Call it a difference in taste: Some people landscape their yards with flowers and trees, others with rusting, inanimate objects.

Take one yard in the 2000 block of East Madison Street, for instance. Before city inspectors slapped the owner with a warning, there was a trailer-truck resting on a blanket of trash. A cluster of inoperable vehicles flanked 15 lawnmowers, two refrigerators, a dishwasher and a collection of old computers.

Understandably irked, a neighbor called Seattle's Department of Planning and Development to complain, adding to the 2,008 complaints the city received about junk storage and overgrown weeds between January 2006 and July 22 of this year.

A P-I analysis of this complaint data shows that the highest density of violations is reported in or near Rainier Valley, though the Central District and surrounding lakefront neighborhoods also were hit hard.

Overall, the department issued almost 2,500 citations and notices of violations between January 2006 and the end of this July -- many for the same properties.

"Some of them come up -- sadly -- every year," said Karen White, director of code compliance for the department. "There are properties in the city where every year we get overgrowth complaints."

Often, complaints of junk storage are leveled against "hoarders" or "junkers," city inspector Kristine Beaton said. Sometimes those people repair broken items to sell; sometimes they're just in the habit of collecting junk, she said.

"Things like that were tolerated and perfectly part of a neighborhood for 20 years, but you now have people moving in with different values," she said.

By the numbers

An analysis of weed and junk violation data from the 19 months preceding Aug. 1 showed that West Seattle residents were cited 419 times for deviating from city standards -- by far the most of any Seattle neighborhood as defined by Metro King County.

But that neighborhood is also the largest, according to county definitions. If neighborhood size is taken out of the equation, a smaller portion of Rainier Valley had the highest density of violations with 95, followed by Columbia City with 87 and Rainier Beach with 55. Greenwood came in fourth with only 38, and the Central District neighborhoods, including First Hill, Madrona and Madison Park, together rated fifth with 267.

But because inspectors only visit properties that have been reported by citizens, the data doesn't indicate which neighborhoods are actually the messiest, White said. It's a better gauge of where neighbors are most likely to complain.

"Our stuff is never going to be a comprehensive look at the city," she said.

Building and yard citations brought $137,000 into the city's general fund last year -- all from resident-reported violations. Fines are usually a last resort, city officials say. Warnings are always issued first.

But this year's returns are likely to be higher. In April, Mayor Greg Nickels got tough with violators, asking the City Council to raise daily fines for violations to $150 for the first 10 days of non-compliance, and then up to $500 for every day after that. The council approved the increase in May, and also signed off on a bill that enabled the city to seek criminal penalties for violations.

Before the legislation, violators paid between $15 and $75 a day for non-compliance, according to a city statement. Penalties were sought in civil court, unless violations were hazardous or the violator had a court judgment no more than five years old.

A 'neighborly request'

Mardi Roberts has lived in her Seward Park home for 23 years, the last five of which have been complicated by neighbors who let their yard grow into an unbridled copse of grass, trees and blackberry bushes. Rats have been seen scuttling about in the bushes, and "the trees are so overgrown, I don't know how they can get up the stairs," Roberts said.

Years ago, she approached the couple with a "neighborly request" that they cut their grass.

The couple obliged. They mowed their lawn once, then never again, she said.

It wasn't until earlier this summer that planning and development officials with the city responded to complaints from Roberts and other neighbors with a fine. Since then, the yard has been tidied up, though Roberts worries it could have been a one-time effort, like the short-lived lawnmower affair.

"I just wish more people would take pride in their property," said Roberts, who keeps a neat English-style garden in her own yard on 49th Avenue South. "I just don't think they realize how much of a difference it can make for your property value."

When it comes to overgrown weeds, the city usually only steps in when sidewalks are becoming impassable or when overgrowth jeopardizes public safety, Beaton said. But that's not always the way neighbors see it.

"Property owners can keep their yards the way they want, but depending on the neighborhood, that can really bug people," Beaton said.

And it can make a difference. Real estate agent Deborah Arends said having messy neighbors next door could decrease the amount a home sells for by 5 percent to 15 percent, especially in the modern age of "drive-by buyers" who place a lot of emphasis on curb appeal.

"It can be a big deal, especially in a market that's a little more balanced like we have now, or in a buyer's market," Arends said. "It's the same factor as having a house next to a freeway onramp or on a busy street."

Sometimes spats

Living next to a freeway onramp might be considered desirable compared with some of the things inspectors find while responding to complaints, often in areas where new homeowners are moving in next to renters.

Beaton, who has been working as an inspector for a year, once responded to a report of overgrown weeds to find a sidewalk entirely hidden by vegetation spilling out of a yard.

Another investigation Beaton conducted revealed that neighbors were storing junk in the yard of a blind couple, unbeknownst to that couple. Yet another inspector filed a report describing a "male living in a huge school bus that is parked in (the) front yard" of a house in the 5900 block of 36th Avenue South.

Another inspector issued a notice of violation to a homeowner who was letting renters live in old trailers and RVs parked around a property in the 100 block of North Canal Street.

But more often than not, the offense consists of weeds growing over a sidewalk or a single unsightly eyesore such as a broken car or furniture in a yard.

Sometimes, complaints don't even add up to that, White said.

"We unfortunately have some people who try to use us in feuds, try to get city resources applied to try to win in some kind of fight with a neighbor," she said.

"We're not very happy about being used in private feuds."