Neighbors

Why is it that one neighbor can turn a perfectly good neighborhood into "the 'hood?" 

My next door neighbor is a single (or probably divorced) woman with two absolutely worthless teenagers.  Their front yard is dirt which can grow nothing but 3 feet tall weeds.  They do have a nice stand of about 3 big bouganvillas that bloom a beautiful red but underneath them is a huge cardboard box and other assorted trash she and her able-bodied kids are too lazy to remove.

Don't get me started on the cars.  There are two what my Dad used to call "gun boats" in her driveway.  One of them is a dark grey and has not only weeds growing all around it but now some guy is using it for parts, which he leaves on the driveway underneath the back end.  Lovely.  The other car is white - I suspect - and at least she drives it once in a while.

Did I mention she has an old refrigerator on her front porch?  I saw them deliver a new one so maybe she's just keeping this one for sentimental reasons.

And her back yard.  My husband and I consider our back yard/patio to be our little slice of Paradise.  We watch TV outside all year long, enjoy our pool, and have parties for our friends.  I'm ashamed to have people look over the wall and see that green, bug infested pool in her back yard.  There is icky stuff floating in it!  I've been calling the City of Mesa people since 2004 (yes, I keep records!) and so far....nothing.  They can't even make her empty it.  And no one uses it....ever.  We've lived there almost 10 years and I've never once seen her or her kids in that dank tank.

We are very fortunate that the rest of our neighbors - across the street and next to us on the other side - are wonderful people who make the effort to keep our neighborhood nice.  None of us has a perfect yard or home, but it just takes one really bad one to spoil the overall ambiance.  Can't afford to move so we tolerate our token tenement.