Horst Happenings....: Is That Really Where I Used To Live?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Is That Really Where I Used To Live?

I was looking at different things on the Internet yesterday. As it so often happens, I will be on one web page and then I will see a link that looks interesting. So I click on it and go to the page to check it out.

Well that happened yesterday. I was on giveawayoftheday.com and saw a link for Rotten Neighbors. I thought, "Hmmmmm! That looks interesting." So I clicked on it and away I went. When I landed on the site I found out that it is a site that allows people to 1. Join; 2. Submit their beefs about neighbors or neighborhoods; 3. Allows members to comment and post on others posts; 4. Look for the best neighborhoods (I suppose the ones that no one has posted anything about.); 5. View a Google map of the offending house-neighbor-neighborhood.

"Wow!", I thought. I immediately wondered about the site and wondered about oversight and what have you. After reading about a few neighbors I kinda got the impression that if anyone wanted to say anything about anyone else they could on this site. Now understand, I didn't join so therefore I do not now about their TOS (Terms of Service) or other legal mumbo-jumbo. It just didn't look like the kind of place that you would have everyone being, shall we say, trustworthy. I mean I didn't get the impression that all of those posting subscribed to the Dragnet Credo, "Just the facts ma'am!"

Then I thought to myself about the recent news story about Waco being the 5th worst place to raise a family. The article is in Best Life Magazine. I've never heard of this magazine before.

Does Waco have a problem? Do they have a lot of rotten neighbors? So I looked. All I found was one entry. All the entry said was, "Loud music!" I looked at the map and what do you think I saw? No not our house. I saw the neighborhood I grew up in over 40 years ago. We lived there until we moved in 1968. Wow.

I stayed on the site and looked a little more and was able to find a few more reports that were not on the first list I looked at. One nice thing I did find on the website was that they show the areas in neighborhoods where convicted sex offenders live. In Texas you can also find this information on the Texas Department of Public Safety site.