hi, i’d love some feedback from those of you who live in homes in the cd, south of cherry.
i moved to the cd about a year ago (after renting on south cap hill for 20 yrs). we really love our house, neighbors, and neighborhood (we’re a few blocks from garfield). we’ve met many of the people on our block, and have even had nice conversations with people from a few blocks away–so i feel pretty good about the people who live near us.
however, we’ve noticed that since we started working on our yard–general clean-up and planting a few flowers and bulbs–we regularly come home to some sort of yard vandalism. first, it was small bits of trash (wrappers, etc). a few days ago, someone pulled out one of my plants, threw it on the sidewalk, and kicked dirt all over the place. tonight, i came home to large amounts of trash on the lawn, and one of our plants knocked off of our porch and crushed on the walkway (very upsetting to my young daughter, as she was the one who potted that plant).
at first, i chalked up the random trash to garfield teens (who often park on our block, and sometimes eat lunch in their cars). now, i’m wondering if we’ve become a target because we’re trying to make our yard look nice??
i know this sort of stuff happens to some degree in every neighborhood. but we’ve never owned a home, or lived in a single-family dwelling in the 21 years that we’ve been in seattle. our experience is limited to apartment dwelling. i’m wondering if this is something that others experience on a regular basis in this neighborhood. if i’m making myself a target by trying to pretty things up a bit (and i really mean a bit–a handful of daffodil bulbs, some ornamental grasses, a lavender plant), then i’ll know to minimize my front yard care and focus all my work on our (fenced) back yard. i don’t want to have to fence our front yard, too, but it’s something i’d consider down the road if needed.
thanks for any advice.
I was at the corner of 20th and Yesler, waiting for the light, in my car, and there was young, black dude walking through the park with a huge handful of scrap paper, which looked like it had been shredded into a uniform size. As I watched he just threw the entire pile of paper into the air and kept walking. There were a half dozen people in the park and nobody gave him a second glance.
I am not certain if you are in our email loop with the blockwatch – if not please contact me via email and I will send you a link.
This is not common, may very well be some one from the highschool who is parking near your place.
[email protected]
I, too found plants uprooted, trash strewn about and strange holes dug. Our family was a bit dismayed! Then one day I watched a family of crows totally raid our trash can! Haha! They tore stuff up and strew trash all about. Not too many weeks later, I watched a small pack of raccoons yank plants out of the front yard, presumably in search of something to eat. I don’t know if these phenomenae might directly relate to your issues, but the similarities were such that I felt compelled to share. We also live in the CD. I would also consider building a fence, were I you. It does not need to be any type of security fence to change behaviors concerning the property. Once we built our ornamental fence, we saw an immediate decrease in inappropriate traffic through our yard
unfortunately, this happens in the neighborhood…..I had a lady a mile south of me dump her garbage in my yard..the next door neighbor even put his garbage into my garbage can because he has a can that’s to small, then there was someone who put old work boots in my recycling bin…..some else put an broken radio in my recycling bin and then there was the broken lamp someone dumped in my yard…never any problems with the plants except that some cute young couple was picking my lavendar one day when I came home from work…..also there’s the usual wrappers and bottles.hmmm they never drop money…..then there’s the dog walkers. I put in new grass on the parking strip and people tore down my fence that I put up to protect it and stole it. now the grass is dead from dog urine. Then my next door neighbor picks his dog up and puts him in my yard to urinate and argued with me when I asked him to stop. nope these things are common in the neighborhood … you are not alone and it started about five years ago…
Could be animals (two or four-legged).
Lots of kids from the school park on 26th S., and then leave mounds of trash when they leave.
No, you will probably NOT see this happening in Ravenna or Medina, this is “the hood”, unfortunately you will need to get used to it. Put up a fence, plant a sustainable front yard (gravel grass, wood-chip flowers, etc), and enjoy what you can from your back yard.
Hopefully, some day, when the “cares” of this neighborhood far outweigh the “I don’t give a F*&Ks” of this neighborhood, this will be a better place to live.
There are certainly worse neighborhoods in this city (although not many), and it think it does help when people move in and try to makes things better (sprucing up yards, cleaning up, etc.), but don’t expect this to be Issaquah or anything.