I’ve been a bit skeptical about Nextdoor but this is pretty compelling.
From an actual post on Audubon Park’s Nextdoor site earlier this month:
“To whomever called code enforcement about the state of my yard … Did it ever occur to you that not everyone whose yard is not up to snuff is lazy? For your information, I am a cancer patient. All of my money has gone to doctors, hospital bills, medicine, etc. My stamina isn’t even close to what it used to be … And if that wasn’t enough, my husband decided he didn’t want to be married to a lemon, so he asked for a divorce. Do you know what that feels like? … I have been killing myself the past two weeks trying to get everything done the city wants before they put a lien on my house/fine me. If the only thing that you find bothersome is the state of someone else’s yard then I think you ought to be thankful. Be thankful you can afford to pay somebody to do your yard work for you. Be thankful you have good health to do it yourself. I hope whoever this coward is gets a major comeuppance, you selfish SOB.”
Samantha Lair says she was really angry when she wrote that. She prepared herself for what she expected would be equally indignant responses.
After all, she knew her yard was a mess and she knew she needed to find the energy to clean it up.
So she was shocked to wake up the next morning and find 16 responses to her rant, many of them offers of free yard work.
“It was just amazing,” she said. “Not one of them was negative.”
For the last two weeks, neighbors from all over Audubon Park, the Orlando neighborhood sandwiched between Leu Gardens and Baldwin Park, have stopped by Lair’s home and spent an hour or two trimming or weeding. Others have hauled off bags of yard waste so she wouldn’t be charged for going over the bag limit on trash day.
Wow.
