Been reading this forum about a month now and I wouldn't even know where to pipe in--so many rants on city not doing this necessary thing, city might be doing that horrific thing, drivers pretty much all suck (in one post, a texting driver somehow equalled making a drug deal *lol*), dog opinions galore ... anyhow ...
I'm kinda in this other place ... I think: I just want everything to be left alone, more or less, with a natural, communal, and even unspoken agreement to evolve and compromise. Why has the city decided that the middle flight of stairs out of three equally so-so-condition flights needs to be entirely redone? (Interesting timing considering the recent budget turnaround, to say the least.) Why after 9 years of living here does City Light suddenly find my yearly professional pruning of my 60-footer suddenly in need of *their expertise* pruning (if it had been up to them, its limbs would have already wrapped around four or five of my neighbors houses)? And where was the city during that wind nightmare about 5ish years ago when one of *their* trees came through my bedroom roof/ceiling and missed me by about half a foot (I took care of it--and the cost--myself)? And where was the city a couple of months ago when a tree blocked us from leaving our dead-end road for 12 hours (yes, we all just chain-sawed our own way out because the city refused to come)? So be it. I'm good with it.
And don't even get me started on neighborhood councils. O for the love of all that is holy ... please make the neighborhood association *go away*! Sight pollution from seeing airplanes! The 100-year-old steel mill needs to go because we're being "poisoned" (uh, they've never made a peep about the Superfund sites populating the breadth of Harbor Island)! If your neighbor leaves a car parked on the street for more than, what is it, 72 hours, tow it! If you have a problem with the neighbor's possible drug-dealing, call the ... landlord! Call xxx-xxxx to complain about the annoying lights down in the industrial district! (Yeah, I called, to inquire if the guy had received any calls--he had, a lot of 'em, with everyone too passive-aggressive to identify where they were from--and he didn't even own the property in question.)
I just wanna live and let live. And if I really have a problem, I want to talk about it over a coffee. I got a most excellent response from a somewhat seemingly "down-and-out" dog owner who's "old beast" would visit alone for a daily crapola in my yard--she now comes up weekly and sheepishly cleans my yard of any "leftovers." When I tried to have a similarly civil conversation with one of the revolving 4 neighborhood council "representatives" (highly regarded in city government circles) to kindly stop trespassing on my property, they became absolutely ballistic and hateful.
Am I making any sense?
Sheesh my evil West Seattlite compatriots! I think I just joined your club. :-O
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