Bizywk Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-plantation-hyatt-christmas-20150403-story.html We're rooting for you - Hyatt Family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john fulkerson Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 its ashamed at all the athiest out there they should go join the idiots over seas who are fighting for no known reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 As often is the case, there's more to the story than what's in that particular article. They live in a cul-de-sac and that they've seemingly gone out of their way to antagonize neighbors as well as the city. You might be surprised how many decorators (including me) in this case think that the Hyatts need to come down off their high horse and take their neighbors and also public safety into account. There are reportedly more suitable locations that have been rejected out of hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeERWNC Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 50,000 lights is a lot!If I had neighbors close who cared and lived on a normally quiet street, I think I would have down sized years ago, if I were them.It is not fair to punish your neighbors for a month every year and blame it on Christmas.Just like it is not fair for a neighbor with a barking dog to allow it to bark 24/7. Just annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobschm Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 its ashamed at all the athiest out there they should go join the idiots over seas who are fighting for no known reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobschm Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Please stop assuming all atheists are satan worshiping evil people who want to shut down your private Christmas celebrations. Some of us even put up our own displays. Surprised? I don't need to believe in fairy tales to know that Silent Night is a beautiful song. You are free to believe and worship anyway you want UNLESS it impacts your neighbors right to peace and happiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeERWNC Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Most/ALL proclaimed atheists I know don't believe in heaven or hell.Religion doesn't really matter, does it?As long as you have good pure morals and continue to do the right thing.Atheists just want to be free and happy, they also don't like others pushing religion down their throat.I am not a religious person, but I do love Christmas. I love the season of giving more than the reason for the season. If all of us would be more giving and caring all year long, the US could be an amazing country. Step back and put yourself in the shoes of these neighbors... Whether you like lights or not. If your house were dark and you lived next to someone who just over does it with lighting, how would you feel?Ultimately, jealousy, but as a good American, you would get the law and the government involved to make the light show go away.Remember, even if there is a donation box and you are helping bring joy the community with your light show, no good deed goes unpunished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Hold it. This is not the place to get into this argument or to post ANY vitriol against anyone who does not believe like you do - Christian or not, believer or not. You want to talk about lights and discuss the issue posted by the OP, please do. Otherwise it needs to go somewhere else (and by that I mean some other forum, not somewhere else here on the LOR site). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpageler Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 As in many disagreements, would agree, the truth is proably somewhere in the middle.Guessing many of us wouldn't enjoy our lives turned upside down by a"commercial" display in our neighborhood.Would also agree that you cannot lump all atheists into one pot. While not part of that crew, would guess many just live their lives and are not outwardly anti-christms. Granted, there are some who are angry and mean spirited and try to ruin xmas for everyone else.Did find it interesting that the auther had to point out several times, "who celebrate christmas". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightsinMaine Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) As often is the case, there's more to the story than what's in that particular article. They live in a cul-de-sac and that they've seemingly gone out of their way to antagonize neighbors as well as the city. You might be surprised how many decorators (including me) in this case think that the Hyatts need to come down off their high horse and take their neighbors and also public safety into account. There are reportedly more suitable locations that have been rejected out of hand. 100% with George.... You have to live amongst your neighbors all year. Why would you just keep pissing in everyone's cheerios just to get your way?? Edited April 6, 2015 by LightsinMaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 A few people have reported this thread. Please leave religion out of the discussion here. I'm not saying religion is bad, I'm saying that 99% of the time it turns into a bashing fest by many people. To be clear, I'm not saying anyone here is doing anything wrong at this point in time. I simply saying that the religion aspect needs to be removed from this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobschm Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Back on track then...So far my neighbors have been very supportive of my show, but if I built a roller coaster in my front yard, I might expect a knock on the door. If your neighborhood is being impacted to the extend outlined in the article, drag it Waaay back. My shows start on the hour, run for about 25 minutes, then drop to no music slow animation til the next hour. That completely clears all traffic every half hour. You gotta respect the neighbors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Many Americans tend to scream VERY LOUDLY when it appears our rights are being trampled on. That same group however forgets that with rights come RESPONSIBILITIES. Just because you CAN does not mean you SHOULD. That advice is for BOTH sides. Yes, you CAN decorate to extremes, but if you impact your neighbors, SHOULD you? Yes, as a neighbor you CAN complain about the display, but SHOULD you shut down what is liked by many? The only party to all of this that must adhere to the letter of the law IS the law. If this display is in some way UNLAWFUL (code violation, what ever) then the law must enforce to the letter of the law, with no exception. The law can not play favorites. The political climate of this country has split us into US and THEM on TOO MANY fronts - not just DEM/REP,LIB/CONS, whatever/whatever. For whatever reason we (Americans) have forgotten that compromise lets BOTH X and Y get along. In too many circles compromise is now seen as a WIN-LOSS when it is actually a WIN-WIN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkDr Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Wow! DevMike swoops in from left field to redeem himself for the in-your-face stop sign emoji with a very clear, lucid, and well-articulated statement. I, for one, did not see that coming. Well done, DM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizywk Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 I didn't mean to kick a hornet's nest last night. My original thread was meant to be a positive message of support for a fellow enthusiast and it wasn't my intent to ruffle any feathers. When I came across the news article last night about a famous LOR hobbyist who has come into conflict with the city over their display, I thought it might generate some thought provoking insights, or even tips on how we might be able to avoid the same fate.In the last 3 years, I've noticed that a lot of displays go by the wayside for the same conflicts. It seems to me that a successful display's popularity is often it's own worst enemy, and I'm always concerned about how our neighbors will react to our display - especially since our family now has thousands of dollars invested too. We tried to overcome this early, by involving our closest neighbors in discussion and planning over a year before we even jumped in. Now we just finished our second year, and we're already on the capitol city's 11 Must See displays list. Our fledgling display is already generating more traffic to our housing addition than we originally expected - including a small tour bus last Christmas. We're finding a lot of folks that are advertising word of mouth and keep finding our home in other people's YouTube videos. What are some of the smart things that an enthusiast can do to keep out of hot water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezimnow Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) Constant dialog with your neighbors and HOA president!!!!!!!....1) Don't advertise 2) No local news articles 3) Monitor traffic and plan your show schedule accordingly to move traffic along at peak times. 4) not sure If I mentioned this one..;...Open dialog with your neighbors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think with the lack of advertisment your show will grow by word of mouth and hopefully at a slower pace that won't shock the neighbors.... IMHO Eddie Z Edited April 6, 2015 by ezimnow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Wow! DevMike swoops in from left field to redeem himself for the in-your-face stop sign emoji with a very clear, lucid, and well-articulated statement. I, for one, did not see that coming. Well done, DM! The big stop sign was only to stop the impeding flame war that was about to erupt over the Religion issue. Frankly I posted that picture so it was very clear that if things continued past it, no one could claim they were not warned. Had that tack continued, users would have been moderated and I wanted to make sure that none of them could claim ignorance. You would be surprised the hate mail we get when someone is moderated. There is/was nothing wrong with the OPs original post and/or any comments directly related to it that did not involve religion. Nor was I saying that being a believer is bad, or that being a non-believer is bad, just that this forum is not the place to do that. I apologize if anyone took it any other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeERWNC Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Wow! DevMike swoops in from left field to redeem himself for the in-your-face stop sign emoji with a very clear, lucid, and well-articulated statement. I, for one, did not see that coming. Well done, DM! Why are you trying to get a GOLD membership for early sales during the Mad Grab? Stop it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpageler Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 FYI...here's how listentoourlight.com, tried to managed traffic and neighbors. https://sites.google.com/site/listentoourlights/home/how-to/managing-traffic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) Last year was year 4 for me. The traffic was worse during year 3 even though there was more traffic in year 4. I had banners made telling people what to do and not do. (More are surely needed). It helped a lot. We are on a cul de sac as well, and with a few hundred cars a night for about 2-3 weeks in a row it does become challenging. I made an effort this year to be outside more and direct traffic more. That seemed to help a lot! There really was not serious neighbor impact other than for 3 hrs a night, they would most likely take a couple of extra minutes getting to their driveways. But not always... just some times. Given that most of them don't drive back and forth from their houses that often, I am guessing that other than a lot more traffic on the public street, it may have cost some of them up to 20 minutes over all for the entire month. I have one neighbor that makes it worse on himself because he thinks people want to drive in his driveway, which I think they got about 4 or 5 doing that last year... so he barricades his driveway and has to move them to get in. He is the only one that has that issue and he is pretty nasty to those on the road if they dare be in his way. Uses his spot light in their eyes, honks, tail gates, revs his engine, cuts people off and blocks traffic while he moves his barricades.. He can be a real Ass.... all year long! ha ha.. So yes, I do cause a bit of inconvenience for some of my neighbors. But I do make quite literally, thousands of others happy and thankful and we share our Christmas spirit with them. Families come together and share the experience, kids love it, adults love it and pretty much all but one neighbor is "ok" with it... I know they don't like the traffic, but they like the show.. and they tolerate it. They understand it is for the overall good of the community.... and are far less short sighted. But that's just us. and we don't have any where near what Hyatt has for a display.. but it is for us and our families and friends... others just drive by and watch.. Edited April 6, 2015 by plasmadrive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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