3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

[oddlots]

For having the temerity to grow vegetables on his front lawn:

http://kitchengardeners.org/blogs/ro...-adam-guerrero

Can't do much with a Canuck based twitter account with two followers so shouting it out here.

[Slimprofits]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

There have been more than a few of these cases this year.

The story is wrong on so many levels I really don't know where to begin.

What a country!

[mooncliff]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

And you cant hang up your laundry, and you cant put solar panels on the roof because they are ugly, you cant give food to homeless people if you want, and on and on. It is always amazing how people complain bitterly and call out the feds for things that are not important, but dont really care that innocent people get executed, bombed, tortured.

[yourfather]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

not trying to be a dick because most of you middle class americans are nice/decent people, but sitting very far away from the situation, i can tell you that it's not really land of the free..

more like home of the brave.

your country is nothing like what it is meant to be.

cannot do anything in the USA without someone wanting to sue you or piss and moan about how it infringes on your rights.

a truly decadent society.

[charliebrown]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

thanks for the outside looking in. Are you an ex-patriot?
The veil of the land of the free is being removed from my eyes too.

[shiny!]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

I agree with you. We gave up our freedoms a long time ago. They couldn't have stolen them from us without our willingness to give them up without a fight.

[LorenS]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

not trying to be a dick because most of you middle class americans are nice/decent people, but sitting very far away from the situation, i can tell you that it's not really land of the free..

I'm not sure you've met most middle class Americans.

Sitting right in the middle of the situation I can assure you many folks would happily ship you off to the Gulag if they thought it would boost their property values by 5%.

As long as your front yard is Kentucky Bluegrass mowed between 2" and 4" height and your house is painted "acceptable" colors you're fine, but deviate from the norm even a little and someone is going to complain and "property values" is the banner they're flying under. It's pathetic really, but it's socially acceptable in most circles.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

OK, I'll argue the other side.

Many neighborhoods try to keep a tidy and conventional appearance to hold up home values.
Some do it by ordinance, some (like mine) add deed restrictions and homeowner associations to police them. My mailbox can only be one approved color, and the good ladies of the HOA write me a letter every couple years insisting I keep the paint fresh. I do.

If you want to farm (or add a gun tower to your house, or park 3 broken down cars in the yard, or cover the house with ugly solar panels), them move out to a rural area free of such restrictions. The wife and I are planning just exactly that when we downsize, because we DO want to farm, and have a small outbuilding for a shop, and add solar panels.

But I wont ask my current fussy suburban neighbors to endure it, I'll move away.

[jiimbergin]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

I'm not sure you've met most middle class Americans.

Sitting right in the middle of the situation I can assure you many folks would happily ship you off to the Gulag if they thought it would boost their property values by 5%.

As long as your front yard is Kentucky Bluegrass mowed between 2" and 4" height and your house is painted "acceptable" colors you're fine, but deviate from the norm even a little and someone is going to complain and "property values" is the banner they're flying under. It's pathetic really, but it's socially acceptable in most circles.

I know that is true in some neighborhoods, but except when I lived in Columbia MD I have not seen it in the neighborhoods I have lived in.

[zoog]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

A garden in the front yard? In Portland, no one would bat an eye. I have seen them in neighborhoods around the city. Most people who grow food gardens do so in their back yards, but if the back is shady and the front has sun, then that's where it goes. There are even some vacant lots which have been turned into neighborhood gardens with endorsement from the city. That said, in the surrounding suburbs I can imagine some flak from HOA's for the front lawn being anything other than grass, trees, and a few shrubs. Culturally, the USA is not as homogeneous as many people believe; social norms vary from place to place, and that can affect city ordinances, neighborhood association rules, and enforcement thereof.

[yourfather]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

I'm not sure you've met most middle class Americans.

Sitting right in the middle of the situation I can assure you many folks would happily ship you off to the Gulag if they thought it would boost their property values by 5%.

As long as your front yard is Kentucky Bluegrass mowed between 2" and 4" height and your house is painted "acceptable" colors you're fine, but deviate from the norm even a little and someone is going to complain and "property values" is the banner they're flying under. It's pathetic really, but it's socially acceptable in most circles.

amigo, i spent a good time travelling around... west coast, east coast... big cities, little towns.

I mean i'm not the kinda guy that just spends a time in a city. It's middle America that makes it a nice place.

You're generally friendly people, but really "HARD" to make friends with. I like Americans, I like their usual happy-go-lucky nature, some are full of themselves, others are nutbags - but it's the 80 20 rule again, 80% of the people get drowned out by 20% attention whores and troublemakers.

I used to hate your natural suspicion of Government, but now it's true, the Government is really doing everything it can to make a bad situation worse.

[flintlock]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

OK, I'll argue the other side.

Many neighborhoods try to keep a tidy and conventional appearance to hold up home values.
Some do it by ordinance, some (like mine) add deed restrictions and homeowner associations to police them. My mailbox can only be one approved color, and the good ladies of the HOA write me a letter every couple years insisting I keep the paint fresh. I do.

If you want to farm (or add a gun tower to your house, or park 3 broken down cars in the yard, or cover the house with ugly solar panels), them move out to a rural area free of such restrictions. The wife and I are planning just exactly that when we downsize, because we DO want to farm, and have a small outbuilding for a shop, and add solar panels.

But I wont ask my current fussy suburban neighbors to endure it, I'll move away.

A voice of reason. Sometimes these silly ordanances are enacted after some citizen has been there many years. That bugs me. But more often someone wants to move in and change the rules to fit their lifestyle, knowing full well what is and is not allowed. Like the people who sign a list of HOA covenants then complain when they are fined for painting the house pink. Like you said, buy a farm if you really want freedom. But nobody said freedom is cheap. Like anything worth having, theres a price to be paid for it.

[yourfather]

Re: 3 Days Before this Guy faces jail...

A voice of reason. Sometimes these silly ordanances are enacted after some citizen has been there many years. That bugs me. But more often someone wants to move in and change the rules to fit their lifestyle, knowing full well what is and is not allowed. Like the people who sign a list of HOA covenants then complain when they are fined for painting the house pink. Like you said, buy a farm if you really want freedom. But nobody said freedom is cheap. Like anything worth having, theres a price to be paid for it.

There is a difference between having a well maintained garden and a GM rustbucket graveyard.

The issue is that the stuff growing out front isn't a lawn and someone for some reason seems to think that the land in front of a house must be used for a lawn.

If the 'front lawn' gardener put up a fence so no one could see, would he still be in this situation?