Vineyard Press

In an environment of lower property values, it’s important to do what we can to keep our property values from falling further. Here’s a list of the neighborhood maintenance issues I get the most calls on. Take note of what the city actually requires.

Illegal signs

Garage sale signs, political campaign signs, houses for rent signs, etc. ARE NOT allowed on telephone poles, light posts, stop signs, utility boxes, or any part of the public right of way. That includes medians and on the parkway, which is the grassy area between curbs and the sidewalk. This is widely violated, and it’s a pet peeve of mine. Most annoying to me are the garage sale signs that people neglect to remove after the sale. One of these days you will find that your illegal garage sale sign has been removed early in the morning. It shouldn’t have been there in the first place. A sign that is stuck in the grass and/or free standing has the best chance of staying up, like the open house signs you see on weekends; but there are no guarantees. If you get away with posting garage sale signs, PLEASE take the sign down immediately after your sale, and don’t forget the tape that comes with it. I’ve seen posts that are so covered in tape they resemble maypoles. This last election cycle, many political signs remained up in the public right of way. I believe city staff made an administrative decision to leave them up if they were far enough away from the street, like on the other side of the sidewalk close to the landscaping. I disagree with that decision, by the way.

Dead lawns

Usually you see this with abandoned, bank-owned properties. To have a completely neglected home with a dead lawn really brings down morale and property values in the neighborhood. The city is addressing this issue now, trying to decide whether the owner of these properties (usually the bank) should be required to maintain the landscaping while the house sits vacant. I believe strongly that the property owner should indeed keep up a minimal amount of landscaping. If the owner cannot be located, the city should contract to have the property maintained and put a lien on the property to ultimately recover the cost of maintenance. It would also be great if a scouting or church group could volunteer to do some clean up. Better yet, maybe the neighbors on the block could get together and do something to keep the property looking tolerable. I’ve even heard of some cities painting the dead grass green. I’m not sure if that idea would go over very well. Let’s get together as neighborhoods and help each other out. We are family, right?

Vehicles parked inappropriately

This could mean a lot of things. Firstly, many streets in our city look like parking lots at night. Cars everywhere! Some residents feel very strongly that cars should be parked in the garage or on the driveway. Yet in some neighborhoods, particularly with cul de sacs, families are maturing and lots of teenagers are parking their vehicles on the street. Officially, it’s ok to park on the street, for up to 72 hours. Don’t get in the habit of leaving a car for storage purposes in the street. It disrupts the bi-weekly street sweeper and eventually contributes to a dirty, cluttered street that is also dangerous. Kids can dart from behind vehicles and drivers can have their view obstructed if the street is cluttered with too many vehicles. To tell you the truth, cars that aren’t working are not even supposed to be in the driveway. They are supposed to be out of view from the street or from the neighbors view. This is a problem in many parts of the city. I know it’s easier said than done, but people, we really need to clean out our garages and make them available for at least one car. And if your vehicle is dropping oil, take responsibility for it and catch the oil with a pan or some other device. I have seen on many occasions neighbors park an oil-leaking car in front of someone ELSES house so as to keep the unsightly oil stains away from their own property. Come on folks! That is really rude. Many Rancho residents want our city to be like Irvine or Beverly Hills. I will mention that as a student I lived for a while in Beverly Hills, and we were not permitted to park on the street overnight. That made oversight pretty easy for law enforcement. I’m afraid some neighborhoods here would have a problem with that, but others wouldn’t. It all depends on the home density of the neighborhood, the size of driveways and garages, and the age and size of the families. Heaven forbid, in this economy, that multiple families start living with each other to save money. This would present several problems as you can imagine. No laws exist on our books that deal with number of persons in one dwelling. By the way, trailers, RV’s, and other vehicles cannot be stored on the street, driveway, or on an unpaved surface. More on this later. Contact me.

Trash containers

OK guys, a lot of people are forgetting the rules about trash containers. You can place your garbage cans in front of your property the NIGHT before pickup or in the morning of pickup. And PLEASE remove the containers by the end of the pickup day. The street sweeper should be coming around every other week on the day after garbage pickup, and if your cans are still out, the street doesn’t get cleaned. Please be mindful of this, as the number of complaints I get on this is increasing. City code enforcement is not equipped with the manpower to go around street by street and enforce the codes wholesale. At this time, they only act on complaints. But the complaints are plenty. Abiding by this rule would go a long way in making your street much more attractive—more of the time.

Graffiti

Our city is the BEST when it comes to graffiti. We have a ZERO tolerance level for defacement of property and for those who perpetrate it. We have prosecuted several unsupervised brats and we could use your eyes and ears to help us. Our goal is to remove graffiti within 24 hours of its sighting. Please call the graffiti hotline as SOON as you see it (909) 481-7999. We don’t want the perpetrators to revel in their handiwork, so we prefer to take it down before the losers wake up. Between you and me, we used to have a hard time locating some property owners to notify them that they had to remove graffiti on their property. Now, we will go and remove the graffiti REGARDLESS of where the graffiti is— on a private wall OR public property. We just want it down NOW! Our staff is the absolute best. These guys have a truck with an apparatus that allows them to mix and match paint on the spot to provide a surface that blends in perfectly. Our city is a graffiti free zone. Please help us keep it that way.

Malfunctioning light posts

Another one of my pet peeves. There are HUNDREDS of street lamps that don’t work. We as residents simply neglect to call them in. Since we pay for electricity based on the number of lamps, NOT on usage; we are getting ripped off. If you see a burnt out lamp or one that is blinking like a strobe light, call the city at 477-2700 and report it. It would be helpful if you actually recorded the number on the bottom of the post. Contact me if you are having trouble. Also, contact me if you would like to join a team of volunteers that would inform me of burnt-out lamps in your “sector.” If our team covers the entire city, we could get a lot done and save a heck of a lot of money!

Solicitors

You deserve to feel safe in your home AND outside. I have heard from many residents who are annoyed AND scared by solicitors at their door or at shopping centers. We just passed an ordinance that prohibits soliciting after dark. Do not answer the door after dark. Call the police. Even when it is light outside, any solicitor must have a visible permit hanging from their neck or attached somewhere on their person that identifies them and the charity they represent. It’s very sad that some organizations drop off kids in neighborhoods, gas stations or other retail areas and leave them there until well after dark. The city is trying to monitor their activity, but you as vigilant citizens need to call the police if you see solicitors after dark or without a permit. Our new ordinance also prohibits “aggressive” solicitation. If you are being harassed, you need to report it. Private businesses like Ralphs grocery store also need to know that they have the right to post “No Soliciting” signs so they can deny solicitors the opportunity to annoy you. Court cases have determined that the Second Amendment permitting free speech prevents the city from banning door-to-door soliciting altogether. I personally have a problem with people begging for money at freeway offramps, or anywhere else. We have social and religious agencies that can assist them. Private businesses like WalMart can prohibit panhandlers from their parking lot entrances and the city can keep them off the street. But Caltrans has a hard time keeping solicitors away from their right of way.

These are just a few of the many issues that come my way from time to time. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions regarding issues that affect our quality of life.