Frustration with people in NextDoor
Ok, I am ONLY on Nextdoor because I’d like to get rid of some stuff this summer. I stopped most notifications, because I found attitudes just terrible. But there’s some weekly feed that was emailed to me where some woman is upset that she’s been told to trim back (or remove) her hedges. There’s overwhelming support for her and her hedges. It’s sickening.
The rules that are telling her to cut down her hedges are not this overbearing bureaucratic city (as is being implied). The rules come from the ADA, passed in 1990 by a democratic legislature and a republican president. A country working in a bipartisan way, to do what is right for members of a community. When you live in any country, there is a balance of individual and community rights, and in this case, the sidewalk is surely in an easement. When you buy a house, you should get its lot surveyed, and that survey tells you about your easements. And the city can honestly tell you whatever it wants about those easements. Put in utilities? Tear down the hedge. Clear a sidewalk for access? Trim the hedge back, at a minimum. The dimensions of “trim” this woman is being told to do are directly in line with the basic ADA sidewalk clearance laws. I don’t care who called her in, is the national —American— law.
A person (real or theoretical) shouldn’t have to cross the sidewalk because of they are a person who has disabilities. Ultimately, we are all going to be disabled if we live long enough. We should be compassionate. Better. And if it’s someone without disability? Someone with a stroller and a kid that needs to learn to ride a bike? Who’s gives? It’s a community and embrace it… and that kid is hopefully being taught by responsible parents to give way to pedestrians and disabled folks who have the right of way. To care about community.
Even if you live in rural America, you might have cases about your property. You might be told to put in city water and sewage, versus a well and septic tank. You might even have your house taken by eminent domain to put in a highway or rail. This is the fact of being a citizen of a country. Go find yourself an abandoned oil rig, form your own county, and good luck.
Nextdoor is, honestly, a cesspool of humanity (and I just want to get rid of some decent stuff for free this summer!).
Thank you Redditors, for often proving otherwise — that there is a community in FC that cares. I just needed to vent. And maybe here this discussed if others saw the conversation.