New York

You wouldn't like it if you neighbors told you you had to dress a certain way, drive a certain kind of car, or cut your hair a certain way, would you ? That's why you don't give them that right. Expect them to reciprocate.

This business of it affecting others' property values -- something that "everyone knows" to be true -- deserves hard skepticism and a demand for quantitative evidence.

Our local city gov't is OWNED by the real estate industry -- a majority of board members are realtors or former realtors. They pass ordinances they believe, as dogma, keep property values high, at the cost of labor and expense to residents, including those who are not well enough, nor wealthy enough, to devote much attention to their lawns. When property values go up, property values go up; so we have a gov't which is requiring us to labor and sacrifice for some arbitrary standard of appearance which we do not necessarily share, and are rewarded for our coerced efforts by higher taxes.

If you want my lawn to look nice, you can help pay for the effort, or shut up.