1) Cats. People post to the neighborhood annoyed at their neighbors' cats being allowed to wander outside, crapping in their gardens, killing their songbirds, and menacing their animals. People will also implore cat owners to keep their cats inside for the sake of the cats' health and safety. Toxoplasmosis has been brought up. Some have threatened to turn the cats in to the human society. This is always a one-sided discussion because so far, nobody has ever posted defending their rights to let their cats out free. This might be because it's actually a rule in our town that cats are not supposed to roam free (but many do).
I am in support of trying to get people to keep their cats indoors, because those cats come around to our house and terrorize my own indoor cats. They come up to our doors and windows, and royally freak out my cats, who then sometimes fight with each other because they can't get at the trespasser cat right outside the window. Also, one neighborhood cat has routinely attacked small kids, including Milo when he was around two. He missed Milo's eye by about a centimeter. His owners have an "aw, shucks" approach to the situation and don't seem to think they're capable of keeping him inside. However, I've never written to the listserve about the cat problem because as far as I can tell, nobody has ever changed their behavior as a result of these emails.
2) Lights on the bike path. This is a discussion/debate that rears its head routinely. Those in favor occasionally propose a project in which the city installs lights on our very, very dark bike path. Then people who have houses along the bike path all object. Apparently a proposed project may be moving forward to install directional (down facing) lights on the path. There is a hearing next week. We've been getting lots of long, detailed, angry emails from people with houses on the bike path. My sense is that they are worried that their house values will decrease due to light pollution.
I'm in favor of lights on the bike path. It's pitch black on that path so I can't use it in the winter, because even leaving work as early as 5 p.m. means it's dark on the walk home. The bike path is by far the most direct route home but I don't feel safe walking in the blackness. A cyclist, even with a light, could easily miss me until it's too late and run me over.
3) Routine (like weekly) pleas for parents to hose the ice rink every night throughout the winter. We have an ice rink maintained by the neighborhood, which means parents have to spend a few hours each night hosing the rink, standing outside in the freezing cold. Jake has accepted that he'll need to sign up for some shifts this year now that our kids will be using the rink.
4) Complaints about random neighborhood noises. This mostly has to do with noises from the energy plant and overhead planes and helicopters. At one point it morphed into an all-out flame war over the ethics of using public university money to have military flyovers during football games. (Our neighborhood is very close to the stadium, so the flyovers are super loud.) This flame war then ended up getting reported in the local weekly paper!
The rest of the posts tend to be more innocuous, limited to requests for recommendations for good electricians / plumbers / carpenters / roofing guys / nannies / pet sitters, people giving away their stuff to the first taker (we got a trike that way), reports of local crime sprees (mostly car break ins), reports of lost or found pets, and offers to sell or trade tickets to football / hockey / basketball games or plays and shows. It's a great community resource, even though I could do without the occasional anti bike path light screed or cat complaint.
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