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No secrecy here. Most of us just don't notice it because it's what we grew up seeing.
What gets to me though is when people cut down forests or divide up pastures and put in giant, sprawling houses and giant, habitat-destroying lawns that provide no food or cover for most wildlife. I'll take neighbor with a junky yard and a small house surrounded by woods any day over the other kind of place. To each his own, I guess.
As I have mentioned before, we live in a gentrifying rural neighborhood. We are somewhat down our road so no one sees our slow composting pile where we pile limbs and branches. An old sofa we put in there years ago is gone. It provides habitat. Our new neighbors are burning theirs. We also don’t mow because our front yard is all woods. Neighbor’s are always mowing or weed eating. The development across the road has pristine green lawns and no character.
As I have mentioned before, we live in a gentrifying rural neighborhood. We are somewhat down our road so no one sees our slow composting pile where we pile limbs and branches. An old sofa we put in there years ago is gone. It provides habitat.
So much better that just throwing everything in the landfill, and I'd bet you have a nice diversity of little critters on your yard.
I'm not able to do much composting right now, since I live in an apartment, but if all goes to plan I'll be back on my own land soon and will be using some of the new ideas I've come across on YouTube recently for Earth-friendly living.
Yes, this is a great response. Most artistic people I know are not wealthy. I am an illustrator and photographer and am lower middle class income living in a gentrifying rural neighborhood. We have 2 pickup trucks, guns, vote independent, hike the nearby trails and farm. My grandfather was a logger.
I especially thought the comment about those who make their living from the land was well-put. If it wasn’t for logging, ranching, and farming activities , you would not have the open space.
You can drive around parts of rural Western Washington and find pockets of poverty: sheds, shacks, collections of broken down vehicles and old farming equipment. These are people trying to get by as best they can. I don’t know that they would have the time or inclination to hang out at upscale brew pubs or coffee houses.
And you can drive around parts of rural Washington and see methville shacks, crap piled all over on the front lawn, and people who are too lazy to make any effort to clean it up. There are various lifestyles in rural areas, and not everyone is doing the best they can. Many simply choose a lifestyle that includes drugs and partying and move out to the sticks to more or less hide it, along with 34 cars.
Yesterday we went out to look at a couple of properties in the area, and Taz, we had the opportunity to drive down the side street you've described here as 'skid row'.
It had been awhile since I'd been down the road, I have to say I was shocked at what I saw. This is a street of mostly 5 acre parcels, and there are at least 30 homes on the road. It is populated with a combination of manufactured homes and stick-built homes, some old, some new. Many have barns or shops or sheds or other outbuildings and most are set up to have a few animals... horses, cows, chickens, goats, dogs. As I drove down the road, I saw mostly mowed lawns and nice landscaping, active growing gardens, well maintained pastures and fences, greenhouses, sheds, and well-kept animals in good condition! I saw round pens and horse trailers and campers and swimming pools and kids swing sets! I was prepared for garbage and mattresses and diapers. Instead I found fun, perfectly normal things that good, decent families have.
I saw livable, decent working-class homes much like we often sell to first-time or modest home buyers who want small acreages in this area. Good people buy them. Good people like the ones who live there now. These places are not fancy, but they are NOT trashy! They are NOT all methed out and piled with garbage. There was no garbage I could see that would be visible from a polite person driving down the road. No mattresses, no diapers, no junk.
TWO places on the road, one on each end of it actually, I would describe as 'sketchy' because of overgrown unkempt yards or an inordinate number of junked cars or piles of debris around. People most of us probably wouldn't want to live next door to. Two, out of 30. And their places are so overgrown you have to look hard to see the mess. Normal people driving by on their way somewhere wouldn't see it.
I could prove all this, but I don't have the right to divulge the address or details of the area. But no proof has been offered by Taz either. IF people wanted to verify it and know the street we're talking about, the road in question is actually available on google streetview. It's a little outdated, 2013... but I would propose it hasn't changed that much in quality or upkeep. The same two places that I will concede are junky now, were junky then.
I think the trashiness of all of Western Washington, is being exaggerated so badly here, I just feel the need to say stop!.... wait!... We are allowed to make up our own opinions, but we're not allowed to make up our own facts!
I have been thinking a lot about this, and there is nothing different or unique about the culture or class of rural people in Washington than any other place. This is not a "dumping" culture.... in fact, I would attest, this area has people who are more environmentally conscious than the national average.
You can go anywhere in the country, and drive the country roads, and see a full range of people and quality of landscaping. And you will undoubtedly find a few who are trashy. By all means, if looking for a home, we should drive around and look for people and places who look like they are a hazard to us. But perspective is a very good thing, and at some point, if all you are focusing on is the one or two sketchy looking houses nearby, and you're taking pictures, and showing them to your dentist, and telling the same story over and over again, you lose perspective, and I'm not sure that's healthy either. You're missing the forest for the trees. THIS IS A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE. It's beautiful here.
I find it amusing that of all people, the only group we can freely single out and make broad sweeping insults about are white rednecks... and yet they are the ones generally accused of being intolerant. Sure, we have some of them here... but there aren't more rednecks here than anywhere else... and, FWIW, I'm happy to have the ones we do. Because by and large, if we need a tree cut down or a house built or a fence built or our car worked on, or our junk hauled away, those are the people who we will need to call. They are the ones who still do the hard work around here... that's why their necks are red, remember? No, the rednecks with their trucks and guns are not the bad guys. That's what I meant to get across when I first responded to this thread, and I mean it. Tolerance needs to go both ways. All ways.
Taz, you have every right to want a place that is closer to town, a place that has better big city amenities that your hubby wants, that is more universally upscale, that has ritzy houses all around you. If that's what you want, I sure hope you can find it and soon. We have places like that in WA. I even know where they are! And I've helped good people to buy those beautiful places! But there's also a lot of perfectly good people who want exactly what you have now, with all the current neighbors... The real neighbors, not the exaggerated unfounded version you keep repeating here. It would be noble of you to disclose to your future buyers that your neighbors are all drug addicts with trashy yards if it were true, but it's actually NOT true, and I have a feeling you will soon be wanting to convince someone that it's worth the price you plan to put on it. SO please, take my word for it, as someone who helps real people find places every day, most of whom love it here: Your house a nice place, in a nice area worth buying in.
My word, it's gorgeous out today... sunny skies, fall colors, beautiful views! I hope we can ALL go out later and enjoy the sun while we have it. I love these fall days. Good day everyone.
I think we have gotten to the point in this country where a lot of people are simply used to living in completely managed HOA-governed suburban communities where everything from the color of your house to the plants you can use for landscaping to the cars you can park are regulated. HOAs that I've been around regulate things like trampolines and even whether you can put a birdfeeder in your yard. In the Oregon forum there was a thread about one HOA community in Salem that was fighting to prevent a school bus from picking up a disabled child from their front door because....well I don't know why because.
I don't remember any of this when I was growing up in an ordinary suburb in Eugene. We had some neighbors with meticulous houses and others not so much. That has been the normal since pretty much forever. It's only recently that people have grown accustomed to living in perfectly curated neighborhoods of like-minded people and carbon-copy houses.
Rural areas I think are pretty much the last space where people of widely disparate means still live in close proximity. You have double-wide trailers next to big estates. Something that simply doesn't happen in managed suburbs anymore. I think some people just find that jarring and are seeking out that something that simply doesn't exist. A rural landscape that is perfectly curated to the same aesthetic.
If someone wants to live in a place where people are very similar to them in income or wealth and lifestyle/preferences, neither urban nor rural settings tend to offer an acceptable level of uniformity.
Suburban and some exurban HOA “communities,” however, do. And there will still be bad neighbors anyway.
Yesterday we went out to look at a couple of properties in the area, and Taz, we had the opportunity to drive down the side street you've described here as 'skid row'.
It had been awhile since I'd been down the road, I have to say I was shocked at what I saw. This is a street of mostly 5 acre parcels, and there are at least 30 homes on the road. It is populated with a combination of manufactured homes and stick-built homes, some old, some new. Many have barns or shops or sheds or other outbuildings and most are set up to have a few animals... horses, cows, chickens, goats, dogs. As I drove down the road, I saw mostly mowed lawns and nice landscaping, active growing gardens, well maintained pastures and fences, greenhouses, sheds, and well-kept animals in good condition! I saw round pens and horse trailers and campers and swimming pools and kids swing sets! I was prepared for garbage and mattresses and diapers. Instead I found fun, perfectly normal things that good, decent families have.
I saw livable, decent working-class homes much like we often sell to first-time or modest home buyers who want small acreages in this area. Good people buy them. Good people like the ones who live there now. These places are not fancy, but they are NOT trashy! They are NOT all methed out and piled with garbage. There was no garbage I could see that would be visible from a polite person driving down the road. No mattresses, no diapers, no junk.
TWO places on the road, one on each end of it actually, I would describe as 'sketchy' because of overgrown unkempt yards or an inordinate number of junked cars or piles of debris around. People most of us probably wouldn't want to live next door to. Two, out of 30. And their places are so overgrown you have to look hard to see the mess. Normal people driving by on their way somewhere wouldn't see it.
I could prove all this, but I don't have the right to divulge the address or details of the area. But no proof has been offered by Taz either. IF people wanted to verify it and know the street we're talking about, the road in question is actually available on google streetview. It's a little outdated, 2013... but I would propose it hasn't changed that much in quality or upkeep. The same two places that I will concede are junky now, were junky then.
I think the trashiness of all of Western Washington, is being exaggerated so badly here, I just feel the need to say stop!.... wait!... We are allowed to make up our own opinions, but we're not allowed to make up our own facts!
I have been thinking a lot about this, and there is nothing different or unique about the culture or class of rural people in Washington than any other place. This is not a "dumping" culture.... in fact, I would attest, this area has people who are more environmentally conscious than the national average.
You can go anywhere in the country, and drive the country roads, and see a full range of people and quality of landscaping. And you will undoubtedly find a few who are trashy. By all means, if looking for a home, we should drive around and look for people and places who look like they are a hazard to us. But perspective is a very good thing, and at some point, if all you are focusing on is the one or two sketchy looking houses nearby, and you're taking pictures, and showing them to your dentist, and telling the same story over and over again, you lose perspective, and I'm not sure that's healthy either. You're missing the forest for the trees. THIS IS A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE. It's beautiful here.
I find it amusing that of all people, the only group we can freely single out and make broad sweeping insults about are white rednecks... and yet they are the ones generally accused of being intolerant. Sure, we have some of them here... but there aren't more rednecks here than anywhere else... and, FWIW, I'm happy to have the ones we do. Because by and large, if we need a tree cut down or a house built or a fence built or our car worked on, or our junk hauled away, those are the people who we will need to call. They are the ones who still do the hard work around here... that's why their necks are red, remember? No, the rednecks with their trucks and guns are not the bad guys. That's what I meant to get across when I first responded to this thread, and I mean it. Tolerance needs to go both ways. All ways.
Taz, you have every right to want a place that is closer to town, a place that has better big city amenities that your hubby wants, that is more universally upscale, that has ritzy houses all around you. If that's what you want, I sure hope you can find it and soon. We have places like that in WA. I even know where they are! And I've helped good people to buy those beautiful places! But there's also a lot of perfectly good people who want exactly what you have now, with all the current neighbors... The real neighbors, not the exaggerated unfounded version you keep repeating here. It would be noble of you to disclose to your future buyers that your neighbors are all drug addicts with trashy yards if it were true, but it's actually NOT true, and I have a feeling you will soon be wanting to convince someone that it's worth the price you plan to put on it. SO please, take my word for it, as someone who helps real people find places every day, most of whom love it here: Your house a nice place, in a nice area worth buying in.
My word, it's gorgeous out today... sunny skies, fall colors, beautiful views! I hope we can ALL go out later and enjoy the sun while we have it. I love these fall days. Good day everyone.
Here is a view of a junky mattress dumping yard nearby. I removed the house, now it’s a yard like others out here. Your view of that trashy street is completely backwards. The street does not have every house with yards like this, but most of those houses are under 1k square feet, they look more like 7 or 8 hundred square feet. That dosen’t include the single wides. The street is very poor and reminds me of the bad neighborhoods where you didn’t go, in past towns. The confederate flag flying neighbor does have the largest house on the street though. I’d be happy to post all of them, but for legal reasons won’t. You spend a lot of time spinning stories on these supposed happy and productive people. I see druggie and lazy with who knows what vermin hiding under all that junk. It’s disgusting and not how I’ve ever wanted to live.
I suspect the people who buy our house might not even notice or care if they were raised in Washington. Fortunately, this house sits between two neighbors who take great care of their property. The buyers will get a great view of farmland and well kept houses, at least what they can see. And one of the prettiest farmhouses they are going to look at, since I’ve done so much work around here.
I haven't defended junky yards, I've tried to call for putting them in perspective. You're letting them define the state for you. I don't think that's fair or accurate. I realize this is a point you may not concede or agree with me on... I just hope others will end up reading through the biases of BOTH of us, consider their own experience driving around countrysides in this country, and end up with the right amount of perspective. That's the goal.
I haven't defended junky yards, I've tried to call for putting them in perspective. You're letting them define the state for you. I don't think that's fair or accurate. I realize this is a point you may not concede or agree with me on... I just hope others will end up reading through the biases of BOTH of us, consider their own experience driving around countrysides in this country, and end up with the right amount of perspective. That's the goal.
The truth is, I’ve noticed more trash dumpers up here in Washington than in other states I’ve lived in. But we can agree on the scenery here, it’s very lovely and I’ll never move back to hot, dry Arizona.
I’m just a Missouri girl passing thru and camped out in Ellensburg and wondering if this would fit the OP’s criteria. It has a lovely downtown area and no Wal-Mart and that’s good enough for me lol.
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