4 ms·

The natural angle is cool if you don't want to lounge around in your yard. The pollen, ticks, mice, raccoons, weeds, etc. are generally not what people are look

The natural angle is cool if you don't want to lounge around in your yard. The pollen, ticks, mice, raccoons, weeds, etc. are generally not what people are looking to deal with in urban/suburban living. I have a shop on a couple of acres that I let get pretty unruly because I don't really give a shit how it looks. After picking off quite a few ticks and dealing with raccoons constantly trying to get into the building for a while, I just started knocking down all the bushes and kept the grass real short. No issues since. Additionally, the HOA rules aren't there to stop well meaning homeowners who want a more natural yard, they're there to stop completely untamed blight. The latter case is significantly more common than the former and it is absolutely a problem. As much as it pains me to say (I think HOAs are one of the saddest, most pathetic parts of American life), lawn rules are reasonable at their core, even though the enforcement is overzealous.

ryandrake 2y ago
A rule is itself unreasonable if it can only be made reasonable with selective/lax enforcement. If the HOA just wants to combat "untamed blight" then the rule should be about untamed blight. Don't write the rule such that it demands a specific species of grass, with a length requirement specified to the centimeter.
- seabird 2y ago
  >only be made reasonable with selective/lax enforcement This is just a lot of local zoning ordinances. Sometimes it's stupid and annoying but like 95%+ of the time it's fine and not terribly important to expend any energy changing. I don't need any convincing that HOAs do it in the most power hungry freak way possible, but so much of our lives runs on letting things be a little loose, and that's a good thing.
casey2 2y ago
So you can't handle a raccoon living in a bush on a yard somebody says you own so you destroy it's habitat? Very cool. Do you want a medal? Should the ruminants who need grazing land be allowed to bulldoze your stapled together plywood or is that unreasonable?
- seabird 2y ago
  No, I couldn't handle the mountains of roundworm and bacteria infested piss and shit in the ceilings where they set up a latrine. I couldn't handle the trails of blood throughout the building from their fighting. I couldn't handle shooting rabies/distemper infected raccoons when they stumbled up behind me while I was working. After I sealed up the building and knocked down the shrubbery, they just walked a mile down the road to the nearest wooded area and set up shop there. They're fine, man. You're being awfully snide for somebody who very clearly has no idea what you're talking about. You wouldn't tolerate raccoons where you live for a second if you realized what letting them do whatever they want actually entails.

ryandrake 2y ago

A rule is itself unreasonable if it can only be made reasonable with selective/lax enforcement. If the HOA just wants to combat "untamed blight" then the rule should be about untamed blight. Don't write the rule such that it demands a specific species of grass, with a length requirement specified to the centimeter.

seabird 2y ago
>only be made reasonable with selective/lax enforcement This is just a lot of local zoning ordinances. Sometimes it's stupid and annoying but like 95%+ of the time it's fine and not terribly important to expend any energy changing. I don't need any convincing that HOAs do it in the most power hungry freak way possible, but so much of our lives runs on letting things be a little loose, and that's a good thing.

casey2 2y ago

So you can't handle a raccoon living in a bush on a yard somebody says you own so you destroy it's habitat? Very cool. Do you want a medal? Should the ruminants who need grazing land be allowed to bulldoze your stapled together plywood or is that unreasonable?

seabird 2y ago
No, I couldn't handle the mountains of roundworm and bacteria infested piss and shit in the ceilings where they set up a latrine. I couldn't handle the trails of blood throughout the building from their fighting. I couldn't handle shooting rabies/distemper infected raccoons when they stumbled up behind me while I was working. After I sealed up the building and knocked down the shrubbery, they just walked a mile down the road to the nearest wooded area and set up shop there. They're fine, man. You're being awfully snide for somebody who very clearly has no idea what you're talking about. You wouldn't tolerate raccoons where you live for a second if you realized what letting them do whatever they want actually entails.