Do we need to go all big brother when it comes to pooping pooches? Photo: File.
Maybe humans will never be able to live in close proximity to others without things turning sour.
If my experience of living in a townhouse complex is anything to go by, there will always be something that the neighbours are griping about.
It’s true that at least once a week, I think longingly of being able to one day afford a freestanding house with at least a metre of space on either side from the next dwelling. (It should be noted that on my street, the newly built homes on individual blocks have barely 10 cm of space between one house ending and the next starting.)
Usually, it’s just minor annoyances that have me dreaming of getting out – people parking in the shared driveways, hearing loud conversations outside our courtyard and yearning for more privacy, or having to constantly move my car out of our too-small garage before I can open the door wide enough to put the baby in his car seat.
But I must admit, there’s also a bit of a surveillance culture building in my complex. I wonder if this is just the inevitable reality of living with a hundred or so other people you never chose to reside with.
The note left on a car in Zoya Patel’s townhouse complex … that’s not very neighbourly. Photo: Supplied.
First, narky notes were left on car windows, calling people out for parking in visitor spaces (see above). This felt unnecessary, and the tone of the notes was very pompous for what is really a minor problem (and more an issue with the parking requirements of developments this size than individuals trying to find somewhere to put their car each night).
Recently, a neighbour posted a video of a dog poo on one of the shared lawns to social media, with an ominous message saying that cameras were being installed and the offending dog owner would be outed in due course. Cameras. For dog poo. On a shared patch of lawn. Is it just me, or is that kind of miserable?
Obviously, I think dog poo should be picked up. It’s rude and also gross to not pick up after your dog, especially in shared spaces.
The considerate thing to do is to collect the poo, and if your dog has pooed within the complex, and you don’t have a poo bag, you can still go home, get one, and come back to clean up after yourself. But really, you should have a poo bag on you!
But cameras? Threatening messages? Why not just a simple post saying, ‘noticed some dog poo that hasn’t been picked up? This is a reminder to please clean up after your dogs’? Why go all Big Brother about it?
The culture of housing complexes like mine says something about the nature of our neighbourhoods as they become denser and housing becomes less affordable and more constrained.
Based on the demographic of my neighbours, it seems like there are more than a few reluctant townhouse dwellers here – people who have big families, loads of outdoorsy gear, big dogs, and who generally seem like they’d enjoy more space, independence and distance from their neighbours than what they have currently.
We’re forced to live together (and should be grateful that we have secure housing at all!), but clearly, that doesn’t mean we have to be nice to each other.
Ultimately, some of the frustration that I see my neighbours exhibiting is down to feeling like they don’t have control over their surroundings. Most of us probably grew up in the suburbs with houses on decent-sized blocks, where our folks could create an outdoor and indoor environment that was completely bespoke to their desires. Now we find ourselves in cookie-cutter homes, commanded by a body corporate and forced to share our outdoor spaces with hundreds of others. It’s not ideal, and that pent-up frustration inevitably finds its outlet, in this case, via poo surveillance.
There will always be the poo-leavers and the poo-police in any communal living situation, but I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t depress me. The thought of that neighbour gleefully trawling through hours of CCTV footage to find the offending mutt is sad. In any case, I’ll make sure to smile for the cameras when picking up my dog’s poo in the future – it might be the closest to a pleasant neighbourly interaction I’ll get at this rate.
Loading ...
