Let’s string clotheslines all over Bend

Jake points to an utterly jaw-dropping article in the Wall Street Journal about a woman who is running into trouble up on Awbrey Butte by… get this… daring to hang her laundry on a clothesline.

No kidding.

This is stupid beyond words. Check it:

The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the development’s managers have threatened legal action. To the developer and many residents, clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains.

"This bombards the senses," interior designer Joan Grundeman says of her neighbor’s clothesline. "It can’t possibly increase property values and make people think this is a nice neighborhood."

Let’s break down a couple of those things, shall we? It states, "clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains"—ummm, if you’re settling in the "Oregon mountains," you’d better believe clotheslines are a way of life. You know, the kind of life you moved here to experience? If that’s a problem, then leave.

And "urban blight" and "bombards the senses"? Seriously? It’s a clothesline. If anything, I would think it would not only make the neighborhood nicer, but it would increase property values. That’s how the world works for those of us with common sense, anyway.

So Brooks Resources is threatening legal action. And while she may be, technically, in violation of the CC&Rs for the neighborhood,

Ms. Taylor responded by pointing out that the subdivision is "blatantly full of noncompliant owners" who display everything from plastic play equipment to exterior paint colors that don’t meet the requirement of "medium to dark tones." She added: "Who am I hurting by hanging clothes out to dry?"

So yeah, I’m just blown away by this level of stupidity. Hanging a clothesline is the "green" and environmentally-responsible thing to do—and isn’t being green the new trend, especially among the "elite" and all these new, trendy homes and developments that are going up? How does caring about the environment constitute "blight"?

I guess being environmentally responsible isn’t a priority for Brooks Resources or the other fools complaining over a backyard clothesline; if I was really snarky I’d write a headline saying Brooks Resources hates the environment.

Man, some days I agree with Jake’s comment that Bend really seems to be turning into a craphole.