Readers respond to blight call:
”
I’m calling to respond about the person in the paper today who
said it’s petty to report about people who are keeping their yards
junky. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending time in your
front yard, making your house look good, and your neighbor’s looks
like a junk pile.
Readers respond to blight call: “I’m calling to respond about the person in the paper today who said it’s petty to report about people who are keeping their yards junky. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending time in your front yard, making your house look good, and your neighbor’s looks like a junk pile. Tell these people to get off their lazy ass, go pull some weeds and keep the junk in their backyard. Do everyone a favor. Thank you.
• “Hi, I wanted to call in and reply to the Red Phone caller who called in about the washing machine and weeds in the front yard. They said that that isn’t newsworthy and that no one cares. Well, whoever you are, I care. I get sick of seeing crap in front yards. Let me ask you this: What is a washing machine doing on the front lawn? That is obviously not a place to keep such an item. Take all that crap to the dump and clean up our neighborhoods. Same with people and their junked out, rusted cars, shopping carts and all that crap. So I just wanted to tell the Dispatch to keep running stories on blight issues because they are relevant and some people do indeed care about the way this city looks. So, you get a good job from me. Thanks.”
• “Who doesn’t care about blight? People who have junk in their front yards are contributing to making this great town look trashy. A washing machine? Come on. That’s ridiculous. The people complaining I bet are the people who do this. And there was a letter to the editor not too long ago about blight too, about how neighbors should just walk next door and tell people the trash on their lawn is ugly and distracting. That’s ridiculous too. People who leave these kinds of things on their front lawns shouldn’t have to be told, like a child, that it’s unattractive and making the neighborhoods look bad. If what it takes is the local paper writing stories and offering street names and addresses for people to clean up their yards, I say good. They should be embarrassed about the way their yards look. Thank you Red Phone!”
And that, good readers, is a sampling of responses the Red Phone received after publishing a call from someone who claimed that reporting on the city’s blight problem was “petty” and no one cares about it. Just goes to show that one person’s opinion isn’t necessarily that of everyone else.
special ed story?: “Hi, this is a local resident and I too have been red tagged by all these Oakwood School postcards coming in the mail. … I would like the Dispatch to do an in-depth look at special education. Do you know that Oakwood takes kids who have learning challenges, but they do not offer any special education services? There’s a lot going on with Oakwood. But I’d like someone in the education department to take a look at what there is available in this area in special education schools, private schools. … We’re not getting enough help with the district.”
Thanks for the suggestion. The Red Phone passed it along to the editors who make such decisions.
Quit complaining: “I’m calling about the freeway sign and to those people who call in to complain. You need to be grateful because it is a privilege that they are acquiring from the dealerships. The dealerships don’t have to do this, but you guys are always complaining about it. It’s very expensive to maintain this sign so you guys should be appreciative instead of always complaining. Thank you.”
The Red Phone made efforts to contact a number of the auto dealerships when the original complaint call came in. Unfortunately, no one ever returned its phone calls and it was unable to determine who owns the sign, who operates it and who does repairs on it. Perhaps you know something the Red Phone and its readers don’t. It would have been nice for someone to return any of the Red Phone’s calls so that the issues regarding the sign could have been expressed. However, the sign is back in operation for the time being, and the Red Phone thanks whoever took care of it.
