• xyguy@startrek.website
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    4 months ago

    Theres a house near me that has the 10 foot skeleton that they dress up for all the different holidays. Last year they got a second one. One of my favorite houses to looks at when I go by.

  • corroded@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    She’s fighting with the city over this? What city had rules for how you can decorate your property? I can see a draconian HOA having an issue with this, but I was under the impression the city never cares unless there’s a code violation.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Depending on the city they can be every bit as petty. Especially small towns that want to appear higher class than they are.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And the trashier a town is the more likely it is to have weird ordinances from back when they were trying to keep the trash out that they selectively enforce now.

        Source: I came from a trashy small town.

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      My hometown has city ordinance over fences. They have a max height and need to not block the view of the houses too much. It’s in place to keep the welcoming feel of the town iirc. So yeah depending on the place the city could be getting involved directly

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        I’d fight that. Surely there’s a fourth amendment argument there (e.g. I need it to be high enough that police looking over it would constitute an illegal search).

        • psud@aussie.zone
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          4 months ago

          My city limits fence heights, but the limit is 1.8m. a cop would need to be pretty tall to see over

          Anyway, if you want more height you could grow a hedge. Also if you don’t like the setback rules, a hedge can regain all the lost front yard

          We have a fair few hedges.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            I happen to be 1.9m or so, so a 1.8m fence wouldn’t do much to prevent me from looking over since that’s right about my eye level. So I’d opt for the hedge.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      iirc one american city tried to jail a dude because he “wouldn’t” (couldn’t as he was old af and broke) mow his lawn.

      I dont think he went to jail but it was taken to court

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      There’s actually a series of films called An American Werewolf in London and An American Werewolf in Paris

      Still waiting for the trilogy to be complete, starting to think they forgot about it.

  • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Because nebolous housing rates are more important than everything else burning to the ground around them.

  • RecallMadness@lemmy.nz
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    4 months ago

    Wouldn’t dressing up the warewolf reinforce the argument that it’s a seasonal decoration?

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, but the reason it was classified as seasonal was almost certainly to limit it to Halloween.

      This makes it seasonal to whatever season it’s dressed up as, which can be anything.

    • Lemmeenym@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Nope, a tree doesn’t become seasonal just because you put lights on it in December. Dressing it up shows that the statue is a general uses decoration that can be customized for any season.

  • Hikermick@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    It’s become the new concrete goose. I see these still up and wonder if folks bothered to consider where they were going to store them before buying

  • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    4 months ago

    A similar thing happened with me. I didn’t get any notice when I put a Santa hat on my skeleton but I did get a notice in early February for not taking them down yet. I was very tempted to put Valentine’s attire on it and contest it but I think if I hadn’t gotten the citation it would’ve been fine.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      What’s the citation for? What business is it of theirs how you decorate your property?

      I’d understand if if was an HOA or you had something pornographic on display, but a Valentine skeleton seems absolutely harmless.

      • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        It was a Santa skeleton on display in late January/early February that I hadn’t taken down yet in case it wasn’t clear. The law for my city is no holiday decorations more than 30 days past the holiday. (I live in the incorporated area of the city, it’s possible if I lived in the unincorporated area the laws might be more lenient. Though I do not live in the so-called historic district.)

        It’s easy to get pissed off about it but the reality is they didn’t cite me for a Halloween decoration in December, they accepted that it was not a Christmas decoration because of the Santa hat. (Something we did for fun, not to get around a law.) So they were already being pretty lenient. Also, it’s not like the citation showed up immediately on the 31st day once we didn’t take it down. And we didn’t get a fine or anything.

        It still made me upset, but all things considered it was pretty tame.

        Next year we might make it into a Valentine’s Skeleton but do it before the 30 day mark from Christmas. It’s probably easier to dodge a citation than argue that my Halloween Skeleton is no longer an infringing Christmas Decoration but instead now a Valentine’s Skeleton because I gave it a little Cupid’s Bow or something instead of a Santa Hat. Know what I mean? It makes sense in my head. Not sure if I’m explaining it well over text. Sort of similar to those “harder to ask permission” type situations.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          That kind of ordnance would annoy me enough that I’d fight it. Keeping a skeleton up year round doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s merely a visual annoyance to your neighbors. I would fight that law on first amendment grounds, since keeping a skeleton up year round is absolutely an exercise of free speech, therefore the law is unconstitutional.

          Yeah it’s petty, but I’m totally willing to fight an unjust law with petty civil disobedience.