Oak Park battles city over vegetable garden in their front yard

[lewisipso]

OAK PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) - 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.

The list goes on: fresh basil, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cumbers and more all filling five large planter boxes that fill the Bass family’s front yard.

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.

Julie even has an upcoming jury trial.

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.”

Oak Park battles city over vegetable garden in their front yard

[lndshark]

As if Oak Park needs to waste it's very limited resources on something as silly as vegetables...geez!

[sgtbear111]

Someone probably didn't get their share of the communal farm "to each according to their wants", so the whole thing gets ratted off. Have we developed into a nation of greedy self-centered people who are more concerned with letting "big brother" handling something as small as this? I wonder how much this whole thing cost the taxpayers to abate this "nuisance". In a word: chicken-s**t.

[Xiphos]

I'm so glad I live and work in a place where there is so little government. Bureaucracy brings nothing but trouble.

[Odd]

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.”

Unemployment is common these days so I think it would be suitable to fire Oak Park's Central Planning Czar. Then refund his salary to the taxpayers so they can buy some tomato plants.

[Buttercup]

As if Oak Park needs to waste it's very limited resources on something as silly as vegetables...geez!

Agreed.

[Ducky]

Call it a Victory Garden, then give everyone a history lesson. With the economy going the way of the dodo, obesity at record highs, and land at a premium, this sort of thing should be encouraged.

[ms1600]

When cabbages are outlawed, only the outlaws will have cabbage...

Seriously, doesn't code enforcement have something better to do like tow abandoned cars or clean up junk lots?

[Captain America]

When cabbages are outlawed, only the outlaws will have cabbage...

Seriously, doesn't code enforcement have something better to do like tow abandoned cars or clean up junk lots?

Cabbages don't kill people , methane gas does.

[MacLean]

I'm so glad I live and work in a place where there is so little government. Bureaucracy brings nothing but trouble.

Yup.

Remember though, Illinois is the last State without a concealed weapon law - and up until Chicago had the lawsuit shoved up their rear end, Chicago and Oak Park banned firearms outright.

This isn't a free part of the world we are talking about.

[Xiphos]

Yup.

Remember though, Illinois is the last State without a concealed weapon law - and up until Chicago had the lawsuit shoved up their rear end, Chicago and Oak Park banned firearms outright.

This isn't a free part of the world we are talking about.

Sounds like communist heaven. Anyone living there gets exactly what they deserve.

[sgtbear111]

Sounds like communist heaven. Anyone living there gets exactly what they deserve.

INDEED....
...including the rest of US out in the backward provinces or flyover country now that the Daley and Obama political machine has exported their "plan" and "change" and "obey" (or else). That which is now up and running in DC. This is just a small byte of the Chicago style totalitarian behavior that lies ahead. They are going to rely heavily on paid informants to rat out their neighbors on everything. BTW the SEIU is actively pulling private security into it's control.
Stand for Security

Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev said circa 1958 at the UN; "we will bury you" as he pounded his shoe on the rail . We ignored the warning, and the job is half done, our grave is half full, yet we are too stupid. stoned. or naive to realize the threat. Rome had its arenas, we have the TV, freebies, and lies, to ensure non-political uncaring docile citizens as they go thru the promise of "change", morphed into the "zeks" of the gulag. Remember the compliance of the Jews of Europe in the mid 1930's?

The America we grew up in, has no political leaders. Most who now claim that title are out to cover their own political butts, appease the one in power, and negotiates for their own gain from a position of weakness. Get off your knees, off your lazy asses, toss your TV, protect your privacy, and vote them all out.

Read some History of tyrants :
1) Hitler's rise 1930-36 and the "Jewish Question",
2) formation of the Soviet Union from 1917 to Stalin's takeover of the USSR, include the suspicious death of Lenin up to WW2, and
3) Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe from 1975 to now.

Boring stuff, but chilling with similar big lies and methods to what we see today. Small wonder factual un-revised history is not the tyrant's favorite subject.

end of rant