It's not easy being green for homeowner
This sort of thing is why people move into HOAs. The city doesn't have an ordinance on house colors. If municipalities want to meet the challenge of CIDs, they need to go back into the traditional business of looking out for the quality of life. They need to do a better job of responding to low-level complaints about minor irritations--stray dogs, spiteful house-painting, obnoxious unsupervised kids, cars parked illegally on lawns and sidewalks, wandering strangers--things that just detract from residents' sense that their neighborhood is a nice place to live. And they need to resolve these things informally if possible. What I see, typically, is municipalities falling back on various legalistic justifications for action or inaction: the truck is illegal, the house color isn't. The dog was/was not on its own property when it was barking and snarling at your child. The wandering stranger was just staring at you from the sidewalk and eyeing the contents of your garage--call us when he steals your barbecue.

Traditionally municipalities weren't afraid to use informal power--now they call their city attorney and ask for a legal opinion before putting up a Christmas display.

(By the way--note that this fellow doesn't even own the house--he rents it from his dad.)


Juan Mata's maroon Kenworth semi-truck means a lot to him. The Lockport man keeps a picture of it tucked inside his wallet. He used to proudly park the truck in the driveway outside his home. So, when his neighbors called police last summer, complaining that the truck was noisy and an eyesore and the police made him move it, Mata, who says none of that's true, got mad. Then, he got even: He has painted his house a brilliant shade of fluorescent green...The police made Mata move the truck because of an ordinance that bans trucks from being parked in residential areas. But there's no ordinance that restricts what color people can paint their houses, city administrator Larry McCasland says. "It's crazy, isn't it?" McCasland says, laughing. Mata's home, which he rents from his father, has become sort of an attraction, drawing people who don't even live in the neighborhood.
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