Green Spray Paint A Quick Fix For Brown Lawns

Buried in a story in The Los Angeles Times is a note on how some locals in Temecula, California, are dealing with the "brown lawn" problem affecting the flood of area foreclosures:

• [A]t first glance, the house looked like so many others in Temecula: five bedrooms, mushroom-colored stucco walls, a seven iron away from a dapper golf course where two men prepared to tee off. A closer look at the lawn, however, revealed that it was dead and crunchy -- and had been spray-painted green.

• The paint came courtesy of neighbors, in the hope that it might be less evident to passersby that the house was empty -- foreclosed and left to the elements, with no running water, no electricity and little chance of new occupants any time soon.

For the story, see Housing downturn is a jolt to upscale Temecula.