Are they neglecting anything else or demonstrating any other behavior which is abnormal by your neighborhoods' standards?

What didn't you understand? The city probably has ordinances about grass height. Get the city to come over there and either tell him to mow it or they'll do it for him.

No, not that I'm aware of.

Ordinance says 12 inches for lawn height. I'm not inclined to go that route. Really trying to figure out the best way to approach it with the neighbor... just mow it for him as a good deed when he's not home (as someone else suggested), or go over, introduce myself and offer to help.

Personally I wouldn’t give a shit about it, until my neighbors invading army of ticks, fleas and mosquitoes goes all Blitzkrieg on my friends and family while we’re trying to get our grill on.
To me at least, it’s not so much about looks as keeping that shit down so pests don’t take up residence in it.

Which is part of my concern. I have a company VP coming to a BBQ Saturday.

And you are going to ask him to mow your neighbor's yard?

OK, now we are getting somewhere. Politely approach him with what you just stated. You have guests coming over this weekend, and you would appreciate it if his Forrest was cut to an appropriate level. Offer to lend him a hand this one time in order to re-enforce the point.

^ this.


Very reasonable request.

If I moved in somewhere and my neighbor never said hello to me, or welcome, and then the first thing out of his mouth was "can you mow your lawn, I have an important function this weekend", you can guess exactly what time I'm mowing that lawn and what I'm wearing isn't going to be pretty.

Here letting it grow out is much more expensive than cutting it..

Right, which takes us back to my main point. How do you do that without the first impression being "dickhead neighbor."

He's already taken that title and run with it, don't you think?

talk to him today, make a great 1st impression. then in 2 days bring up the lawn.

This is reasonable. Think of a way to insert lawn care into the conversation, too. Something like, "Yeah, I'm a real freak about my lawn." See if that prompts him to respond.