Unsightly clothes hang out to dry: zoning dispute over eco-friendly act or flags of poverty
The simple, nostalgic act of hanging clothes outside to dry, regaining popularity as an eco-friendly act, has become a full- blown political flap in Richmond, Va. On one side of the line, proponents of the right-to-dry movement say clotheslines are a green alternative to dryers, which are second only to refrigerators and air conditioners as the top energy consumers in most homes.
“I call my clothesline my solar dryer,” said Lisa Taranto, a green activist and director of the community Tricycle Gardens, who hangs laundry outside her East Broad Street home.
Opponents, however, see clotheslines as flags of poverty that create eyesores and devalue property.
“They’re unsightly by most people’s standards,” said Jeanne Bridgforth, a realtor with Long & Foster in Richmond. “It gives an atmosphere of decline. You don’t sense you’re in a well-heeled neighborhood when you see people hanging their laundry out to dry.”
Julie Young describes the dispute in The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The battle continues between those who want to hang their clothes to dry and those who see clotheslines as poverty flags. The North Carolina Senate has hung out a clothesline bill to dry. The Greensboro, NC, News-Record reports that a House bill that would prohibit cities and counties from banning people from hanging clothes out to dry rather than use their electric dryers. http://www.news-record.com/blog/53964/entry/64277
If the neighbors are a little freaked out by a clothesline (a permanent addition to the yard) perhaps they could be gently conditioned to the idea by seeing a nice portable clothes drying rack being used on the patio or deck during the warm months?
Then after awhile of getting used to the concept they would be OK with the clothesline and neighborhood peace would be maintained…