So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

tonyb · May 23, 2020

Tiki Tom said:
Not at all. I’m much more annoyed by the person in line in front of me who shows up at the register and is somehow taken by complete surprise by the fact that she has to pay. First she seemingly can’t find her wallet in her purse, then she can’t find the right change. Happens fairly frequently. I always try to have the approximate amount at the ready when I get to the register.

I’ve made essentially the same gripe myself. Too many people fail to recognize (or don’t wish to recognize) how their absentmindedness creates delays and inconveniences for others.

But yeah, in the realm of shoddy behaviors, it’s a minor offense.

Trenchfriend · May 26, 2020

Can anyone tell me, what Al is saying on 3:15, please?

Jenny Crane, Danny Crane??

Woodtroll · May 26, 2020

Trenchfriend said:
Can anyone tell me, what Al is saying on 3:15, please?

Jenny Crane, Danny Crane??

"Jenny Craig", a weight loss franchise.

Touchofevil · May 26, 2020

People who blow their leaves, grass clippings, garbage or whatever into the street or their neighbor’s yard. This annoys me even when it isn’t my yard being affected.

tonyb · May 26, 2020

^^^^
The guy across the street does that. (He blows it into the street, actually, but that just makes the street look shabby.) He also shoots off fireworks on and around Independence Day.

It annoys me a bit. But I try to remind myself that if not for characters like him (and the guy next door to him, who does the bare minimum of groundskeeping, if that), my GPA would be lower, probably, seeing how neighbors tend to grade on a curve.

LizzieMaine · May 27, 2020

I do as little to my yard (I don't have enough of one to call it a "lawn") as possible. The dandelions are good for the bees, and just leaving the leaves where they fall improves the quality of the gritty amalgam of old coal ashes and gravel out back that I laughingly call "soil."

Plus the city is doing a revaluation this year, and I don't want the place to look too good. It's overassessed as it is.

As for fireworks, the worst thing that was done by our legislature over the past ten years was to legalize them. Nothing says "a disastrous and destructive conflagration waiting to happen" like beer-soaked idiots in the next block firing skyrockets up over a neighborhood made up of old, tightly-packed wooden-frame houses.

tonyb · May 27, 2020

I have found few characters in my life more insufferable than the neighborhood improvers. You know, the people who blew in about 5 minutes ago and know exactly what this district needs.

Houses are turning over so fast in this nondescript suburban subdivision that with not quite five years here we’re among the more well-established. When I look at sales histories it appears that in many cases the older residents of a longer standing are grabbing a pile of equity and heading off to where they’ll never again have to shovel snow.

vitanola · May 27, 2020

LizzieMaine said:
I do as little to my yard (I don't have enough of one to call it a "lawn") as possible. The dandelions are good for the bees, and just leaving the leaves where they fall improves the quality of the gritty amalgam of old coal ashes and gravel out back that I laughingly call "soil."

Plus the city is doing a revaluation this year, and I don't want the place to look too good. It's overassessed as it is.

As for fireworks, the worst thing that was done by our legislature over the past ten years was to legalize them. Nothing says "a disastrous and destructive conflagration waiting to happen" like beer-soaked idiots in the next block firing skyrockets up over a neighborhood made up of old, tightly-packed wooden-frame houses.

Well, now the yahoos can have an Uncle Josh sort of Fourth of July.

GHT · May 27, 2020

tonyb said:
Yeah, I have found few characters in my life more insufferable than the neighborhood improvers. You know, the people who blew in about 5 minutes ago and know exactly what this district needs.

Here's a classic case of that scenario. The U bend in the river Thames is an area known as The Isle of Dogs, although it's actual name is Millwall. It used to house London's docks, it was also one of the most heavily bombed areas of WW2, not only of London but of the country. It's what you might describe as a deprived area.

The docks closed for good in 1981. All of London's docks transferred down river to new, deep water berths, at Tilbury. Millwall went into a steep decline. Then a new financial centre was built on the site of the docks. The ports were cleaned, the streets, buildings and homes all got the steam clean, centuries of soot and grime removed and that all attracted the eighties "yuppie." The result being that the Victorian terrace house that you could have bought in the 1960's for just a few thousand pounds will now set you back close on a million. https://islandhistory.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/the-fall-and-rise-of-the-isle-of-dogs/ Who wouldn't take the money and run?

tonyb · May 27, 2020

^^^^^
Yeah, it’s a two-edged sword. I bemoaned the gentrification of my old neighborhood, but that sentiment didn’t stop me from cashing in on it. I wasn’t about to hand all that equity over to a stranger.

Edward · May 27, 2020

The thing I find about gentrification is that it's usually incomers who object. The people who originally lived there generally catch on pretty quick to the advantages of their patch being worth more, less stabby, nice new shops and things to do, places to go.... Those who campaign against and get indignant about gentrification tend to be people who weren't there when the area really was dreadful, and actually have mistaken for "authenticity" the first wave of gentrification. In other words, they whine about the thing, but they are the thing. Of course, there are limits.... London has always been a city in flux and that's part of its charm. The problem is when an area passes the nice point of redevelopment and anything original or good about it is pushed out in favour of nothing but the same concrete and glass "luxury" apartments going up everywhere, of which there is a surplus, and which will be bought by investment portfolios and sit empty. There's natural, healthy change, and then there's big money-backed stagnation and social cleansing. But hey, that drug money won't launder itself...

London's Soho is the classic example of this. Second wave, nice, modern Soho (not the dodgy, dangerosu place it was until maybe the eighties) saw many indignant protests by people who had never experienced the bad side of it but who had somehow romanticised it. It had a nice peak.... and now it is increasingly all being flattened for apartments that will rarely see life. Maybe that's just the natural order aiming it back to square one again.... Hackney, after all, started off as a rich man's retreat, and it's not so long now sicne it was the Murder Mile...

LizzieMaine · May 27, 2020

My main issue with gentrification is the erasure of my culture that follows in its wake, and its replacement by an ersatz Disneyfied idea of what "a small Maine town" is all about. I was here during the grim-and-gritty days, and I did like it better. It had an integrity in its waterfront stink and its seediness that the plastic-coated chlorophyll-treated pasteurized processed Art Capital Of Maine will never, ever have.

I absolutely despise the current Short Term Rental/Airbnb speculation-driven inflation in housing prices here -- it's left entire neighborhoods desolate during the winter, and makes it all but impossible for working people to afford to live in the town where they work. I saw the other day that these bourgie parasites are starting to dump their holdings in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis, and I dearly hope that they lose their shirts in the process. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

ChiTownScion · May 27, 2020

LizzieMaine said:
My main issue with gentrification is the erasure of my culture that follows in its wake, and its replacement by an ersatz Disneyfied idea of what "a small Maine town" is all about. I was here during the grim-and-gritty days, and I did like it better. It had an integrity in its waterfront stink and its seediness that the plastic-coated chlorophyll-treated pasteurized processed Art Capital Of Maine will never, ever have.

I absolutely despise the current Short Term Rental/Airbnb speculation-driven inflation in housing prices here -- it's left entire neighborhoods desolate during the winter, and makes it all but impossible for working people to afford to live in the town where they work. I saw the other day that these bourgie parasites are starting to dump their holdings in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis, and I dearly hope that they lose their shirts in the process. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

The thing that makes it different in your town (and correct me if I'm wrong on this, please) is that unlike a lot of urban gentrification, there's really no risk (aside from financial) to life or in taking up residence in a small Maine coastal town. When the building two doors down in the neighborhood of a large metropolis is still an active shooting gallery, and the guy sets up residence there with a wife and two small kids, he's forgoing the safety of a "better" neighborhood with the hope that things will turn around. And, when that building that was the shooting gallery starts selling $500K loft condos, his property appreciates in value. But he bore an initial risk beyond the financial. You've spoken of the drug abuse and property crimes in your area (and I'm not diminishing any of that), but are random acts of violent street crime - as you'd see in a large city- common?

When manufacturing, fishing, mining, or other industries die in an area that lacks any real or perceived scenic wow factor, what is the alternative to expectations of tourism? It's scandalous that working people can't afford to live where they work and have to drive an hour or more for a job, but imagine a town where the costs are stable but the jobs no longer exist at all. For anyone. Neither situation is "better" than the other, but sometimes it's a "damned if you did and damned if you didn't" situation.

tonyb · May 27, 2020

Edward said:
The thing I find about gentrification is that it's usually incomers who object. The people who originally lived there generally catch on pretty quick to the advantages of their patch being worth more, less stabby, nice new shops and things to do, places to go.... Those who campaign against and get indignant about gentrification tend to be people who weren't there when the area really was dreadful, and actually have mistaken for "authenticity" the first wave of gentrification. In other words, they whine about the thing, but they are the thing. Of course, there are limits.... London has always been a city in flux and that's part of its charm. The problem is when an area passes the nice point of redevelopment and anything original or good about it is pushed out in favour of nothing but the same concrete and glass "luxury" apartments going up everywhere, of which there is a surplus, and which will be bought by investment portfolios and sit empty. There's natural, healthy change, and then there's big money-backed stagnation and social cleansing. But hey, that drug money won't launder itself...

London's Soho is the classic example of this. Second wave, nice, modern Soho (not the dodgy, dangerosu place it was until maybe the eighties) saw many indignant protests by people who had never experienced the bad side of it but who had somehow romanticised it. It had a nice peak.... and now it is increasingly all being flattened for apartments that will rarely see life. Maybe that's just the natural order aiming it back to square one again.... Hackney, after all, started off as a rich man's retreat, and it's not so long now sicne it was the Murder Mile...

I once edited a newspaper that circulated in what had long been a “depressed” district. (The area’s reputation among those who didn’t live there differed from the experience of those of us who had long resided there. It weren’t so bad, and the housing was affordable.)

A common refrain among the mostly white, mostly white-collar newcomers (“urban pioneers,” as some of the more self-congratulatory referred to themselves) was how they so “treasured the diversity” of the district. Never mind that the ’hood was made all the less “diverse” by their presence.

If you’re looking for diversity these days — if by “diversity” you mean people of many different ethnicities and national origins and skin tones and occupations and income levels — you’re likelier to find it in the suburbs.

LizzieMaine · May 27, 2020

Crime here tends to be drug-motivated, whether violent or property. People get roughed up in drug deals gone bad, girlfriends or children of addicts get abused, cars and homes get broken into and rifled for drugs, or money to buy drugs. There were two burglaries in town here this week -- that's nothing in a city of x-million, but in a city of less than seven thousand, it's enough for you to make sure the pistol in your drawer or the baseball bat next your bed is ready to go.

And why all the drug crime? Drugs are an anodyne for a working class that's been gutted out and strung up in the driveway by The New Economy. Tourism doesn't do anything for people who can't get jobs selling tchotchkes or waiting tables -- and it doesn't much but provide a bare subsistance living for those who *can* get those jobs. Maybe Muffy and Dickie from Darien who move up here to fufill their lifelong dream of running a B&B in a quaint seaside town think they're making a contribution to building a New Future For Us All -- but they really aren't. They made their pile somewhere else, and all we get are the peelings.

tonyb · May 27, 2020

LizzieMaine said:
I do as little to my yard (I don't have enough of one to call it a "lawn") as possible. The dandelions are good for the bees, and just leaving the leaves where they fall improves the quality of the gritty amalgam of old coal ashes and gravel out back that I laughingly call "soil."

Plus the city is doing a revaluation this year, and I don't want the place to look too good. It's overassessed as it is.

As for fireworks, the worst thing that was done by our legislature over the past ten years was to legalize them. Nothing says "a disastrous and destructive conflagration waiting to happen" like beer-soaked idiots in the next block firing skyrockets up over a neighborhood made up of old, tightly-packed wooden-frame houses.

For nearly 20 years I lived in an “inner-city” district in a little 1940s-vintage house surrounded mostly by grander (once grander, anyway) houses built three and four decades earlier.

The land my little house occupied was a de facto trash dump for its neighbors in the decades before my place was built.

This made the backyard something of an archeological site. I still have a few artifacts I recovered from there — a
couple bottles, a rusty steel toy car.

For several years apartment-dwelling friends kept a large garden in the backyard there. Making that soil worth the trouble involved a dump truck load of compost, among other things.

I was happy to host the gardeners. Less lawn for me to mow.

LizzieMaine · May 28, 2020

We used to have a junkyard on the other side of the block here, which served as an effective bufer against gentrification, but since it was expunged a few years back, the neighborhood has not changed for the better. One of the things I always loved about this street was the canopy of old maple and willow trees that hung over it, all leafed up in the summer. My next door neighbor destroyed a 250 year old silver maple last year to make room for a new driveway (to serve his Airbnb customers) and this week an even older tree was eliminated further up the street -- ripped right out by the roots by a backhoe, yet -- to make way for, you guessed it, a new driveway. For his Escalade, no less.

One of the houses across the street from me was recently foreclosed on, and its elderly occupant disposessed. It's on the market now, and the last of the beautiful old maples is next to it. I now know how these Greenpeace types feel when they chain themselves to tree trunks.

tonyb · May 28, 2020

I’m hoping to save the three ash trees in the backyard here. One is pretty healthy, one looks to be responding well to treatment (insecticidal spray, fertilization), and one whose chances are 50/50 at best. I’m about $350 into this so far. That’ll seem like lunch money should any of them not recover well and we have to take them down.

The old gal next door had her half-dead silver maple cut down a couple-three weeks back. It was maybe 50 years old.

This is a tough climate for trees except for the native species. It’s semi-arid here, and the weather is extreme. It gets RFH in the summer and RFC in the winter. It might be quite springlike for a few days in March and April and even May, but that doesn’t mean it won’t snow tomorrow. One afternoon last October it was 83 degrees in the afternoon. The next morning it was 19 and a few inches of snow had fallen.

What’s a tree to do?

Trenchfriend · May 28, 2020

Ah, "lovely" toilet cleaner gel!!
I don't know, what alien stuff they always do in, but today I got kicked, again.

I bought a new priceworth bottle usual "power gel" from another supermarket and tried it out, immediately. And this must be the stink of hell! I always open the window and close the bath door. But the "odor" ran through every gap. So, after bath was aired long enough after cleaning, I opened the door, the kitchen window and door and aired through the corridor, too. Fun!

But maybe, the now summer temps caused this strong impact...

tonyb · May 28, 2020

LizzieMaine said:
We used to have a junkyard on the other side of the block here, which served as an effective bufer against gentrification, but since it was expunged a few years back, the neighborhood has not changed for the better. One of the things I always loved about this street was the canopy of old maple and willow trees that hung over it, all leafed up in the summer. My next door neighbor destroyed a 250 year old silver maple last year to make room for a new driveway (to serve his Airbnb customers) and this week an even older tree was eliminated further up the street -- ripped right out by the roots by a backhoe, yet -- to make way for, you guessed it, a new driveway. For his Escalade, no less.

One of the houses across the street from me was recently foreclosed on, and its elderly occupant disposessed. It's on the market now, and the last of the beautiful old maples is next to it. I now know how these Greenpeace types feel when they chain themselves to tree trunks.

As we’ve gone over before, your local ordinance essentially allows for hotels in residential districts, under the guise of short-term vacation rentals.

That wouldn’t fly here, nor in most other places of my familiarity (friends in other locales own short-term rentals). Here a property owner is allowed one (only one) short-term rental on the property that is also that property owner’s primary residence. So, no turning apartment buildings into hotels. No turning single-family houses into a short-term rentals exclusively. Enforcement is active and violations carry heavy fines.

So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

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