We are so proud of our first home and wanted to show our pride by doing our part to make our area a nicer place to live. In three years here we have taken the time to improve our home as best we could on our limited budget, we’ve made small renovations, purchased new furniture, re-did the flower bed in front of our home, planting a few trees and created a little garden in our backyard.

Unfortunately our neighbours do not share our point of view. I understand there are a lot of renters in our area. I have nothing against renting, heck we were in a rental apartment before we managed to buy our home just before the big housing boom and now with that boom it has becoming increasingly impossible to become a homeowner. But when we were in our rental apartment we always took the best possible care of it to make it look its best because this was our home. I wish I could say the same about my neighbours. Every year since we moved in things are getting progressively worse on our street to the point where I now find the drive home to be depressing knowing that I have to come home to garbage strewn yards with items like doors, spare tires, mattresses lying wherever on their lawns. Not to mention most of the front lawns have become parking pads for assorted abandoned or working vehicles and recreational vehicles (I’m not talking about in the driveways, I’m taking about vehicles parked every which way on the front lawn). No one ever shovels their sidewalks or mows their lawn. Plus the hedges are never trimmed; they are simply neglected like everything else on the street. One of the trees we planted has even become a doggy washroom for every neighbourhood dog! People let their dogs run loose or tie them in a way that they are sure to get loose to the point that people are frightened to walk down our street in fear of being bit or viciously attacked by a dog. People are constantly blaring their music until all hours of the day and night with no respect to anyone that lives near them, or having unattended bonfires in the summer creating toxic fumes and fire hazards. Basically our area is one big bylaw infraction and I’m tired of living this way.

All I ask is this, please respect your neighbours by taking care of your property, keeping your noise to a minimum, and if you don’t have the room to park all of your vehicles in front of your home, walk the few extra steps it would take and park them on the street. Please take pride in where you live, regardless of whether you rent or own this is still your home. Don’t you want to live in an area you can be proud of?