Rotten neighbors

Got rotten neighbors?

Guess I've just been lucky. My neighbors have been terrific wherever I've lived. Of course I don't know what my neighbors think about me - like there's anything wrong with watering your plants at midnight with Bob Seger blaring from the boombox on the patio or keeping a couple of spare parts cars in the driveway for a couple of years.

People can be so picky. That's why rottenneighbor.com provides a Jerry Springer-ish jolt of "glad-I-don't-live-on-that-street" catharsis. No matter how annoying your neighbor might be, he/she probably can't compare to these folks:

Type in Columbus, Ohio, for instance, and the site brings up a bird's-eye view of the city, a patchwork of trees and rooftops.

Click on one of the houses to see comments from agitated residents, like this one from Runaway Bay Drive complaining about a neighbor who "stomps around at all hours of the day."

"He puts his cigarette butts and packages on my patio," the anonymous user writes without posting the address of the man in question. "He also puts his beer cans and spills beer all over my grill."

Most of the postings are anonymous, which is just fine with site co-founder Brant Walker, 27, who came up with the idea when he moved into a new apartment and noticed a rotten smell coming from his neighbor's door.

Walker, a Web site designer from San Diego, said the site averages several hundred thousand hits per day. He said it is a good resource for people moving to a new neighborhood because it offers a glimpse behind closed doors -- "things that a real estate agent won't tell you."

Got lousy, inconsiderate, messy, obnoxious neighbors? I'm sure we can match anything on rottenneighbors.com. Sound off and let us know what areas to avoid the next time we have to move.