Look who’s been in my neighborhood!
The red tag man! If you look out across my front yard (the iris and dandelions are mine!), my yard doesn’t look a whole lot better.
There are some taller weeds towards the back of the lot across the street from me but my goodness . . it’s rained for the past 40 days and 40 nights! I know because all I need is a stretch with 3 dry days to get my stucco inspection done and we haven’t been able to get that done in the past 6 weeks. The lot across the street has some very low spots and just cannot be kept cut during rainy season but . . the red tag man has a job to do and he does it! I won’t miss red tags!
If you get a red tag, it’s like that tag on your pillows. You cannot remove the red tag or . . I don’t really know what would happen because I’ve never gotten one but in theory, the red tag man comes back around seven days after putting out the red tag and if you’re done your civic duty and cleaned up your weeds/grass/debris, he takes away your red tag and may leave a treat or something. I really don’t know and hope I don’t find out but with Vince living in Texas and the yard responsibility belonging to Chad, I may soon learn the red tag procedures.
When he comes back around after seven days, if you haven’t cleaned up your yard, you get a white tag . . a final notice white tag. Then the city comes and cleans it up for you and you have to pay them. It goes on your tax bill or as a lien against your property I suppose. I hope I don’t find out this either.
The house with the white tag gets a red tag, then a white tag, then they clean it up and however long it takes for the grass to grow again, they get another red tag, and then another white tag. It’s a vicious cycle for those folks.
Yep, I will not miss the red tag man!
Vicki W says
That’s the kind of thing that would drive me absolutely insane. Surely the city has a better use for taxpayer dollars than to pay some guy to go around annoy people with tags in their yards. I would be at city hall protesting that every day!
Yvette says
Those red tags look worse than the overgrown grass. The people that put those signs up must have gardeners.
Toni says
Oh my goodness! I couldn’t imagine. We would always be in trouble! Our “lawn” is really just mowed pasture grass. We would have to reseed. Of course, we live in the country on 17 acres and I do try to keep up on the yard but…..this has been a record breaking Spring rainy season. And that is saying something for Oregon. Now I can see having a red tag man in developments that have “Home Owners Associations” where your dues pay for that kind of service…and everyone agrees to a certain standard of lawn condition, no motor homes in driveways, pick up your newspaper by 8:00 etc. but pay for this from my taxes? No way!
Nancy says
oh, we would be screwed if we had a red tag man…our son is also responsible for the yard and we have to brow beat him into getting it done…and really? that’s ALL he does around here..
Deb Myers says
sounds like a lawn service to me! wonder what the ‘white flag’ house gets charged for a clean-up and lawn cutting? might be the way to go!!??!!! interesting system~ maybe more towns should implement that system! there’d be no shabby lawns for sure!!
glen in Louisiana says
i sure wish we had a red tag man. My crazy neighbor would be getting a ton of them.
glen
shirley bruner says
i don’t understand the dilemma over there….why don’t the people simply cut their grass and avoid all the hassles. although with all our rain we would have a red tag out here, too. there is a place in the front where all the water flows down from the hills and across the lawn…..the grass and trees do really well there. it has been under water for weeks and not mowed…it’s about 2 foot tall now….we are calling it the conservation area. hahahahahaha
Helen says
Hmm, I wish there was a red tag man here. So many of our neigbours have 2 foot weeds and it is very unappealing. Not to mention the bike lane that is so overgrown I have to use the road or risk decapitation. In theory we can “report” code violations, but their voice mail box is full. Besides who wants to “report” neighbours? Better to have a pro-active city in my opinion.
pdudgeon says
wouldn’t it be cut to put out a sign “Deer Wanted–Free Grass!” maybe the association should try that instead, since the guilt trip hasn’t worked.
Amy says
Our village doesn’t have tags (thank God), but they are just as strict. My husband and I got hit the first year we lived in our house. Of course this was right at the time our dog was dying – and we were spending lots of hours driving back and forth to the vet’s office. But neither the neighbors nor the village cared. My Dad calls them the “Grass Gestapo”.
Sandy says
I would sure hate to deal with that. We never have our lawn looking bad enough to get a red flag but crying out loud……sounds like the town is telling you how to live your life. Too much government and I don’t blame you for wanting some acres out in the country even though you keep your lawn mowed. We have a neighbor who has FOUR dogs who bark all day long…I am not kidding. I know I could call to complain but they are the kind of people you don’t want to get on our bad side, ya know? And with us going South for the winter and gone for months at a time I am not comfortable complaining and then wondering all the time we are gone if someone hasn’t done something to our house. I have a neighbor check on it from time to time but it isn’t the same as someone living there. It probably is a good thing my hearing isn’t all that great, lol.
Shirley Albertson Owens (sao) says
OH DEAR – I can’t BELIEVE they have those red tags!!!!
sao in Midlothian, VA
Lee Ann L. says
That is interesting! Here where we live and in Houston, if you live in a HOA development that is picky, they mail you a citation. You have so many days after receiving the citation to clear it up.
carol c says
that is an absurb action, or job or whatever. its no ones business if you like dandelions or flowers in your yard. what is it to the “officials” if you have dandelions for crying out loud. stoopid situation!
barbara says
i don’t live in a town where we have a ‘red-tag man’, but i can understand the dynamics here. when you buy into a community that has rules, it has rules. if you don’t like rules, don’t buy in.
as for the dandelions…ah, yes. one of my neighbors has loads of them, which means we all have loads of them no matter how well we tend our lawns. those cute things spread like wildfire. all he has to do is mow before they flower. he knows it and just doesn’t care.
everything your neighbors do affects your property value, so i can’t blame anyone for wanting to see nice, clean, neat lawns around them. that doesn’t mean fancy, just tidy. there’s nothing worse than trying to sell a house with a weedy jungle next door.
JudyL says
This is our “city”, not any neighborhood association and these rules came into effect a little over a year ago . . well after most of us bought our homes here.