CLINTON — A pink girl’s bicycle that’s missing its front wheel. A rusty car rim that hasn’t seen rubber in years. A broken, blue lawn chair that’s more fit for the dump than a rump.

Junk, for sure. But it’s also one man’s stand against urban blight in his neighborhood.

John Auburn piled a mound of trash this week in front of the fence of his Deer Lake home as a protest against the mess in a few of his neighbors’ yards. A hand-painted sign in the middle of the pile reads. “Welcome to the standard of Timberline.”

Auburn said several of his neighbors homes on Timberline Road in Clinton look like parking lots for inoperable cars and other scattered debris.

Auburn said he decided to fight fire with fire. This week he made his own mess; he piled up broken down bikes and old toys, building scraps, tires and garbage cans in front of his home next to the neighborhood’s park on Deer Lake.

“When people come down to visit the park, they will have to look at my mess,” he said.

“My mess will stay there until my neighborhood is cleaned up,” Auburn said. “It’s a matter of pride.”

The 46 homes are part of the Lake

O’ the Woods Homeowners Association, but Auburn said only a few homes in the neighborhood are eyesores.

“It is a constant battle here with just a few properties,” Auburn said.

One neighbor thinks Auburn’s trashy display is too much.

“It’s a little over the top,” Aaron Wenzek said as he looked over the mess Wednesday.

“It’s too much, and unnecessary,” Wenzek said.

“It’s just not the standard as his sign says,” Wenzek said.

Auburn said homeowners have covenants and by-laws to protect the neighborhood, but several residents choose to ignore them by piling trash and old cars in their front yard.

“There are people trying to sell their houses on this street and it’s impossible when potential buyers drive into the neighborhood and see a couple of junky yards,” he said.

“It only takes one or two junky yards to devalue other property.”

Auburn, who has served as president, vice-president and treasurer of his homeowners’ association, said he has done his part to help.

He said he has painted nearby houses and offered to build one neighbor a fence if he would buy the materials.

Jon Beck, the current vice-president of the homeowners’ association, said he understands and supports Auburn’s position.

“He is simply expressing his frustration,” Beck said.

“Three properties have been discussed at association meetings as needing to be cleaned up. There isn’t a county ordinance governing the problems we are having,” Beck added.

Beck and Auburn say a whole bunch of neighbors have offered to help other neighbors clean up their messy properties.

Part of the problem, though, is that about half the homes are rentals. With many people moving in and out of the neighborhood, some don’t feel a very close connection to the neighborhood or efforts to keep it neat.

Auburn said he has received several calls from neighbors thanking him for taking a stand.

“I don’t have to look at it from my house,” he added.

Auburn, who has lived in his home for 25 years, said he has talked to others across the South End who have similar problems in their neighborhood.

“Our’s isn’t the only community on South Whidbey affected by a few neighbors who don’t clean up their yards,” Auburn said.