Oak Park Woman Faces 93-Days in Jail For Planting Vegetable Garden
By ALEXIS WILEY
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
OAK PARK, Mich. (WJBK) -
Bass' cool garden has landed her in hot water with the City of Oak Park. Code enforcement gave her a warning, then a ticket and now she's been charged with a misdemeanor.
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"That's not what we want to see in a front yard," said Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski.
Why? The city is pointing to a code that says a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material. The big question is what's "suitable?"
We asked Bass whether she thinks she has suitable, live, plant material in her front yard.
"It's definitely live. It's definitely plant. It's definitely material. We think it's suitable," she said.
So, we asked Rulkowski why it's not suitable.
"If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster's dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what's common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers," he said.
This isn't even an out of control HOA. With all the economic disasters in Michigan right now this city planner has the time and budget to try to make sure people can't feed their families? I hope this idiot loses his job.
This is what happens when you let government- Federal - state - or Local- get bigger than it ever should. This is the natural tendency- to pass rules and regulations- and never stop taking that next step. Then set about enforcing those rules, resulting in harassment of private property owners. No one should ever be told what to plant in their own yard- period.
During the WWII- many families were encouraged to plant (food) gardens in their yards- and many did exactly that. My father remembers the whole back yard planted and most of the front yard as well. They lived In Los Angeles during that time.
