Tuesday.

Kudos to the Raleigh City Council for taking steps to place the financial burden for their actions on these landlords. Let's hope some members of our own City Council are paying attention.

Continue reading Meanwhile, in Raleigh

Broken windows theory

Avondale Drive
Interesting doings at this house over the weekend. I've gotten conflicting reports from some of the immediate neighbors as to whether or not the tenants actually bailed on Friday. There was a large pile of appliances and junk in the backyard today on my to work, so i'm inclined to think they're gone. The story is that they kicked their dogs out into the street on their way out. Again, i'm trying to confirm this with Animal control who, according the paint crew at my place on Friday, had to send 4 officers to the scene to corral to the poor animals, who will probably end up being euthanized since they're completely lacking in socialization. If only any of the complaints about mistreatment had been taken seriously over the past couple of years, maybe they could have been rescued. And if only the landlord had stopped by to look at their property once or twice over the past five years to see how badly it was being trashed. I guess as long as that check comes in every month, it doesn't matter what damage is being done to the rest of the community.

Anyway, i'm working on a longer piece inspired by one of the commenters over at Gary's place on the unconscious assumption of privilege that's so prevalent among many classes in our culture, in this case the class of people who drive automobiles.

And rumor has it that the Herald-Sun has picked up on the story of the city not being able to keep cars out of Duke Park on the weekend, which apparently happened again yesterday.

If only i didn't have to work for a living.

Continue reading Broken windows theory

Coincidences

Mrs D made some very compelling arguments against calling out my more irresponsible neighbor landlords on the blog, which i am considering carefully. Since i'm not anonymous, and she and i share a house, if she's not on board, it's not going to happen.

So.

But lo and behold, on my way to work today, what did i see but a contractor checking out one of the properties on my block that i was planning to feature. Seems the owner is now willing to consider fixing the place up and selling it. Hopefully to someone who is going to live in it and not rent it to drug dealers or pit bull breeders.

Continue reading Coincidences

Neighborhood sustainability

I wish i had known that today was going to be link to Kevin day at DE.

He's got a great post up on the issue of neighborhood sustainability today, inspired by some of the discussion regarding "gentrification" in Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood (and elsewhere in Durham) as well as news reports this morning of what may have been a gun battle in East Durham.

I live in the Duke Park neighborhood of Durham. It has a reputation of being one of the more upscale in-town neighborhoods. We're just south of I-85 off of exit 177. But here's the deal. If you take the intersection nearest my house (Markham and Shawnee), and draw a circle of 1/4 mile radius using that as the center, you probably have about 140 - 150 houses of which between 35 and 40% are rental properties. some of these properties are well-maintained, and owned by people who live in the neighborhood, or who used to live in the neighborhood. some of them are owned by people who obviously don't give a shit about Duke Park neighborhood, Durham, or even, apparently, protecting their own investment.

I've been thinking over the past two weeks about running a series on DE, featuring one of these houses at a time, showing photographs of the deterioration that's been allowed to take place, giving a brief oral history, and calling out the landlords whose greed and thoughtlessness is behind all of this. I say thinking about it because, to a large extent, i have a policy of not naming or identifying individuals on this blog without their permission, public figures excepted. I'm not sure if i want to proceed with this.

But it's clear to me that, at least the eastern portion of Duke Park neighborhood, the part with Avondale Drive as its central corridor, is at risk of falling into the same kind of decline that other parts of East Durham have experienced over the past years. I really don't want that to happen, and not just because i own a home here.

What do you think? Do these slumlords deserve to have their privacy respected, or do the needs of the neighborhood and the city to stop this "demolition by neglect," as Gary so aptly describes it, outweigh their privacy rights?

Continue reading Neighborhood sustainability

What time is it?

Well, it's 7:45 on a stormy Sunday evening. That must mean it's time for the neighbors on Avondale Drive to be ignoring their dogs again. I love the philosophy of keeping your dog tied outside 24/7 as a watchdog. So that when he barks for two hours straight you can ignore him.

Feh.

Continue reading What time is it?

Baby, it's still cold outside

Toastie's got a photo essay up about his neighbor's dog who was left out all night last night.

Durham's animal cruelty code requires that a dog must have access to water at all times. Does ice count?

(2) Failure to provide adequate water. All animals shall have constant access to a supply of clean, fresh, potable water or a supply of clean, fresh potable water provided at suitable intervals. If access is not constant, then adequate amounts of water must be provided at least twice in a 24-hour period. If water is provided at intervals, it must remain in the animal's enclosure for at least one hour during each interval.

Continue reading Baby, it's still cold outside

Baby, it's cold outside

Bring your dogs inside, people. It's going to be 18 degrees tonight.

Continue reading Baby, it's cold outside

Another perspective

Mrs. D gives her take on the things i kvetched about earlier in the week.

Continue reading Another perspective

Ummm, a little help please?

Following up on Friday's post about Durham police doing a house raid and busting an alleged murderer on my block, Mrs D. went out earlier today to consolidate some of the stuff in the various recycling bins, remove the leaves that have blown in them the past two days, etc.

She almost stuck herself on this:

Fortunately, she saw it under the leaves in time, and saved us from, at minimum, a trip to the emergency room for antibiotics and tests on this holiday weekend.

It's certainly possible that one of our transient diabetics just happened to finish an insulin injection while walking past our house on Friday afternoon and tossed his syringe in our recycling bin while it waited at the curb for our return from work. More likely, it was tossed there by our neighborhood fugitive as he ran from the police after being surprised in his house. My next door neighbor reports he also dropped a cell phone in her yard.

I've posted this to the PAC2 list. I don't think it's a 911 call. I'll follow up during business hours tomorrow and see if anyone at DPD thinks it's worthwhile as evidence.

Elsewhere on Avondale Drive, the City County Planning Department has still not been able to figure out that the tenants at 1705 Avondale Drive are running a car sales lot out of the back yard.

Here's a photo from September showing 4 cars in the yard:

Now, here's one from this afternoon with three different vehicles. I'll post a close up on the truck to show that it's not registered next.



The Planning Department's reluctance (some people less generous than i might call it incompetence) to enforce zoning laws regarding businesses being run out of residential property is simply incomprehensible to me, especially after all the fuss that was made over provisions in the UDO about how many square feet in a house would be allowed to be used in a home base business like a law practice or design firm. Running a junk yard though seems to be OK, as long as it can only be seen from the backyard.

The Planning Department's inability to enforce Durham's laws doesn't end there. Way back in the spring, the folks at 1707 Avondale Dr. began to construct an addition to their house, visible only in the back. Since no permit or inspections placards were posted on the site, and the addition was as large as the main building, with a separate entrance, i emailed the Planning Department inspector to ask whether or not building a duplex on that site was permitted under our current zoning.

Never heard back.

I made a few followup emails to the supervisor of zoning inspectors. Here's the email i got in response:

1707 Avondale: The owner stated he has installed a new roof and not converted his home to a duplex. Inspections did not respond to me that they are aware of any violations at this address.

Got that? The Planning Department investigated whether or not zoning violations were taking place at 1707 Avondale by asking the owner.

Here's the photo of 1707 Avondale that the city has in its GIS database with a 2005 tag:

Now, here's a screen grab from Google Maps taken this month:

Is it a duplex? I sure as hell don't know. But it's at least as big a footprint as the original building. And i suppose you could call it a new roof, if you neglect to mention the 900 or so square feet that are under the new roof.

But wait, there's more.

That's a carport being turned into a garage by means of a cinder block foundation and plywood siding. It sure looks pretty close to the edge of the property line if you ask me, but i'm not a Planning Department inspector, so i can't tell you whether or not it violates the zoning codes. Unfortunately, neither can the Planning Department, because as far as they're concerned the only thing going on at 1707 Avondale is a new roof.

Oh, and did i mention that the backyard at 1707 is a parking lot also? I didn't? Well, i guess they ran out of room after parking 5 vehicles in the front of the house.


Maybe after Avondale Drive turns into another completely blighted district of the city we'll have people in various departments holding meetings and throwing money around trying to solve intractable problems and coming up with redevelopment plans. In the meantime, with just some unlicensed businesses, unpermitted construction, and a murderer or two on the block, there's no point getting too worked up about the state of things, is there? Just make sure your graphic design business doesn't take up more than 300 square feet in your 1200 square foot house. Because then you'll get busted for sure.

UPDATE: i'm pushing this to the top of the blog through Wednesday for any city folk who happen to stop by to read it.

UPDATE II: We had an officer stop by on Monday afternoon and tell us that the syringe really wasn't going to be useful as evidence. He recommended that we toss it in the trash. I told him i didn't think that was a good idea, since it's hazardous medical waste. Following some advice i got from the post i made to the PAC2 list, i dropped it off at a fire station near Mrs. D's mom's place. Hopefully, they got it to the EMT people to dispose of with the rest of the hazardous medical waste.

Continue reading Ummm, a little help please?

Speaking of list serves

From my neighborhood list serve earlier today:

My mom, who is at our house on XXXXXXX babysitting, just called to tell me that police are everywhere because there were two fugitives running around XXXXXXX (no outlet side). Apparently shots were fired and one person was caught, but the other is still at large. A cell phone from one of the fugitives was found in our backyard. If anyone has more info on the situation, please share. Just wanted to let people know. Pretty unsettling.

Response from DPD's Sgt. Gunter:

The Police Department raided a house there earlier today. There were NO shots fired, that big boom was a distraction device used upon entry. Nothing to worry about.
Sgt. Gunter

Can't wait to hear to the details on that one. By the way, XXXXXXX St. is my block. Doesn't look like it was my house.

UPDATE: Some details here. I've gotten some info from the PD over and above what's in the paper. Today's a hugely busy day getting ready for the holidays and all that, but i'll be sharing some thoughts about this over the weekend as time allows. And yes, this is one of the houses about which i've written extensively over the past year. We'll see if anything good comes out of this.

Continue reading Speaking of list serves

That's why

I'm not fanatic about it, but when it comes to spending money, i prefer to keep my dollars in Durham county. Wake county does just fine without me or my money. Now, let's see if other Durham residents start feeling the same way after this nonsense:

Some Wake County school board members object to using Alston as the name of a new elementary school in northwest Cary even though the building is going up on Alston Road. The reason they're upset is that Alston Road, which runs from Cary into Durham, is more widely associated with the Bull City.

"As a longtime resident, Alston Road is associated with Durham and Durham County," school board member Eleanor Goettee, a Cary resident, said Tuesday. "It's just not a suitable name."

Why not just come right out and say what you're really thinking?

Continue reading That's why

Quiz time

Note: I'm pushing this to the top of the page for the rest of the day and into tomorrow.




Can you spot the code violation(s) in the above photos?

Is it:
A) Piles of aluminum cans around porch?
B) Piles of pallet wood and particle board around fence?
C) Dogs tied up on 3 foot leads with no water?
D) Busted fence allowing dogs to escape regularly?
E) All of the above
F) None of the above

Bonus question:
In an essay of 250 words or less, explain why Durham City or County officials don't feel it's necessary to respond to citizen complaints about this property?

Continue reading Quiz time

Neighbors

I posted earlier in the week about the great time i had hosting a block party on National Night Out, getting all the neighbors on the street together for a cook out on one of the hottest nights of the year.

This post is about those other neighbors who can't seem to figure out how to go about being good neighbors.

We met with Rick Soles, the property manager of 1705 Avondale Drive about a month ago, to discuss the ongoing problems his tenants have caused at that house. These problems have included domestic violence (we've called 911 several times in the middle of the night after hearing shouted threats of "I'm gonna kill you bitch!", breaking glass, etc.) loud music, cars being worked on under bright lights after midnight, 24/7 barking dogs tied to the carport posts without food, water, or shelter.

In the past, complaints directly to the owner of the property, according to the public tax records a Mr. David Johnson of Durham County, have not only not led to improvements, but resulted in Mr. Johnson appearing at my house, uninvited, and announcing that he has no intention of doing anything to improve the situation and declaring that we need to stop harassing him.

So i mentioned earlier that Rick Soles told us that he was tired of leasing to people who were trashing his property, and he was willing to work with us. Specifically, he said that his leases on that property always include a no-pets clause, and that he would appreciate hearing from us if tenants moved in with dogs. He also talked about not allowing cars to be parked in the back yard. And we discussed cleaning up the small, triangular piece of woods which lies between our respective fences. After researching the survey and tax records, i concluded that the woods actually belong to Mr. Johnson. I asked Rick Soles if he wanted to clean up the trash there, or if he would give me permission to enter the property and clean it up. He preferred the latter, which was fine with me.

Well, imagine my surprise when the new tenants moved in a week and a half ago with dogs, and a backyard full of cars in various states of being sold.

I spoke with the new tenants, and between their English and my Spanish we were able to communicate effectively. They said they were quite clear in their lease application about both the cars and the dogs, and that Rick Soles signed off on both aspects of the lease.

I don't know about you, but i can cut people a lot of slack for their misdeeds. We're all human, and none of us perfect, but one thing we can all control is the degree of honesty with which we approach those around us. And being lied to is one thing i simply can't abide. So that's why i'm posting some specific details about the property, the owner and the manager here. Got any more horror stories about this property manager and/or owner? Share them in the comments, or drop me a line at dependableerection AT gmail DOT com.

And by the way, here's some pictures of the trash i cleaned up from Mr. Johnson's property.








Anybody from the city of Durham who wants to weigh in on the propriety of dumping used motor oil containers in the watershed? I'd love to hear from you as well.

Continue reading Neighbors

Durham - gotta love it

Before i disappeared for a few days last week, i had a conversation with one of the newer neighbors down at the end of the block. Seems the folks at the house across the street from them were piling up aluminum cans in the back yard, making a rather substantial heap. As it happens, that back yard opens up onto our block, so it functions as a second front yard.

It shouldn't need to be said that a pile of aluminum cans about a cubic yard in size is not an art project or an expression of free speech. It's a pile of trash that needs to be picked up, regardless of what neighborhood you live in.

It didn't seem as though my new neighbor was making any headway by asking the residents to clean up their trash, so i said when i got back, if it was still there, i'd make some inquiries with the city. I drove by the house on Tuesday night, and yes, it was still there.
Yesterday, i posted an email to the InterNeighborhood Council listserv, and the Partners Against Crime, District 2 listserv.

One of my neighbors has a huge pile of aluminum cans in their back yard. (As it happens, their back yard fronts the street i live on, so is visible to everyone who lives on or traverses the street.)

Can anyone tell me who to contact about this problem (besides the neighbors, of course.)

Is this the responsibility of the Solid Waste Department, Neighborhood Improvement Services, or the Planning Department?

My experience with Durham's overlapping jurisdictions with problems like this is that it's easy to spend the day on the phone bouncing from one department to another without actually ever speaking to the one person you need to solve your problem. I know that Durham One-Call (560-1200) is supposed to streamline this process, but in cases like this, i've found them to be just as confused as i am.

After my post, i was contacted directly by both Constance Stancil, Director of Neighborhood Improvement Services, and by Donald Long, Manager of the Solid Waste Department, both offering to get their staff on the problem immediately. So far, so good.

We wrote back and forth several times, especially Ms. Stancil and i, narrowing down the problem, and discussing some other issues related to trash and neighbors on the 1700 block of Avondale Drive especially. I thought things were under control, and that she had assigned the task to the right people. Then i got this email from the staffer who she had brought into the loop to tackle the problem. (I'm leaving his name out of the discussion for now.)

Mr. Ragin Avondale is not my area, you need to contact inspector XXXX or give him a call at 560-4570 xXXX

Fortunately, sometime between Tuesday night and this morning, the residents (or the neighbors, or maybe just one of those folks who walks down the street on garbage pickup nights collecting aluminum cans from the recycling bins) managed to get the pile of cans removed. Meaning i don't have to spend any time this morning on the phone trying to track down the right person to take care of this. I can catch up on my workload (always a good thing) and this weekend i can get to work on the pile of trash that my previous neighbors in the back have dumped into the copse of trees between our properties.

Details and pictures of that adventure will probably be forthcoming next week.

Oh, and if you're curious as to why i had to comment about a pile of trash not being an art project, check out this email that appeared on the INC list in response to mine:

I don't know if it is illegal to stockpile (as you suggest) aluminum cans in ones yard. I read in the Herald Sun today that nude sunbathing in your yard is legal. So maybe aluminum can piles are as well. It's private property and the laws tend not to infringe on ones rights to do some things. I recall one neighborhood up in arms about a series of painted bathtubs in a yard in their hood. Turns out it's art. Maybe the cans are some work of a yet-to-be discovered metal artist. Who knows. If they bother you, just go and talk to the folks and see if you can recycle them.

Go ahead and re-read my first email. I can't see where i suggested that the pile of cans was illegal. Just that it needed to be picked up and removed. I wanted to know which city agency was responsible. The assumption that the residents had not been spoken with was simply unwarranted. I'll tell you, as Ed Norton might have said once to Ralph Kramden, some days i have it up to here with libertarians.

Continue reading Durham - gotta love it

Small progress with bad neighbors

Last week i posted about the latest batch of shitty neighbors in the house behind mine leaving a big heap of garbage behind when they moved out.

Yesterday we had a very productive meeting with the manager of the property, and i learned that the landlord is also fed up with his inability to attract renters who won't destroy his property, and is willing to sell the house.

So that's the good news. Hopefully, there's someone out there willing to make the investment in a fixer-upper on a transitional block that's not too far from downtown Durham, but that hasn't yet attracted the attention of folks looking for these kinds of opportunities. I don't know if the house is listed yet, but if this is the kind of thing that appeals to you, drop me a line at DependableErection at gmail dot com, and i can hook you up with the listing agent.

Which leads me to thinking. I've actually been a renter for the majority of my adult life. I've always paid my rent on time, and never been a burden on my neighbors, either by bad behavior or neglecting my house. (Well, maybe that time in Phoenix when i had a dog who absolutely refused to stay confined behind the fence. He was pretty big - 130 pounds - but goofy, and never hurt a fly. Except for the time i came home from work and found a mallard with it's neck wrung wrapped in his chain. It took him a couple of days to pass the feathers that he had tried to eat. Even though he was a yellow lab, he never so much as looked at a waterfowl after that. And one time when he got loose, i got a call from a friend who lived 8 miles away on the other side of town asking when i was coming to pick him up after he'd been hanging at their place for over a week. But i digress. That was a 6 month period of my life 30 years ago. Mostly, i was a pretty good neighbor.)

Is it just that so many more people are homeowners these days, leaving a smaller and more ill-mannered pool of the population to be renters? You'd think, as prices of homes have continued to skyrocket, that fewer people would be able to afford them. But that doesn't seem to be the case. And certainly, i know people now who have rented their homes for a decade or more, are comfortable being renters, and contribute to the well-being of the neighborhood.

So what's it like where you live? What's the mix between renters and homeowners? Is there any friction? How do you deal with it?

Continue reading Small progress with bad neighbors

Top 10 ways to be a shitty neighbor in Durham

10 - Don't participate in any neighborhood activities, join the neighborhood association (hey, it's only ten bucks a year. is it gonna kill you?), help distribute the newsletter, or come to any of our potluck dinners. Bitch loudly that nothing you need ever gets done in the neighborhood, and it's all run by an exclusive cabal that won't admit outsiders. Bonus points for subscribing to the list serve "in order to save on advertising for your FSBO."

9 - Drive 50 miles an hour on my dead end street.

8 - Leave your trash can at the curb all week long. Pack it to overflowing. Don't recycle anything. Unwrapped meal remains that attract animals are especially good.

7 - Let your yard go unmaintained for the entire spring. Wildflowers? I don't think so.

6 - Park your car in the yard. Let your friends park their cars in the yard, too. This will kill all the grass, so you don't have to worry about maintaining the yard.

5 - Fight with your spouse/partner at 3am. Or 3 pm, doesn't much matter. Threaten violence. Breaking a few windows is good. Use the "b" word and the "c" word a lot.

4 - Play your music loud enough for me to hear it in my living room. I've got a pretty nice sound system, and a music collection i've spent 3 decades building. But i'm always looking for new music. Especially music that uses the word "muthafucka" a lot.

3 - Even better, use your car's sound system as your main music listening device. Park as close to my bedroom window as you can.

2 - Let your dog out at 6 in the morning to cruise the neighborhood, knocking over trash cans, and dumping on other people's lawns. Then tie him up with no food or shelter the rest of the day whether it's 15 degrees or 95 degrees, rain or shine. Ignore him when he starts howling for companionship at 4 in the morning.

1 - Be a landlord who allows all of these things to happen on his property. Profit margins are low in the landlord business, and hey, a guy's gotta eat, right.

Names and address of the landlords who fit the bill furnished on request. The fact that every item between 9 and 2 on this list is illegal certainly hasn't diminished the frequency with which they occur.

Continue reading Top 10 ways to be a shitty neighbor in Durham