Homeowner faces jail time for front yard garden.

[TalkingDog]

http://www.theagitator.com/2011/07/07/does-michelle-obama-know-about-this/

Their front yard was torn up after replacing a sewer line, so instead of replacing the dirt with grass, one Oak Park woman put in a vegetable garden and now the city is seeing green.

snip

“They warned us at first that we had to move the vegetables from the front, that no vegetables were allowed in the front yard. We didn’t move them because we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong, even according to city code we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. So they ticketed us and charged me with a misdemeanor,” Bass said . . .

City code says that all unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass or ground cover or shrubbery or other suitable live plant material. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are what Basses see as suitable.

However, Oak Park’s Planning and Technology Director Kevin Rulkowski says the city disagrees. He says, “If you look at the dictionary, suitable means common. You can look all throughout the city and you’ll never find another vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard.”

[theaocp]

1. This is a couple miles west of me.

Fuck these gestapo. "We can't have DIFFERENT!" There's no loss of property value and we're not fucking Borg! I hope they all choke.

[buddysmellgood]

2. Amen

[geardaddy]

7. +1000

Typical city hall nonsense.

[beac]

10. You might want sign the homeowner's petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oak-park-hates-veggies/

[theaocp]

15. Sounds good, but I'm uncomfortable with giving my

home address to strangers. I think I'll go to the City Council and fight this locally. Thanks, anyway!

[beac]

16. Fighting it locally is great! Best of luck!

:hi:

[GoneOffShore]

37. Signed the petition and "liked" the Facebook page.

Kevin Rulkowski is going to get a whole mess of emails I think.

[WillParkinson]

3. What kind of stew is this?

Stew-pid.

It's veggies for jeez sake. It's not like they're growing pot. I'm doubting a nice vegetable garden would offend most people.

[anarch]

52. I doubt a cannabis patch would offend most people, now that you mention it

Our society is ridiculous.

[Greybnk48]

4. Then the people of Oak Park need to get busy and make

vegetable gardens in the front yard "common." Less mowing, less pollution, and you can eat what you grow! Perfect! I have tomatoes in my front flower garden this year for the firs time in 26 years, although they're not conspicuous. They are growing much better there because it faces South. : )

[geardaddy]

5. “If you look at the dictionary, suitable means common. "

According to Webster's their use of suitable is obsolete.

suit·able adj \ˈsü-tə-bəl\

1. obsolete : similar, matching

2: adapted to a use or purpose <suitable for kitchen use>

[tridim]

6. Cannabis Sativa is "suitable live plant material"

Just be sure to label it "hemp".

Shit like this is why I don't ever want to own a house again.

[frylock]

38. makes a beautiful ground cover as well!

[beac]

8. Mind if I link to your post w/ a post in the Gardening Forum?

I think my fellow gardeners would be interested in this story.

[TalkingDog]

26. Have at! Its posted here to share with all!

Cheers.

[Bryn]

9. Looks fine to me and useful, too

rather than waste of space!

[tuckessee]

11. Call it a "Victory Garden".

Tie it to the wars and add some troop supporting jingoes/signs/ribbons and no one will have the guts to bother her.

[Glassunion]

29. Ooooh! Good idea...

How about:
"Patriot Plants"
"Hero Herbs"
"Victory Veggies"
"Freedom Greens"
"Triumph Turnips"
"Courage Crops"
"Fearless Fruit"


You can grow them on your "Tenacity Terrace".

[progressoid]

12. Oh the horror!!

From her blog: http://oakparkhatesveggies.wordpress.com/





Jesus, doesn't the city have anything better to do with it's time?

[lpbk2713]

36. It looks neatly done to me.

I'd suspect a neighbor who is a horse's ass to be the one whining to the city powers that be.

[Le Taz Hot]

41. Look how nice and neat that is!

What the HELL is there to bitch about? Kudos to the owner for common sense yard usage.

[ChazII]

53. Agree 100%.

The yard is pretty and functional.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Food Not Lawns

http://www.foodnotlawns.net/

[TalkingDog]

27. Thank YOU!

Will share with like minds.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. A group here convinced the city to change their policy against front yard gardens

And the gardens are growing in popularity.

[Ignis]

31. Great link!

:thumbsup:

[Evasporque]

14. This is Republicans idea of "freedom"

These asshats who Re in charge of suburbs put so many rules and laws in place only the most vapid of narrow minded right wing zombie would want to live there.

[yawnmaster]

21. Sadly, I believe the mayor is not republican...

Not wishing he was, but if he is a Democrat I am sad.
I'd like to be shown wrong here.

[WatsonT]

23. It doesn't really matter

bad = republican 100% of the time.

There was a tragic thread on here recently about a group of black teens who gang raped a poor Hispanic girl. They were immediately declared republican teabaggers.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

32. You poor thing!

[WatsonT]

33. huh?

I was simply pointing out the insanity of some people on here. A disorder that forces them to immediately declare, without bothering to collect any facts, the villain of every story to be a republican. Even if statistically (like in the case of the black kids) it is extremely unlikely.

[Evasporque]

44. I am "some people" and Republicans make stupid rules like that....does that make me insane?

Mayors don't pass laws...local aldermanic boards do...

[yawnmaster]

45. An what is the composure, politically, of the aldermanic board in the area in question?

you may be surprised that at the local level, it is not a question of Democratic/republican.
I've dealt with home owner's associations and up and have seen solid Democrats still want a level of control as illustrated in this case.

I understand the declaration of all things bad as republican is hyperbole, and that's fine if that's what you want to do,
but I'm not sure it helps much as it is pretty thinly veiled.

[WatsonT]

48. Democrats make stupid rules too

and independents and whigs and labor party types and so on.

People make stupid rules.

You can't use as proof that they are republican that they do something you dislike.

Part of the reason I've given up on the whole political system here. It's like a friggin college rivalry. "Who knocked over our porta-johns? I bet it was those punks from state, they're always doing stuff, let's get 'em!"

That's why nothing gets done.

[RedCloud]

17. I grow concealed red hot peppers in the front ...

so my derelict neighbors with their loose poo poo in your yard dogs get a real powerful sniff of them! So which violation is worse?

[badhair77]

18. eggplant plants here

and no one cares. Sometimes people stop and discuss but no one has complained.

[Le Taz Hot]

42. Squash here.

I was cutting some squash one morning a couple weeks back and one of my neighbors who happened to be passing by commented how cool it was that I could just walk out and pick my own squash. I agreed and added that I have a jungle's worth of veggies in the back.

[geardaddy]

19. She should run for city council

against her asshat councilperson.

[librechik]

20. Conformity. It's not just for homeoners associations anymore.

Can anyone still argue we don't live in a police state NOW???

[WatsonT]

22. The yard looks really nice with those planter boxes

it's not like it's weed covered.

Grass covered yards are mostly a waste of water and other resources. Turning unused space in to gardens should be encouraged.

Likely we'll all be forced to do that in the near future if the things don't pick up.

[and-justice-for-all]

24. Uh, this is insane...

they are vegetables, who gives a shit what they plant in their front yard.

[1monster]

25. The county commission once decided that they were going to regulate how tall

plants could be in the subdivision where I live. This subdivision was one of the oldest in the community, having been started in the early fifties, thus it had few deed restrictions.

The next meeting of the home owners improvement association featured our representative on the County Commission discussing the proposed ordinance. There was standing room only at the meeting. And the commission was a no show.

Seems that many of the home owners in that subdivision had called the commissioner and let him know in no uncertain terms (some nasty language was used, and apparently, some not-so-veiled threats) about how they felt regarding the attempt at after the fact regulation of our homes and landscaping. One of the many reasons people choose to live in the subdivision was the lack of restrictive regulation.

The proposed ordinace was abandoned with alacrity and the subject has not been raised again since (10 or 15 years, I think). It was suggested that those who wanted to live with constant restrictions on what one could or couldn't plant in their yards might want to move to a more deed restricted neighborhood rather than try to change ours...

I do not advocate violence. But our neighborhood let the commissioner know that his political career would would not advance in our voting precints if he continued on that path.

[Canuckistanian]

30. Jail time? Really?

Whatever happened to good old fashioned fines? They really want to lock someone up for having the wrong version of plant in their front yard?

[alsame]

34. If I lived in the neighborhood, I would MUCH rather see her

vegetable garden than just grass and/or flowers.

Her garden is a wonderful sight and what a great lesson she could teach the neighborhood children about growing their own healthy foods.

[Retrograde]

35. There're a few front yard vegetable gardens near in my neighborhood

And they don't seem to have lowered the property values. I like walking by and checking the progress on the veggies. There's also a community garden in a small park three blocks away. I keep my own veggies in the back and side yards, since the soil and sun are better there. Our police appear to have better things to do, like writing parking tickets, than lawn patrol.

[alsame]

39. Around here, the gardens are in the backyards. But I honestly

would have no objection at all if neighbors had front yard gardens too. I think it's wonderful.

[Le Taz Hot]

40. Every person in that neighborhood needs to plant

a front-yard garden. What are they going to do? Ticket everyone? I know one Kevin Rulkowski that won't have a job for long.

[formercia]

43. My Front Yard is a Garden

..both Flowers and Vegetables. All I get is compliments, now that the Economy has tanked. Some used to make fun. They don't any more.

[Liberal_in_LA]

46. neatly done garden. Not one of those hippy, wild forest type gardens.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

47. Oak Park's a fairly progressive place with lots of fancy & historic districts.

Known for Frank Lloyd Wright architecture; lots of house walk tours. Bass's house isn't in one of the ritzier areas but apparently the city codes written for them spill over onto her home.

[etherealtruth]

49. Not Oak Park, MI

Its a typical post WWII residential neighborhood. No great architecture, no historic district

[Gidney N Cloyd]

50. Oops. Boy, that house had such a Chicago inner-burb look that I just assumed.

Thanks for correcting me politely-- GD could use more of that.

[etherealtruth]

51. It was the ...

"Known for Frank Lloyd Wright architecture; lots of house walk tours," that caught my attention :-) ...there's nothing wrong with Oak Park, MI .... but, there's nothing special about it, either (i.e. Its no Oak Park, IL).

[demmiblue]

54. K&R

:kick: