People in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, or Wisconsin are allowed to use clotheslines, even if their homeowners’ association objects. In other States, Big Pecksniff has successfully lobbied to allow bans of environmentally friendly clotheslines, citing “unsightliness” and “strangulation hazard.” Seriously.
According to the report, a Washington legislator considered a clothesline-protection bill after a bunch of high-school students proposed it, but dropped the idea when lobbyists “came to Olympia intent on crushing the idea.” In addition to the argument that hanging underpants outdoors is unsightly and lowers property values, which seems like a reasonable argument, the associations also appear to contend that the lines “pose a strangulation hazard,” which doesn’t, really. I don’t think children could reach them. I guess you could strangle yourself on one if you tried, but I’d like to see the statistics on clothesline strangulations, if any, before making a decision.
These things would definitely impair my ability to ride my motorcycle freely through my neighbors’ backyards, which I see as my God-given right as an American, so there is that.
Washington May Join 19 Other “Right to Dry” States
(Image: Clothesline c. 1974, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from sskennel’s photostream)