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“Not thrilled with the idea of seeing their neighbors’ underwear”
Remember back in June when the idea of hanging clothes out to dry was revealed as gauche? This weekend the New York Times has taken up the discussion:
Jeanne Bridgforth, a real estate agent in Richmond, Va., said that while she had no personal opinion on clotheslines, most of her clients were not thrilled with the idea of seeing their neighbors’ underwear blowing in the breeze.
She recalled how she was unable to sell a beautifully restored Victorian home in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond because it looked out onto a neighbor’s laundry hanging from a second-story back porch. In June, the house went into foreclosure.
“Where does it end?” Ms. Bridgforth said of the legislative push to prevent housing associations from forbidding clotheslines.
Oh puhleez. Right down the road a bit we have a slew of Million Dollar Clotheslines. Tell solar snob Bridgforth to put *that* in her corncob pipe and smoke it: http://www.greenmodernkits.com/2009/09/in-praise-of-clothesline.html
Indeed. Where does it end…? Likely in chaos and communism if you ask me.
Something. Must. Be. Done.
I totally agree with Bridgeforth. There’s a big difference between hanging a beach towel on a line vs your neighbors entire wash out for the whole world to admire. Come on, it’s freakin courtesy and common sense. Enviro-wackos have taken this crap to far!
Why does Miss Hathaway from the Beverly Hillbillies come to mind when I think of Ms. Bridgeforth and her clothesline phobia? Either that, or Mrs. Thurston Howell, III. In any event a more egalitarian outlook regarding outdoor clothes drying would make her look a lot less like an ass. If the economic conditions that plague much of the rest of the country ever catch up with Richmond we’ll be seeing a lot more of this kind of this kind of cost-saving behavior, no matter how decoratively dreadful, Lovey.
The sad part is the mention in the NYT will probably encourage like-minded snobbish and elitist far West End types to call this agent and arrange for more of their kind with that mindset to appear in the streets of Richmond, or worse, Church Hill.
Personally, I’m proud to be called a clothesline-using “Enviro-whacko” and would be drying clothes on my front porch railing if I thought Bridgeforth was showing houses in my neighborhood.
christo said:
“Enviro-wackos have taken this crap to far!”
Perhaps you need to go back and re-read “Everyone Poops”
I say we owe the realtor a debt of gratitute for helping to weed out what I would consider an undesirable neighbor. Church Hill is really IS NOT the place for house-proud, judgmental snobs. They wouldn’t last a week.
Having come from FL where the condo Nazis rule, and having been “fined” for the color of my door lock and handle, I am OVER IT with anyone who feels they have a right to dictate my every move.
To those New Yawkas who think we are so gauche: FUGGEDABOUDIT.
#4 IS RIGHT. WE ALL MAY BE HANGING OUR UNDERWEAR OUT TO DRY ON A CLOTHES LINE. OBAMA HIMSELF SAID IF “CAP AND TRADE” IS PASSED, WHICH HE IS PROMOTING, WE WOULD SEE ELECTRICITY RATES SKYROCKET (IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME LOOK IT UP)I GREW UP HANGING CLOTHES ON THE LINE AND DID SO WHEN I MOVED TO CHURCH HILL BEFORE I HAD THE MONEY TO HOOK UP MY DRYER. IF THOSE PEOPLE DIDN’T BUY THE HOUSE BECAUSE OF THE CLOTHES LINE, I WOULDN’T WANT THEM AS NEIGHBLORS ANYWAY. THOUGH CONVENIENT, DRYING CLOTHES IN A DRYER IS HARDER ON CLOTHES THAN HANGING THEM ON THE LINE. LINE DRIED CLOTHES LAST LONGER.
Doom and gloom or realistic pragmatism.We have but a short time left on this earth if the small minded are allowed to continue.I know what I would hang, if it was allowed.Not just my clothes.Nick and all other ostriches may find this harsh but simpletons are condemming everyone ( especially whales and other beautiful species) to a fate that is worsethan a quick hanging!!!
i would hate to see her comments surrounding the cloth diapers i hang on my line
Hey Roger…don’t bogart that joint my friend…LOL
Last week it was Sam Moore. I’d like to see the Folk Festival, Tricycle Gardens, the great musicians and artists of our city make it into the national press instead of our southern clowns.
I have probably the only window in the city that can see my neighbor’s balcony and not only are there clothes hanging from it, they have been there since at least August when I first noticed them. Do I care? No. Are they not-so-great neighbors? Well, yes but I wouldn’t have picked up on that from the obviously unwanted lines strung up like flags on a yacht.
My mom had a clothesline for about 40 years because we had room for a dryer but not a vent to the outside.
Complaining about clotheslines is nearly the same as looking down on someone who likes walking or biking.
i would hate to see her comments surrounding the sex toys i hang on my line to dry…
maybe JB, the Dotts and their ilk would be ok with our clotheslines & laundry if we told them these “architectural features” are part of the anti-CAR, anti-False-Historicism movement in Church Hill?
I suspect Richmond will become more and more of a front page place as the economy and environment degrade.
Virginia has wonderful natural resources, but continues to let the fossil fuel industry reign.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/fight_to_legali.php
I am stunned, is this realtor for real.
We still have so much blight in church hill ,and she’s worried about someone hanging their clothes on a line.
I own the vacant lot next door to my house, and most of it’s an english garden. However, I just might install a clothes line and hang my underwear out for all the neighbors to see.
There’s another vacant lot next door to mine, and the owners started landscaping it years ago. However, their daughter has moved into the house now, and the lot is overgrown with weeds and full of debri.
There’s a real reason to complain, and we live across from a park. Everyone who walks by can see this lot. I am greatful for the privacy fence I had installed. There’s one more thing about the owner of this vacant lot, (El, # 13, the daughter who lives in the house hangs her bedding over the balcony rails) therefore, you’re not the only one -).
Seeing someone’s laundry on a clothes line isn’t beautiful, but please. We still have so many blighted properties up here, and she’s complaining about someone’s laundry.
How does she sell the renovated houses that are right next door to a boarded up house. There’s a house a few doors down from me, and it’s a real eye sore. The porch is falling off the house, etc.
Please let’s do something about getting more of these houses restored.
The house didn’t sell b/c of that laundry, it was probably over-priced.
People who seriously look to buy in church hill know it’s a neighborhood still in transition.
As a Fellow and Realtor who has in 24 yrs sold only one house outside of City Limits suggest that Ms Bridgforth remember how to sell Real Estate “Offer to buy and have installed W/D to Close the Deal.” Having lived in Fan / Benedictine all my life, I’ve had to skinny up metal 25 ft metal pole to re-attach clothes line to pully that was attached to our 2nd floor apt porch more than once.
Amazing timing: the last story in this month’s Ricmond Belle, (StyleMag’s Women’s fashion pub) has a writer recalling (whistfully) his recent visit to Venice, Italy, and the beauty of outdoor clothes lines.
Call me crazy, but I actually fantisize that tourists might come to Church/Union Hill to walk our narrow, winding cobble stone streets and admire our historic architecture while our own clothes sway in the breeze hanging from our ante-bellum porches and windows…adding a very modern, human touch to the scene.
I like to see my neighbours washing, as it assures me they’ve remembered to wash! It beats a smelly street!