It’s Friday, and if you are part of our Doom’s typical demographic, likely as not you are an affluent white male- and this issue might not be near and dear to your heart. For this mother of five though, I’m watching the battle of HOAs vs. clotheslines heating up- and I’m on the side of the clotheslines: [Hat tip Freedom's Phoenix!]
PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.
Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.
Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.
"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn’t want to look at my ‘unmentionables.’
It’s a tougher economy out there these days, and people are looking to save money where they can:
Although exact numbers are difficult to come by, a Pew Research study found the number of Americans who deem the clothes dryer a necessity has dropped significantly since 2006 — from 83 percent to 67 percent. While that statistic doesn’t indicate how many people have switched to line-drying, anecdotal evidence suggests that for both economic and environmental reasons, more people are doing so.
HOAs however, are the natural enemies of clotheslines:
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.
His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have ‘no hanging’ rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.
9.6% of American homeowners are behind on their mortgages and budgets are tight. If it helps keep people in their homes, HOAs might consider that a clothesline in the backyard beats a foreclosure in the neighborhood.
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