Man, those are some harsh rules. I agree and support rules to keep people from having virtual dumps on their property but as long as it is neat and orderly, who cares? Yes, running a business in a residential area would also be cause for concern. Your example above of people who exploit the laws…should only be an abutter that can submit a complaint. Someone not even from that neighborhood has no stake in the situation…
That’s why here in NH they put their appliances in the BACK yard. There’s a house a couple of streets over that has a couple cars, refrigerators and several washing machines and or dryers in their back yard. Over the years they’re harder to see because of the high grass and bushes and trees that have grown around them. He only has a 1 acre lot.
Remember this joker with the printers? Imagine living next to that…
That’s strange looking because the rest of the property (that you can see) looks well kept. Almost like he weed eats around that pile o trash.
I know exactly where that house is.
The owner should just build a temporary fence so to block the sight from the public right of way of his used printer collection. I can’t imagine that would take much time or cost much in the way of $$. Then the owner could have his printers, and the rest of the town’s residents wouldn’t have to look at them. This seems such a simple solution, there must be major problems with it … lol …
hmm … I think I see the problem. My idea would work for the first photo, but not so much for the second. It appears to be a pretty tall pile of printers. It’s a print-zilla!!
lol Hey, maybe build a wall using the printers as building blocks.
I don’t remember how many years ago, maybe in the 80’s, when they started charging to dump tires. 2 locals saw stories, how they’d “soon” be turning tires into roads… so make money at both ends. They didn’t count on the 90’s laws about storing toxic material inside city limits.
Here’s the thing though, most cities have ordinances against unsightly messes on a property or dilapidated structures and can enforce that no problem. No one wants garbage and rodents infesting the neighborhood. A lot of places also have either ordinances or property covenants against non-running cars or operating businesses out of ones home. Those are just fine and important for everyone’s property values and enjoyment of their property. Saying you can’t do your own repairs in your own garage though is draconian and stupid and goes well beyond what is necessary to insure communal enjoyment of your property. And like everything else, its a slippery slope and no end to what could come next. Like to grill outside? No no, no smoke. Like a lawn? No can’t use the water. Like to shower? No only on certain days. Use a clothes dryer? No takes too much electricity. Like a bigger house? No, 500 square feet per person is our limit. If you can imagine it, someone is thinking about it.
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…and I think all those are ordinances. My thought… it’d be hard to tell if a car is inoperative and if I work inside my garage, who’d know whose car I’m fixing? No doubt it’s for the poorer communities, where a front yard may have 3 cars being repaired.
OK I’m really getting off target but when my neighbor was selling his house, I had one of my Rivieras for sale sitting in my driveway. The realtor came over and wanted to know if the car had current registration because he didn’t like it sitting there when he was trying to sell the house. Really ticked me off. Car was in great shape, running and licensed. I just cleaned out my third stall and put it in the garage.
Well then the folks they sold the house to had a business where he used one of those trucks with a lift to deliver roofing, sheet rock, etc. and he parked the dang thing in his driveway every night. I really don’t know but I think there is an ordinance against parking service vehicles in the driveway, and it can’t be on the street either. At any rate the guy on the other side I’m pretty sure complained to the city about it and then promptly moved to Florida. The neighbor is still mad at me because I think he thinks that I’m the one that complained about his truck. He sold the business anyway and is doing something else out of his house which technically is against the covenants. I’m not sayin’ a word though. I don’t want to get shot but I would like good relations with folks. So I understand a little about nuisances but we need to be a little tolerant of each other.
The guy owned a printer salvage company. Then when China stopped taking our junk he had no place to sell them so they just piled up. Says he doesn’t have the money to properly get rid of them.
There was a show on the Discovery Channel a few years ago called “Lords of the Car Hoards”. This ex pro wrestler and his partner a hot-rod builder would find people hording cars. They’d offer the owners a deal. We’ll get rid of all your cars, and in return build you one (sometimes two) custom cars. I thought the concept of the show was pretty cool, but it lasted only a couple seasons.
I wouldn’t be too sure of that. Around here, it’s the more affluent developments/communities that have covenants/bylaws to restrict these kind of things. Almost nothing is allowed in the front/side yards or viewed from the street. You can drive through a sub-division and it looks perfect but deserted. No cars in driveways, no outside laundry line, no kids playsets visible etc. A sterile environment…
Same here. It’s the affluent communities that have the covenants. Some communities in Windham NH have some extremely strict ones. No campers parked in driveway. No vehicles parked in the street. No more then 2 cars allowed to be parked overnight on the driveway. No clothes lines.
If you agree to live in places with these restrictions - it’s been proven to increase property values. We have some covenants where I live…but nothing like the more affluent communities.
lol Yeah, I’ve seen that in the McMansion communities… looks like a scene from a plague movie.
I was thinking of CA. We drove thru a neighborhood w/ 3 cars on the curb, and one in the drive, another in the yard, being tinkered on. I would assume a club gathering, since they were mostly Hondas. A mile or so away was a couple dudes who were doing what appeared to be a thriving business of fixing cars in front of the house, 3 mechanics working away.
Maybe like my friend, whose cash business was working on cars. I’d think working on diesels all day would do it, but he liked the challenge of really odd problem cars. (And fixed the oddest problems I’ve ever seen.)
Here it costs $5 each to dispose of printers so I can see where the guy might have a problem paying for them all. At work it used to cost us $25 to recycle each old computer. Adds up. For a few years they had a free electronics recycling day in the Spring. Lines of cars with all kinds of stuff to get rid of. I had a trailer load of computers, monitors, etc. to get rid of.
In my county, one can go to a specific facility on any day–Monday through Friday–and drop-off any type of electronic device that one wants to dispose of. I thought that this was more or less the norm in other areas, but… apparently not.
That used to be the norm here, too. Now they charge.
Printers can be recycled, you just need to take it apart. Electronics go in a barrel, steel in a hopper, plastics in a 3rd. Metal is recycled, plastic is $25 a ton… and catch them on a “bargain” day and electronics are cheap.
Printers have useful parts inside, DC and stepper motors, and various guide tracking mechanisms, and various small screws and nuts, many of which can come in useful for future diy’er projects. When someone throws away a printer in my area and I have time to bother w/it, I’ll disassemble it for the parts. Some of the good parts are pressed in, so I built a small press out of wood to press them out. The rest goes in the metal and plastics recycling bin. The volume of the saved parts is probably less than 1/20th the volume of the assembled printer. But it takes 15-20 minutes to separate the good stuff from the bad.
Just a few years ago I know a guy who rented a large Moving van, then drove down to NYC to pick up an old Dec-10 (or Dec-20) mainframe he paid $200 at an on-line auction.
He then spent several weeks melting all the gold off the thousands of connectors. When finished he then paid almost $5,000 to dispose of this beast. But he made a nice tidy profit of over $10,000. Those older mainframes had a lot of gold in them.
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