Another weekend, another yard sale on Braddock Road
The cold weather doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to the commercial yard sales along Braddock Road. Yard sale entrepreneur Michael Tyron Suggs had no trouble finding a location, 4127 Braddock Road next to Hillcrest Place, or shoppers for the refrigerators, washing machines, furniture, clothes and other items delivered via U-Haul truck and spread over the front yard Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
Despite complaints from neighbors about the traffic and potential impact on home values, the yard sales have been continuing sporadically for more than two years along Braddock Road and nearby streets, mostly in the Lincolnia area.
The Fairfax County zoning ordinance prohibits commercial yard sales and more than two yard sales annually at the same house. Suggs gets around the latter rule by paying residents to allow him to use their front yards.
24 responses to “Another weekend, another yard sale on Braddock Road”
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Someone should tell the people that he pays about the legal consequences of this. Person finds their stolen stuff in their yard, guess who the police will arrest? These people might be used to help fence stuff without their knowledge.
I think the complainers need to find a new hobby. Some folks would rather shop at yard sales than to put up with the turmoil at the mall. We all have choices.
My husband and I just moved here from PA. My husband has taken on a new job with the Army and we purchased our house in this area about 8 months ago to be close to his employer. Our realtor informed us that that Mason district was a safe place to raise our two young girls. Are there no laws against this or no one enforcing them? This is all giving me pause for thought about letting them walk to the playground on their own. I hope this is just a fluke and that I am not going to start regretting not taking more time to decide on this area for our family. We trusted our realtor and the army folks that we talked with about potential places to live.
I never saw anything like this back in Harrisburg. We had a few homeless people but not like this, Does this area have a high crime rate too? is there that much poverty here that people are having to do this? I have never seen anything like this, where does one even make a complaint?
Is there any way we can report this? Did anyone call the police? I am new to this blog site and this article was a bit jolting.
Well, welcome to the area! And you may want to look up the words "code compliance" – we are inundated with issues due to people who have NO CLUE about basic LAWS OF our country. They developed a special office to deal with all these issues. The offices are just a beurocratic nightmare – and meanwhile the neighborhoods are left to pick up the pieces of the "issues" – one of them is – yes, illegal yard sales (only allowed two a year) cars parked in lawns, running businesses from homes, and multioccupancies (aka overcroded homes) and schools.
To Anonymous 330: Lady, you must have lived in Disneyland. This place is more like the streets of Calcutta then picket fence USA. If you call the police they will tell you it's not their business and to
call zoning. If you call zoning no one is home- get the picture. Sorry for the rude awakening. Get your kids a swing set and keep them at home.
check the crime stats – Mason district is a safe place tp walk around (even the dreaded Culmore isnt that bad) It does have poor/working class people (which offends some) and it also has too little affordable housing.
I walk and bike ride around Mason district. Yard sales may be unsightly, but they are no danger. Crime is less a problem to walking and biking then traffic, inadequate sidewalks, etc are.
Probably because everything about this guy and his actions screams shady. If he was running a legit operation, he would hold the sales on his own property. That and the steady stream of merchandise doesn't pass the smell test. Where is all this stuff coming from? How many appliances can one honest man seriously have?
I would like to know who is watching out for us? If our law makers can't solve a simple problem as illegal sales of goods in a neighborhood, how can we ever depend on them for the safety of our lives and properties? Where are the police on this? Where is this so called zoning task force I heard about? I suspect eating turkey while they let the house fall down!
To Anonymous posting at 3:30:
Please! Under NO circumstances should you let your two young daughters walk alone to a playground….anywhere!
Amen. We have sexual predators here as elsewhere and it's not advisable to let your children out of your site. Be careful who you trust with them. Someone smoking a joint will go to jail, a pedophile will be on the street in no time.
It will all be fixed by calling your Supervisor Penny Gross, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA is right. And yet she keeps getting re-elected. I feel like I'm the only person who will not vote for an incumbent!
PENNY GROSS, are you reading this!! Please, do not say you cannot do anything. Be a leader & not a follower for once. This is your district! HELP US!
Seems like he has a pretty nice selection – might have to swing by next weekend!
I'm tempted as well.
I think the complainers need to find a new hobby.
Agreed. It is disappointing to see this in the news for the second time in two weeks. The block this is happening on has a gas station and connects multiple thoroughfares, but to read the comments here you'd think the guy was selling animal carcasses off his lawn in Burke Station.
Why not ask your neighbors not to rent their lawns to him? Maybe neighborliness is the answer, more than code enforcement? Look, hes not violating the number of yard sales a year issue. He may be violating the commercial sales ban, but thats probably hard to prove. I for one do not mind if LE focuses on things that actually endanger life and limb, like the insane way people drive around here.
He is making a mockery of the yard sale rules (as pathetic as they are). Sorry, I wish they could stop him
THANKS OBAMA
It is a mess. We have over crowding of our homes with multi-family/multi-generational but if you complain. Nothing will be done. We have yard sales of probably illegal goods (perhaps the police should go and spot check the items to see if they are stolen), Our supervisors want to increase an already burden area by taking one home lots and putting three and four homes on them – more tax revenue after all. We have schools that are over crowded and hell, hunters going nutty and breaking the rules. It is absolutely crazy. There is no enforcement of anything and our leaders don't seem to care.
My home isn't overcrowded. You mean homes next door surely. Do you think folks crowd in like that for fun? Where do you think the poor should live?
We expect them to live at your house of course. And while your at it, we think you should rent your yard for profit to Suggs!
BTW is your house the one with the rusted 1970 Toyota Corolla and the the toilet seat in front of it. Someone should really code compliance on your property, oh that rights, they had and since then you have added the bathtub.
You know the whole no yard sale thing is based on the seperation of use zoning. Where I grew up we had corner stores, and they were handy and did not impair the neighborhood at all. This kind of zoning is a relic of the 1950s and the notion that commerce has cooties, and should be seperated from housing, so that you have to drive to it. Instead of worrying about yard sales, why not allow mixed use neighborhoods, with retail mixed in with housing. Such areas now command a premium in the real estate market.
Im not allowed to rent to a poor person, per the zoning regulations. If you are saying you want those relaxed, you should contact Ms Gross.