Remember our whacky neighbor who tried to get speedbumps put on our street? Well, he’s back at it. A couple of months ago he butchered a tree in his front yard and put a treehouse in it. Needless to say, it was the subject of conversation in the neighborhood, because, being a historic district, there are strict rules and procedures for changing anything in your front yard. Nobody was really complaining about the treehouse (although some were upset about the tree), they were just surprised. Less surprising was the orange code violation sign that appeared on their front door a couple of weeks later. I heard from another neighbor that serves on the Landmark Commission that at his hearing, the guy claimed that the treehouse was there when he moved in. Ha! Anyway, he was told he’d have to take it down or face a big fine for every day he left it up.

Eventually he did take it down, but in its place went a large sign he’d had printed that said “Taking Away Little Girls’ Treehouse? Shame on You! This is a Neighborhood, Not a Museum!”. That stayed up a couple of weeks, and then disappeared.

And then, as I was being dropped off after the MS150, the camera crew showed up. Yep, he managed to get the local news to cover his story. I watched from my office as he climbed the tree and rehung the sign for the cameras. When the reporter arrived just before the news started, I turned on the news and lo and behold, it was the first story!

And this is why I do not watch local news.  Here’s the news clip.