MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

File this one under 'Mind Your Own Business'. Several residents of a community in Bristol have been spending their free time protesting in front of the house of a neighbour when it became known that he was running a pornography studio. Police have confirmed the man is breaking no laws, but the protests continue. The owner of the porn studio is claiming his health is being impacted by the stress and that he fears for his safety due to threats of violence. There has been no incidents of neighbours accidentally seeing something that offends them other then a run in with the authorities over something that occurred in the garden 2 years ago (No more outdoor scenes apparently).

Used to be that porn was made in either Eastern Europe or Porno Valley, California. In our 21st Century Digital Age anybody with a computer and a high speed Internet connection can be an online smut peddler. You don't need to know anything about computers or even photography or video techniques, the only thing you need is a willing subject to immortalize (or sodomize).

I would suspect we will see more and more of these sorts of neighbourhood disputes. Not necessarily porn specific, but due to so many professionals being able to work and conduct business in a virtual environment.

Frankly if we truly wish to save our planet from ecological catastrophe one of the best ways will be to have more people working from home and passing zoning laws that will allow for this to be expanded. Commuting to and from work is the #1 source of carbon emissions for citizens of the Industrial world.

HOMER'S STUPID NEIGHBOUR

In the interest of wasting time on the Internets today. I can't remember what season this was from, but it starts out with Homer singing "Everybody in the USA, hates their stupid neighbour..."



Another cool time waster I discovered today is the site Passive-Aggressive Notes. Neighbour conflicts often results in notes or letters back and forth, and they have many very funny examples. It makes me want to write a note just so I can take a picture and upload it to the site.

I remember as a child living in California our neighbour from across the street used to mail my parents a letter every 2-3 months that always started with "Dear Neighbour" and went on to complain about the lack of general upkeep on our front garden/lawn. I should mention this was at the height of one of the biggest droughts the state had ever seen. It was forbidden to fill up backyard pools at this point (and thus skateboarding was changed forever) and at my school they were practically promoting that we not wash our hands after using the bathroom. Of course, the world could be ending, and this guy across the street would still make sure his sprinklers came on every day at 6am sharp and then washed and polished his Porsche in his driveway every night when returning from work.

REDESIGN

Performed a bit of a re-design today in an attempt to make the site look cleaner. Also removed most of the ads (that were not making any money anyway). Kept Google Adsense because I just like Google even though I'm not making any significant money off of them (unless you call around $1 a week significant). Going to try to work with the Amazon Affiliates program a bit, more because I think I can properly target ads that people may find useful (Home Improvement, Renovation, Real Estate, Gardening) instead of any attempt to actually make money.

No neighbour related post today (at least not yet). Rough week at work and I missed posting on Friday. On the way home I stopped to pick up some beer and then pretty much just passed out in front of the television. I'm a big fan of craft brews, and go out of my way to try something new most of the time. Also a big fan of English Ale or any beer with a strong taste/flavor. I could say I hate American beer but that oversimplifies it, because I hate most Canadian mainstream beer as well.

So anyway I found something that caught my eye on the shelf and have not tried it before, so I picked up a selection of brews from the Black Sheep Brewing Company out of Yorkshire. I picked up some bottles of their Monthy Python's Holy Grail Ale. The label that reads "Tempered over burning Witches" is what really caught my eye. Also picked up a couple bottles of the Black Sheep Ale, and the Riggwelter Ale. Enjoyed them all quite a bit and will purchase them again for sure.

A common source of friction in a neighbourhood is the process of gentrification, loosly defined as the moving of affluent individuals into a lower-class area. The process can transform a neighbourhood in just a few short years, but normally the process takes about a decade or more to really have an impact.

I experienced it first hand when living in the artist lofts of Toronto's West End. In the late 1980's and early 1990's there were dozens and dozens of these buildings, normally old factories, usually within walking distance to the ultra-hip Queen St. West. Most of them were not zoned as residential, so living in them had its own benefits and drawbacks. Much depended on the landlord, and some were better then others. Heat was often a luxury. You had to be ready to fool building inspectors (beds that were hidden and keeping lots of paint and canvas scattered around your "studio" were two common tricks) with short notice.

I lived in one where the worst thing that could happen would be for the landlord to realize you had done significant improvements to the space. There were more then a few examples in that building of folks who had recently refinished a hardwood floor or renovated a bathroom to suddently find themselves evicted and the space available at an increased rent.

When my wife and I (fresh out of University) moved into our first loft on Sorauren Ave we were in among a complex of 4 buildings next to a large empty lot near the railway tracks. Prostitutes and drug addicts were a common occurance at night. The nearest main street, Roncesvalles, was known as "Little Poland" and contained a few greasy spoon restaurants and several delis and that was about it.

When we left nearly a decade later 3 of the 4 loft buildings had been converted to luxury condos and the artists chased out. The empty lot was a beautiful city park. Roncesvalles still had the same nickname but the street now sported a Starbucks, a jazz club, several nice restaurants, a groovy used record store, and some high end home furnishing/design stores. Houses in the area that went for $250,000 when we first moved there were going for $500,000-$750,000.

Where it used to be all bohemians and pensioners you now had young families pushing prams. Actually most of the young families were probably the same folks who were bohemians earlier on. It is almost inevitable that you have conflicts between the old guard and the new residents, and these battles are based on the common lines of race, class, and age.

My wife and I couldn't afford the neighbourhood when it came time to buy our first home, so we moved to the Corso Italia neighbourhood in Toronto (St. Clair and Dufferin area). The same thing is happening there now. We bought our house there for under $200,000 in 2000 and sold it for $240,000 only 2 years later. Today it would sell for almost twice that.

Which brings me to a story today I stumbled upon. Seems that gentrification has taken a new twist in Germany. The population there is aging you see, and these folks are cranky. An old neighbourhood, in the process of gentrification, has seen many young families move in. Young families need daycare in this 21st century world where you need both parents working to make ends meet. Daycares make noise. Most folks tolerate the noise, after all, everybody loves kids and daycares only make noise during the day (no loud keg parties on a Friday night). Well apparently not everybody loves kids, because some folks in Germany decided to sue their local daycare over the noise. The case is now before the highest court in the land.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP

Story out of the U.K. today about an old man who was trapped under his sofa for three days. Apparently during a power outage the man was disoriented and stumbled over his sofa, which then proceeded to tip over, trapping him underneath. Unable to free himself, he remained there for nearly 3 days, until a neighbour who was worried that he had not been heard from, peeked in the window. The man claims he survived by drinking whiskey from a bottle that luckily was within reach when he found himself trapped. I am just wondering how he was able to relieve himself during the duration of his ordeal.

STUDENT NEIGHBOURS

Neighbourhoods in the vicinity of University campuses are often ground zero for 'Student vs Resident' battles over noise and garbage, general upkeep of properties, safety, etc. The stories normally flare up twice a year, first during Frosh week and again after final exams. Some schools do more then others to build bridges among the community.

One such example is the University of Edinburgh, where the students association is investing some cash to put together a 'Good Neighbour Guide' for its students. Now this specific example seems like a waste of money, what research really needs to be done? It is all quite basic stuff:

1. No garbage on the curb except on garbage day
2. Loud parties on the weekend are fine, just clean up after yourself and try to wind things down (at least move from the porch to inside) after 1am.
3. When you move out arrange for pickup of large items left behind. Nothing worse then old sofas and other such rubbish left on the front lawn.

Some things that the locals need to remember about students:

1. You were young once, so give the kids a break.
2. If you didn't have students you could have crackheads living next door. Consider yourself lucky.
3. They probably don't OWN the necessary tools and equipment to do simple things like maintain a lawn or repair a screen door, so ofter to help or loan the necessary tools, instead of just complaining.