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The Local Clothesline Flap That Just Won't Die

In case you hadn't heard, a little over a month ago, a local woman made an international stink when she tried to line-dry her clothes in a yuppie neighborhood in Bend and her neighbors and neighborhood association told her she couldn't. The story still goes on because Brooks Resources, who manages the association, has decided to "clarify it's pro-laundry drying stance" by adding a paragraph addressing clotheslines to their design guidelines. The problem? It doesn't solve a thing.

Posted by Jake on 11/04/07 @ 10:28 PM
Posted in Funny, Local | 4 Comments | Permalink
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4 Comments

The Fishmonger said on 11/05/07 @ 11:32 AM:
So wait... this woman bought a property in this development and agreed to the covenants associated with that property (including one requiring screening of outdoor laundry drying), and now doesn't want to follow it. Why are people portraying her as the good guy? or at least as a besieged freedom fighter? She agreed to this, and now she wants to back out. It's silly. She needs to get over it. If she didn't want to follow a bunch of silly design rules, she shouldn't have bought into that sort of subdivision. I'll bet they have rules for house color and yard light placement, and driveway materials and minimum number and size of trees, too. I agree it's offensive, that's why I didn't buy into one of those little sterilized enclaves. She did, and now she has to live with it. End of story.

Agrees with fishmonger said on 11/05/07 @ 11:47 AM:
Well said.
Typical though... "those rules are for OTHER people".

Grrrr.

Me said on 11/06/07 @ 11:42 AM:
Well, it seems to me that the reasons she's being portrayed as the 'good guy' is:

1) It's a stupid rule.

2) It was set up 20 years ago, so it's about time it was reviewed.

3) Other people have violated other rules - yet nothing is done about that (according to Susan Taylor, anyway).

4) The argument for allowing it ('it costs less electricity, and thus helps in the fight against global warming') is stronger than the argument for disallowing it ('some people think clotheslines bring down the neighbourhood').

The Fishmonger said on 11/07/07 @ 05:16 AM:
1) Granted. But she apparently didn't think it was a show-stopper when she bought into the neighborhood.

2) I can conditionally agree with this. None of the stories on this that I've seen have said what the process is in the development for ammending the covenants. There was a vague reference to her trying to call for a vote on it, but nothing describing if that is allowed. I can easily conceive of a covenant that requires a unanimous or at least 2/3 majority of home owners to approve covenants. This would seem fair in light of the fact that covenants are designed to preserve property value by eliminating or restricting "unappealing" behavior by the residents.

3) This is just whining. Most covenants are enforced based on complaints. If others have dried their laundy outside without getting complaints, then it wasn't a problem. Her laundry drying generated a complaint. Therefore, enforcement is triggered.

4) Sure, great reasons. And there are lots of good reasons to legalize growing cannabis in the US. But it hasn't happened yet, so those who do suffer the consequences. The reasons you give are reasons for changing the rule, not ignoring it.

Certainly the rule is intrusive, anti-environmental, and more than a bit snobbish. If there is a process for changing the rule, I recommend that she begin that process at once. Should she fail to have the rule ammended, two reasonable choices remain: abide by it, or move into a more reasonable development.

Contracts are not dissolved merely by the fact that they don't seem "fair" or that they are old. Nor by getting reporters to write news articles about them.

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