The Pinehurst Hot Mess: Tattle-palooza

 

As predicted, efforts led by comrade-mayor Strickland and comrade-mayor-pro-tem Pizzella to crack down on vacation rentals inside The People’s Republic of Pinehurst (PRP) have brought about a significant spike in tattling.

 

During the Cold War, Marxist regimes encouraged citizens to spy on and report on their neighbors’ activities.  That spirit appears to be alive and well here in the PRP.

When the crackdown was approved, the PRP’s planning director said tattling would be about the only way to enforce it. And boy are the Strickland-Pizzella cabal leading that charge.

As we told you before, the village has a mobile app called MyVOP.  It has a section that encourages residents to tattle to the government on the neighbors. Upon reviewing that section today, I spotted at least one entry, complaining about alleged trash and vermin in a yard, that was challenged as FALSE.

Here are some others:

Jeffrey Heintz is apparently the tattler here. You might remember him and his high-pitched whiny voice at, it seems, EVERY village council meeting where the crackdown got discussed. His wife occasionally joined him in a tag-team effort.

Here’s a better photo of what had them so bent out-of-shape that they filed this complaint:

Seriously.  Cans at the street the day before pick-up. One bag peeking out of the top. I would suggest that “overflowing” is a wee bit of an exaggeration.  I’ve gone out of town before — a day or two before pickup — and left my cans at the street.  I’m sure a lot of folks have done that.  In many cases, good neighbors will take a few minutes and roll them back up to the house (if you are gone for an extended period).

This Heintz guy must be a really miserable old person.  (I can’t imagine how he could be much fun at Strickland and Pizzella’s cocktail parties.). I wonder if he and his wife might be happier back in Jersey?

Wait.  It gets, um, *better*:

What happened to being a good neighbor?  If cans at the street bother you THAT much, why not take a few minutes and roll them back to the house for your neighbor?  Someone might be a good neighbor for YOU one day.

The PRP’s village council will soon take up too-bright exterior lights, which will likely lead to even more tattling on neighbors to the government.

Standing at the end of the driveway while screaming at renters, or tattling on your neighbors MAY make you feel, um, *good* for a little while.  But it does real harm to the “southern charm” image we like to cultivate around here.

Strickland, Pizzella and their cabal have done a bang-up job of running commercial development out of town.  So, tourism is more important than ever to the local economy.

There’s just no need to import to Moore County and Pinehurst the home-grown nastiness and ill will cultivated in your northeastern US hometown.  Life is just too short to spend it focused on nit-picking and warfare with your neighbors.

Talk to people. Help each other out.  Stop the tattling. (Gee, why do I feel like I’m scolding kids?)