Posted on 10/11/2009 9:17:11 AM PDT by kingattax
CANTON, Ohio — After taking a class that covered global warming last year, Jill Saylor decided to save energy by drying her laundry on a clothesline at her mobile home.
"I figured trailer parks were the one place left where hanging your laundry was actually still allowed," she said, standing in front of her tidy, yellow mobile home on an impeccably manicured lawn.
But she was wrong. Like the majority of the 60 million people who live in the nation's roughly 300,000 private communities, Saylor was forbidden to dry her laundry outside because many people viewed it as an eyesore, not unlike storing junk cars in driveways, and a marker of poverty that lowers property values.
In the past year, however, state lawmakers in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have overridden these local rules with legislation protecting the right to hang laundry outdoors, citing environmental concerns, because clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumed.
Florida and Utah already had such laws, and similar bills are being considered in Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia, clothesline advocates say.
The new laws have provoked a debate. Proponents argue people should not be prohibited by their neighbors or community agreements from saving on energy bills or acting in an environmentally minded way. Opponents say the laws lifting bans erode local property rights and undermine the autonomy of private communities.
Jill Saylor hangs clothes outside her mobile home in Canton, Ohio. She petitioned to get the owner of the property where she lives to reverse a clothesline ban.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
It's good to conserve and save energy, but not for the sake of globull warming. Er, excuse me, climate change. That's the new moniker since it hasn't warmed any in ten years. It's all about power, control, and money. Any imbecile should be able to figure that out.
After hurricane Ike I dry my clothes outside, I use a small tree in my backyard. Not one complaint yet. Might get around to putting up a clothes line some day. Never did replace the dryer, mother nature does a better job. lol
Dammit,we want our depression and you gotta give it to us. To hell with going green and climate change energy savings. And Y2K too.
You do realize that this a is a private community we’re talking about. She signed up for this by moving in and signing her homeowners agreement; it’s not like the homeowners association just popped up out of nowhere and started making demands on her. She signed a contract, now she wants to renege on it - and because here renege is based on the desire to save sacred Gaia she thinks she has the right.
That said, I prefer the convenience of an electric dryer. If you live in an area with a heating season (e.g. all of Canada); you can get a diverter for the dryer vent, so that it vents the hot moist are into the house. That way, you aren't using any more energy, than you would if you hung the laundry outside to dry, and ran your furnace longer. This won't work for everyone: only for electric heated dryers (gas appliances need ventilation); and only if you have dry indoor air (i.e. if you need to use a humidifier).
Interesting. In Kowloon (across the harbor from Hong Kong) one looks up to see hundreds of bamboo poles sticking out over the street, many stories high, with family laundry flapping in the breeze.
I have fond Midwest childhood memories of laundry on the line. Times sure change. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
Energy rates are going up 30% for customers of PP & L (PA Power and Light) in 2010. I think there are going to be a lot of people hanging out clothes to save on energy costs, esp. those who do a lot of wash.
Electric driers are an incredible waste of energy.
It’s like flushing money.
When the government tells people they can’t dry their clothes outside, it’s like a big tax on that community, except the tax money is thrown away for no benefit.
If more people could dry their clothes on lines, people would have more money in their pockets for all sorts of things.
Excuse me, but that clothesline looks well maintained and compact, besides, wasn’t all the Hollyweird perverts yapping about drying clothes on clotheslines? Good on her.
There is a mansion on a hill overlooking our area (Central Texas) and a friend had a clothesline in the backyard which borders the millionaire’s mansion property. No one could see it but the millionaire on the hill behind him. He was asked if he could remove the line, friend said, “Sure, buy the place at my price and you can do what you wish with all of it”. That ended that!
Since then, several millionaires have bought the mansion, divorced and moved on, what a waste of some nice property, now we have a vacant, deteriorating mansion to look at. None of us can see our friend’s clothesline but we can ALL see this eyesore mansion.
The way I see it property values have fallen so far that hanging out clothes can’t really hurt the value any more!
“You do realize that this a is a private community we’re talking about”
After Katrina one of the most interesting things to come out of the disaster was the information that private communities will not get help. FEMA can only go the front gate and no further. This might be seen as a selling point.
I don’t give a damn about saving energy!
The clothesline lowers value, but the trailer park doesn’t. Go figure.
If you don’t care about saving energy, then I guess you don’t care about ever increasing electric and gas bills.
I grew up in the 40’s and 50’s. Everybody hung their wash out. Everybody. Most people still had wringer washers in those days as well. Monday was “laundry day”. Since everybody hung out their wash, nobody complained. But if their neighbor’s sheets weren’t white enough, that was grist for gossip.
Pretty mild, considering how complete strangers think they must take it upon themselves to tell others how to live.
I pity anyone who hasn’t slept on sun-dried sheets and pillowcases.
Just letting you know because you might be interested in the comments over there.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
“guess you don’t care about ever increasing electric and gas bills.”
No i don’t!
Your position is unclear. Are you on the side of the owner of the trailer park or on the side of the government interferring with the park rules against hanging clothes outside?
What do you do the other 330 days?
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