The government is like a person with two left feet. Heavy, heavy emphasis on the “left” part of that phrase.
In another example of government overreach, a couple in Oak Park, Michigan faces jail time for – we hope you’re sitting down – growing a garden in their front yard.
We know what you’re thinking – isn’t this something that the Obamas have been begging Americans to do?
Maybe. But could the tentacles of bureaucracy be growing at such a rate that even the best intentions of the Community Organizer-in-Chief be tripped up?
From the story:
Julie Bass says, “We thought we’re minding our own business, doing something not ostentatious and certainly not obnoxious or nothing that is a blight on the neighborhood, so we didn’t think people would care very much.”
But some cared very much and called the city. The city then sent out code enforcement.
“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.
Typical government operation: Too little garden, too much manure.
– Written by Sven Waring at DotPenn.com
Source: The Agitator
This post was last modified on October 18, 2023
View Comments (42)
They guy responsible for this sounded like a child in his interview- "i told her not to plant it and she did it anyway, so I ticketed her." AND she made the garden after the yard got torn up laying new sewer lines, a city project I suppose!
Then: Freedom Gardens Now: Prison Gardens
Now that is an awesome title!
I have an idea that will solve 2 problems.
Moochelle needs to go to Oak Park and chain herself to the veggies! That will save the veggies and if she stays there long enough with nothing but fresh veggies to eat, she might "tighten up that backfield". (as long as Shake Shack and the Fat Cakes place don't deliver!)
Well its just a matter of time before its everybody's lawns that are government controlled and vegetable garden free.
People who own homes and pay property taxs really just lease the land from their local government. To do anything and everything needs a permit. Maybe they should have applied for a permit before utilizing "their" front yard in such a productive way.
Yeah and it might have helped if she had sweetened the pot by sending a basket of fresh veggies to city hall!
What gets me is that this is in freaking DETROIT!
Drug dealing in front yard = OK
Broken glass and garbage in front yard of boarded up building = OK
Tomatoes growing in nicely tended garden in front yard = BIG TROUBLE!
I know right? It doesn't make sense... Liberals and Progressives and haters just do what they can to make life impossible for responsible citizens. That is just evil.
If they erected a couple golden arches over their front yard, maybe everyone would approve.
They could put a sign in front: "Obama Garden."
Need the National Park Service to sneak in at night and plant fully grown vegetables for that to work.
The First Lady eats french fries for free...
Government is out of control... out of control. When we allow things like this to happen without doing anything about it, Govt considers that an acceptance of their control. Govt hopes that we don't have the time, nor the resources to fight it. Also I hate the busybodies who hate the fact that someone is doing something for their family and they hare envious and lazy and not doing it themselves. There are a lot of envious and evil people out there that use and abuse the government to make life difficutl for neighbors. I am willing to be the people that complained are liberals. Govt was a willing participant though. They should have just commended the people for keeping such a nice garden and encouraging neighbors to do the same due to our issues right now. It is absolutely disgusting.
I'm sure part of it is that the grassless front lawn potentially marred the esthetic beauty (if any) of the neighborhood and could bring property value in the area, that's more like what this is all about...money!
IF that is the house in question that we are seeing in that photo... there is grass. Perhaps it is a bit dry due to possible drought conditions. The boxes are well maintained and the lawn is low and kept and the veggies seem to be well kept as well. To me, it is a very pretty front yard, considering (perhaps) that the lawn is a bit dry again perhaps due to drought conditions (summer and the like).
Having a garden if anything makes it a functional lawn and it could promote community based bartering for goods that neighbors are growing. If a neighbor complained he or she is a lazy a**hole that is probably envious of his or her inability to do anything valuable with their free time as their neighbor. Probably just an envious jerk, who has no life and cannot stand someone else taking pride in honest work. If it was just a city person doing rounds and taking it upon himself to bring it up with the owner of the house, that is just government being completely out of control. If Mrs. Obamie can grow crap in the White House, why can't a citizen of this country do the same?
No matter what government is out of control and whoever complained or brought this on is a jerk. I feel bad for this people. If it was me, I will make sure someone knew this is BS.
Some people just don't understand a yard that does not feature grass. It is just one more form of intolerance -- I see no problem with growing flowers or vegetables on your own property. However, if she signed a covenant prior to moving in, then the city has a right to prosecute for violating the agreement.
Aesthetically, her raised beds look good, but she needs to have grass, gravel, or something in between them -- but after a few days of rain, with people tracking mud in her house, the lady of the house will get the idea. Of course, if that is wood chip mulch, she will get other problems if she lives in termite country -- and her neighbors that live in wood houses may be unappreciative.
Then again, what would I know -- the village council is passing ordinances about me all the time. (They don't like the view of my place from the alley, and got irritated when I told them to stop driving through the alley before I call the cops on them.)
It is true that there could be other things to consider. However I am biased and willing to believe that the government is out of control and the neighbor that ratted them out is a lazy bastard... :-) Let them prove me wrong.
I agree 100% The gov't reaction is far, far, far out of line.
"Govt hopes that we don't have the time, nor the resources to fight it." EXACTLY! These functionaries are doing this on the clock, while the citizen has to take time out from his job or free time to deal with the oppression. Meanwhile, in my town, I can't get code enforcement to help me deal with a neighbor who continually keeps part of my yard soggy with water from his pool. BTW Kimmy, just a suggestion: use the spell check on your posts. I'm sure you didn't mean to say, "I am willing to be [sic] the people..."
Funny, Jay, I was just watching a little educational TV last night about spelling and spellcheckers. Kimmy made a little typo there, and the only thing that would help with that is proofreading. A spell checker doesn't catch anything other than misspelled words. She meant bet, and typed be. Be is not misspelled, so no spellchecker would catch that. The point of the educational show was that spellcheckers cannot be relied on, as far too many people these days do.
Back in the old days, calculators weren't allowed in math classes. Now I'm thinking that spellcheckers should be banned in any class that requires writing. But I know it won't happen.
I agree. I did use spell check while in school and college of course, but I STILL had to proofread the entire document. Many times spellchecker provided no help whatsoever. It is not a realiable aid.
It does have it's uses, but kids who never have lived without it rely on it entirely too much. Besides, have you read some of the things kids post these days? Especially college kids? They probably wonder why computers always underline EVERYTHING they write in red.
True, true. I generally don't like spell checkers for that reason as well as the word suggestions they make. I'm usually my own spell checker. I make more mistakes typing on a laptop because of the flat keys. Another mistake I sometimes make that SC won't catch is leaving out words. Particularly maddening at THIS site is when I type a long post, correcting as I go, and then hit 'Submit' without entering the CAPTCHA Code!
Register and log in - no captcha code required!
Maybe this will help:
I usually compose my comment in email because the font is bigger and I've got old eyes. When I copy and paste into IHTM, I don't have to worry about losing the comment if I mess up the CAPTCHA because I can always just copy and paste again from the email.
That has saved me tons of aggravation.
It may help to create an account and log in whenever for some reason you are logged out (the website doesn't save your information).
OR you can register and log in. Then you don't have to bother with CAPTCHA codes at all...or so I hear.
LOL I didn't read your post before I posted, but yes registering and logging in helps.
AAWWW GEEZ, we said practically the same thing. Now we are going to be acccused of parroting Rush and using his buzzwords again.
LOL!
Okey dokey RHG!
oops. sorry there RHG
I was making a joke there. I rarely read Olivia's posts, but I figured out from people's replies that she was saying that. Actually, I used to listen to Rush. But then he just became a shill for the Republican Party for a while, and I lost interest.
You got it, KQ
RHG,
It is a Trolivia thing. She accuses EVERYONE of listening to Rush even though quite a few of us do not listen to him at all. So the joke is that we don't listen to him, but by virtue of being conservatives = right wingers we listen to Rush by proxy. At least I think that is how it goes.
What is this proxy thing? Is it something new? I always had to listen to him on a radio in the old days.
Well, if you weren't so busy listening to Rush by proxy...
LMAO...;)
Spell check wouldn't have caught that, Jay.
KQ is passionate about keeping the government from infringing upon our rights. You can tell, because of how she wrote this.
TY Perlcat!
I was typing too fast and I am actually at work right now so didn't have the time to double check. However I hope that people got what what I was trying to say but I do apologize for the misspellings.
This is the reason people do not understand the TEA Party and that a lot of the members are retired. They have the time because they are retired, it is not because the TEA party only calls the older members of society. However the TEA party comprises of a lot of people, but they are taking time out of their lives to become politically involved. It is difficult to fight the government if we have to worry about putting food on our tables and paying the bills with the exorbitant taxes. The Govt wants us producing, so they can take as much as possible from us and while we are striving to survive we find it difficult to fight the oppression indeed. It is a vicious cycle.
Government had already taken away America's "Victory Garden", now it's the "Freedom Garden". Government isn't the answer, government IS the problem.
This requires a Beet Summit.