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You don't have any idea what I'm like in person, but if you spent all of about 30 seconds in my presence you'd know instantly I'm the most non-confrontational person you're likely to meet. I admit only to expressing a bit of outrage here that someone would rather rat on a neighbor than be helpful or informative. Especially over something as non trivial over a time setting on a sprinkler system. If you live in the kind of place where someone would blow a gasket over being told they were watering at 6 instead of 5 then you have much bigger problems than watering violations. I am glad to listen and talk about anything with any neighbor without so much as a harsh word or raised tone. But I can't abide the non-communal a-social and frankly hostile act of informing the city for something that has zero impact on their lives.
I don't know you, so maybe what you posted above is a completely valid self-analysis. But it's a bit hard for me to reconcile what you just posted with the fact that you started this thread by saying that you like to play the "game" of when you meet someone for the first time, you try to decide whether they'd fall in with the Nazis or not. ("I like to play a little game when I meet someone for the first time - Vichy or Resistance? If he or she lived in France in the early 1940s - would they be more likely to be complicit with the Vichy regime? or would they be more likely to have become a member of La Resistance francaise and fought the Nazi occupation of France?")
Not to mention calling the person who reported you a "coward"; that the note you received from the city was "nasty"; saying that if a neighbor doesn't trust you, it's because he's "paranoid"; and that being reported was "a hostile act".
Again, maybe you are usually totally level-headed, but from my viewpoint, it's not coming across that way in these posts. So if I knew you were a neighbor of mine who posted those things with that tone, I'd probably avoid direct contact (including going up to your door to leave a note), too.
But I can't abide the non-communal a-social and frankly hostile act of informing the city for something that has zero impact on their lives.
It is this negative interpretation, and your continued insistence that your view is the only correct view that would warn me off from approaching you directly, were I your neighbor.
Let's start with "zero impact on their lives," a negative interpretation when obviously water conservation during a drought is a serious matter that affects all of us. So it's actually every citizen's responsibility to help enforce the regs, because government entities cannot ever provide 100% enforcement.
"Non-communal," another negative interpretation, because the City and its agencies are a part of the community. Referring to them and calling on them and relying on them is not non-communal or anti-social at all. It's actually how it is all designed to work. Not participating with this kind of program is actually more classically anti-social than being engaged.
Calling 311 is a "frankly hostile act?" Sorry, I see it completely differently. Where is the hostility, other than in your interpretation? Matter of fact, I would find that act encouraging, because that is a neighbor who I would call a concerned citizen, one who would be more likely to call the police if they saw a break in, or an act of domestic violence, or an animal being abused. It's the people who turn away, and don't want to get involved that concern me most.
And your references to "rat on a neighbor" and the Nazi occupation metaphor you invoked are so overblown, and so far over the top for a tiny, tiny, teensy little inconsequential matter like getting a reminder from the city that you are not following the watering restrictions... and you're the Resistance, because you are secretly fighting an oppressive occupation by brutal overlords... really? REALLY??
You don't have any idea what I'm like in person, but if you spent all of about 30 seconds in my presence you'd know instantly I'm the most non-confrontational person you're likely to meet. I admit only to expressing a bit of outrage here that someone would rather rat on a neighbor than be helpful or informative. Especially over something as non trivial over a time setting on a sprinkler system. If you live in the kind of place where someone would blow a gasket over being told they were watering at 6 instead of 5 then you have much bigger problems than watering violations. I am glad to listen and talk about anything with any neighbor without so much as a harsh word or raised tone. But I can't abide the non-communal a-social and frankly hostile act of informing the city for something that has zero impact on their lives.
Yeah, you sound like a real easy going guy. How many posts have you made in this thread alone complaining about how horribly you have been treated by getting "a warning letter"??
LOL. I'm not adding much to the original post, but I got a good chuckle because it reminded me of our "incident". Just yesterday, I saw a letter from the HOA in my husband's car about a violation. He was cleaning out our garage one day, and in the process, he had moved a lot of things out to the driveway while he rearranged the garage. There were boxes stacked on top of each other, bicycles, etc. In my opinion, it clearly looked like we were cleaning out the garage. Nevertheless, the letter mentioned something about a violation of the restrictive covenants, specifically....for storing rubbish, etc. in the driveway. I was like...WOW. ONE day of cleaning out the garage...which didn't even take the entire day...and ALREADY there was a notice WITH a picture of our "rubbish" attached. LOL. It was obvious we weren't "storing" these things in the driveway. But hilarious, nonetheless. I held the letter in my husband's face and laughed....teasing him.
It did, however, make me wonder if it was a neighbor or "HOA covenant patrol."
Most HOA's have a management company working with them who periodically drives through the neighborhood and cites anyone who is visibly violating the guidelines. You probably just picked the wrong day to clean out your garage and the person making the drive by didn't use much common sense when noting it.
Are some of you really serious that you would not knock on the OP's door based on the posts? Com'on! What??? Is Austin home to a bunch of chickens? Geeze.
Anyways...really! I think the point they're trying to make is how something like a watering sprinkler going off at the wrong time really ISN'T something that should be reported but talked about face to face. Right?
Maybe we should start reporting the watering of golf courses instead.
Yeah, you sound like a real easy going guy. How many posts have you made in this thread alone complaining about how horribly you have been treated by getting "a warning letter"??
One post and a few direct responses. Since this is a conversation board I don't see how that is excessive.
One post and a few direct responses. Since this is a conversation board I don't see how that is excessive.
A few direct responses. Looks like 14 by my count.
And I'm not the only person who has gotten the impression you are wound a little too tight! Holding up a mirror for you to see yourself through our eyes:
Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD
It is this negative interpretation, and your continued insistence that your view is the only correct view that would warn me off from approaching you directly, were I your neighbor.
Let's start with "zero impact on their lives," a negative interpretation when obviously water conservation during a drought is a serious matter that affects all of us. So it's actually every citizen's responsibility to help enforce the regs, because government entities cannot ever provide 100% enforcement.
"Non-communal," another negative interpretation, because the City and its agencies are a part of the community. Referring to them and calling on them and relying on them is not non-communal or anti-social at all. It's actually how it is all designed to work. Not participating with this kind of program is actually more classically anti-social than being engaged.
Calling 311 is a "frankly hostile act?" Sorry, I see it completely differently. Where is the hostility, other than in your interpretation? Matter of fact, I would find that act encouraging, because that is a neighbor who I would call a concerned citizen, one who would be more likely to call the police if they saw a break in, or an act of domestic violence, or an animal being abused. It's the people who turn away, and don't want to get involved that concern me most.
And your references to "rat on a neighbor" and the Nazi occupation metaphor you invoked are so overblown, and so far over the top for a tiny, tiny, teensy little inconsequential matter like getting a reminder from the city that you are not following the watering restrictions... and you're the Resistance, because you are secretly fighting an oppressive occupation by brutal overlords... really? REALLY??
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulmmm
I don't know you, so maybe what you posted above is a completely valid self-analysis. But it's a bit hard for me to reconcile what you just posted with the fact that you started this thread by saying that you like to play the "game" of when you meet someone for the first time, you try to decide whether they'd fall in with the Nazis or not. ("I like to play a little game when I meet someone for the first time - Vichy or Resistance? If he or she lived in France in the early 1940s - would they be more likely to be complicit with the Vichy regime? or would they be more likely to have become a member of La Resistance francaise and fought the Nazi occupation of France?")
Not to mention calling the person who reported you a "coward"; that the note you received from the city was "nasty"; saying that if a neighbor doesn't trust you, it's because he's "paranoid"; and that being reported was "a hostile act".
Again, maybe you are usually totally level-headed, but from my viewpoint, it's not coming across that way in these posts. So if I knew you were a neighbor of mine who posted those things with that tone, I'd probably avoid direct contact (including going up to your door to leave a note), too.
A few direct responses. Looks like 14 by my count.
And I'm not the only person who has gotten the impression you are wound a little too tight! Holding up a mirror for you to see yourself through our eyes:
People who get called out on rather bad behavior don't like it. I get that. They're inclined to be defensive, lash out, try to make themselves appear righteous and above it all.
But to those who defend a world where it's ok to watch and inform on their own neighbors for minor infractions rather than interact with and inform them - i offer no apologies.
Are some of you really serious that you would not knock on the OP's door based on the posts? Com'on! What??? Is Austin home to a bunch of chickens? Geeze.
Anyways...really! I think the point they're trying to make is how something like a watering sprinkler going off at the wrong time really ISN'T something that should be reported but talked about face to face. Right?
Maybe we should start reporting the watering of golf courses instead.
Speaking just for me, when someone posts that when he meets a person for the very first time, he plays a "game" of whether that person would be a Nazi sympathizer or not, then yeah, that pretty much rules out me wanting to talk to him for any reason at all. I wouldn't call it being "chicken", though; more just recognizing that he has a very a different mindset than mine, and his is one that I wouldn't particularly want to engage.
His point about telling him in person or with a note may have some merit (although others have made good cases about why they disagree), but all the name-calling is really something that I wouldn't want to be around.
People who get called out on rather bad behavior don't like it. I get that. They're inclined to be defensive, lash out, try to make themselves appear righteous and above it all.
But to those who defend a world where it's ok to watch and inform on their own neighbors for minor infractions rather than interact with and inform them - i offer no apologies.
You mean, like people who get a note from the City of Austin regarding their violation of the watering regulations?
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But hilarious, nonetheless. I held the letter in my husband's face and laughed....teasing him. 
