...they can always repackage it as partylocator.com.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

When I living at home years ago, the neighbourhood didn't change much. Pretty sleepy town of 18 000, mostly retirees and young families. Cheap real estate, and quiet neighbourhoods.

Nothing noticable actually happened, but for some reason, one of the older neighbours down the street kinda snapped. Maybe he was bored from retirement, but he started calling the cops, or the fire department for any and every by-law violation he could find. There was a bike trail a half block away and one of the kids had a dirt bike he's take out there, and he sat on it and pushed his way across the street with the engine off... this guy video-taped it and sent it to the cops. He called the fire department because my mom and I had a small fire in our own backyard that wasn't properly arranged (apparently, as the FD didn't know what to say to us when they showed up in our backyard, ready to fight a blaze and they saw a fire pit 3 feet wide)

He then constructed a fence through the length of his backyard, the only resident in the block to do so, thereby bisecting a large tract of grass the young kids used to play on (I used to run through there as a kid myself) which is perfectly legal, but if you got the only fence in town, you're bound to look like a dick, ya know? Then he extended his fence onto a city-owned laneway at the end of his plot, and my other neighbour called the cops on him. He had to tear it down... and next summer he rebuilt it (he was building it to dissaude this other neighbour from using said laneway to transport building materials into his yard for a treehouse and hockey rink, etc) and the cops were called again, and it was torn down again.

This actual friendly neighbour had access to a snow plow in the winter, and would plow the space in front of everyone's homes and driveways (and the giant walls of snow the street plows leave blocking you in) and this guy called the cops on him, as it was against some by-law of whichever for a citizen to plow city property. He called the cops despite getting his own driveway plowed... by that time the cops knew what was going on, and my father, being a former cop for the city, used the opportunities to talk to some old co-workers.

Nonetheless... there was a stretch of 3-4 summers where this guy did everything in his power to make everyone else miserable. Then, not coincidentally, he and his wife moved out into a retirement home and his kids moved in, who were perfectly reasonable and friendly.

...is that you can post anything about anything. In my neighborhood, people seem to have taken to reviewing businesses in the area like a local coffee shop or the LA Dodgers. It would be cool if you could moderate or endorse what other people have said. My favorite quote so far has been someone telling a guy who plays electronica all night and has a poster of a car on his wall (apparently) to "go back to the Westside."

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

I must say, I've had a few bad neighbors in my day.  Nothing to go to court over, mostly just their unsupervised kids.  Still, it was a pain in the ass.  

Now I've got a couple of vacant properties around me.  One next door who moved out and is asking way to much for the property values here, and one that lost his job and the bank foreclosed on him.  That one is very reasonably priced, and I'm sure it will go quickly.

Still, it's a bit unsettling to see empty properties in the neighborhood, particularly one as nice as the one I live in.  I'm sure the bad economy around Cleveland has a lot to do with it.  

Oh well, I keep a loaded firearm near my bed, and the police department on the speed dial on my cell phone.  Right about now I wish I had my friend's Doberman here, because I know my cats aren't going to be good for diddly-squat.

there's only one way to find out...

When I moved in, my house had been vacant for several months. This meant the denizens two (2) doors down had trained their dog to defecate on my lawn on command, since nobody would be there to care. In addition, the loose dog took extreme umbrage at the fact myself and my beagle/terrier would go for our morning walk and would jump out from the bushes at us "Execute Code Red" style. After a few weeks that got old, so I went to have a talk with them. The parents refused to come to the door, sending their ~7 year old to the door saying no adults were home. At 6:30am. Classy.

The man of said house makes a living as a snow plow, limo driver guy. During one  historical blizzard we woke up to find a giant truck in our driveway. I assumed it was my [cool] neighbors (we share a driveway). He came out at 10am (the snow was that bad) asking when we bought a truck and why wasn't it in our garage. I explained that it wasn't ours, and we had assumed it was his. Turns out, same asshole neighbor from two (2) doors down had gotten back late during the storm and couldn't find his driveway. So he decided it would be okay if he just parked us in until he showed up to claim his truck at 1pm the next day. My [cool] neighbor wanted to call the cops, but we did not because the city was literally paralyzed. The idiot neighbor then decided he was going to make it up to us by plowing our driveway for free. Which was cool, except for the fact he also plowed away part of my cool neighbors steps. That was uncool.

So yeah, we really don't talk to those people much.

I will refrain from expounding on the robbery suspects outside who pulled a sawed off shotgun on the cops across the street from me, the neighborhood arsonist who only strikes on weekends, the crack heads who hang out on the street behind my place or the guy who I called 911 on who was beating some chick up in my lawn at 4am because there is no way I can be sure they are my neighbors and I don't want to give my area a bad reputation.

Spread it on!

Oh, and in other news, the entire institution of higher learning where I went to college is listed on that website as a "Bad Neighbor."

That's what I'm talking about. A new reason not to donate to those people when they try to harass me for money this year, but I'll keep sending it to a better place. The place where I got my MS from has currently got me spending all my money up on them, and spending time on them. So real.

Spread it on!

I do wonder about the legal implications of a site like this - in two ways.  First off, if this gets enough traction it could easily lower the property values of a certain neighborhood.  This might be nice for the buyer, but it sucks if you're in that area and trying to sell your house.  While the site and commentators would be legally protected if what's posted is factually true, a lot of times truth is in the eye of the beholder, and sometimes the problems come more out of personality conflicts than out of an inherent problem with the neighbor in question (i.e. the problem develops because Neighbor 1 plus Neighbor 2 can't stand each other, but if Neighbor 2 moves away and Neighbor 3 buys his house and moves in, things could be perfectly fine).  There's also the problem of accuracy and keeping things updated - what happens when the problem neighbor moves away/dies/violates his probation and goes back to prison?  Is that block going to be stained forever with the reputation of having a problem neighbor, or will the site take down of out of date information?*

*This is really a problem internet-wide.  Google Maps, for example, often provides contact information and phone numbers for businesses that are out of business or have moved to new addresses.  

Ce n'est pas une pipe. C'est une signature.

The kid who was either driven to suicide, or not,  by the infamous myspace mother a couple of months ago?  Well, Lori Drew's name, location and deeds are immortalized on rottenneighbor.com.

I guess I have a problem with a site like rottenneighbor not so much to report stuff like the Drew incident (because it's public knowledge).  And using rottenneighbors as an adjunct posting for the location of sex offenders wouldn't bother me from much the same standpoint.  However, I have questions and concerns over sites like these:

1. Who polices the postings?  What's to keep someone from simply slandering your name and reputation?  There's no requirement for an actual identity and location in order to post the most inflammatory and embarassing info on the site.

2. Who updates the information?  Supposing you have a child sexual molester who moved into the community last year and you post that to the site.  Supposing the molester moves out and somebody else moves into his house.  How does the information on the site get changed?

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Unfortunately our state prohibits purchasing self defense spray except from a gun store or licensed pharmacist.

Jeez, I've never heard of such a restriction.  You can probably get it wherever you live thanks to this internet thingy:

http://search.cheaperthandirt.com/search?q=pepper+spray&site=firsttest&txthide=1&output= xml_n_dtd&client=firsttest&btnG=Search&access=p&ip=12.75.69.77&proxystylesheet=f irsttest&getfields=price&getfields=image&oe=UTF-8&filter=p

I'm a bit more concerned abut critters of the two-legged variety, and I think the .38Spl is plenty to discourage them.

there's only one way to find out...