Current location:	Detroit where the weak are killed and eaten
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Entry tags:	i don't even, oh for god's sake, what is this i don't even, yet anothoer reason to hate people

Woman in Oak Park, Michigan, could go to jail up to 93 days for planting a garden
Here's a story I've been following on my blog since July 30th, when I posted Oak Park Woman plants vegetable garden; city objects. In it, I summarized the situation.

the Bass family of Oak Park lost their lawn when the sewer line running under their front yard was replaced. Instead of replacing it with a lawn, they replaced it with a vegetable garden. Their neighbors complained to the city and the city has cited them with a criminal violation of city ordinances. The Basses and the city have a court date on July 26th.
...
Mrs. Bass posted a more complete summary after I wrote (and she read) the above. Please read it.

I'm not surprised this controversy is taking place in Oak Park. When it comes to enforcing BAU norms of middle-class respectability as a way of maintaining property values, Oak Park does not play. Oak Park is so afraid of catching what they think Detroit has, which is blight, that they restrict what property owners can do more than neighboring cities and enforce their will with a vengeance. Put your trash cans out too early or leave them out too long and the police will ticket you. Let your grass grow too high and the city will mow your lawn for you and then bill you. You can only hold two yard sales per year and you have to inform the city in advance. If you want to drink wine while dining in the city, you're out of luck; there are no restaurants with liquor licences. The list goes on and on.

Of course, the people who live there and like it make a point of saying that the police will arrive before you hang up your call to 911, but all the above is the flip side of what the locals praise as "great city services." I hope their property values and middle-class sensibilities are worth it.

Personal aside: When my wife and I were looking for places to live in Oakland County, my co-workers who lived in Oak Park tried to convince me to move there. Unfortunately, when my wife and I looked at houses in the city, we were less than impressed. We got a very conformist, unfriendly, and not-at-all fun vibe from the place, so we decided to look in Ferndale and Royal Oak, which were more to our liking--not that those towns are immune from sustainability-related issues involving zoning. Ferndale has chickens and Royal Oak has Kroger. I'd rather have those controversies, thank you very much.

Beginning Friday, July 8th, the number of hits on that post began climbing dramatically. When I investigated how that happened, I found out that Drudge happened.

A couple of days ago, Matt Drudge placed a link to The Agitator's post on his front page with the headline "Woman faces 93 days in jail for planting garden in front yard..." Since then, the story has spread like wildfire. Here is a list of the media sources I've found covering this story with links to their articles (Hat/tip to April Alexander at Urban Homestead Diaries for compiling most of these).

Grist: Michigan woman could face jail time for growing a garden

Treehugger: Michigan Woman Faces 93 Days in Jail for Planting a Vegetable Garden

Huffington Post: Woman Could Be Jailed For Vegetable Garden

Washington Post: Julie Bass may face jail time for planting vegetables

Look at that progression. Not only are the environmental publications and the avowedly liberal Huffington Post on board, one of the two national papers of record, The Washington Post, is now covering this story. The issue has even attracted attention from overseas.

The Daily Mail (UK): Woman faces jail for growing vegetables in her front yard

A check of Google News shows 66 results for "Julie Bass", all of which are about this story and are all from July 8th or later.

As for how Drudge was indirectly responsible, he drove traffic to The Agitator, which drove traffic Julie Bass's blog OakParkHateVeggies, where she has a link to my post. Even from three steps away, Drudge increased my readership. Behold the power of Drudge.

In case you're wondering what you can do about it, there is a petition. 4,400 people signed it by Friday, less than a week after it was put up.

UPDATE: The charge against Julie Bass for her garden has been dropped. That's the good news. The bad news is that it has been dropped without prejudice, which means that it could be reinstated at any time. The worse news is that the city is now after her for her dogs. To read more, check out MyFoxDETROIT.com, the Detroit News, and the Detroit Free Press. Julie Bass herself has comments on her blog here and here. Finally my tl;dr comments along with a larger version of the Fox 2 Detroit video are at Good, bad, and ugly news in Oak Park's "War on Veggies".

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	sandglass 2011-07-10 10:44 pm UTC (link)
	Talk about an epic misunderstanding about what happened in Detroit. Here's a hint: It wasn't a veggie garden. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	darksumomo 2011-07-10 10:47 pm UTC (link)
	I live here. I've seen it. It's a vegetable garden. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2011-07-10 10:48 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, no! I meant when you said that they're worried about what caused Detroit's "blight" spreading to them. Detroit isn't suffering because someone planted a damned veggie garden. It looks nice, I don't see the problem, really. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	darksumomo 2011-07-10 10:52 pm UTC (link)
	That's OK, it was my mistake. I apologized to you below. There's something else going on besides fear of blight and loss of property values, but not a lot of people have dug that deep into the issues involved yet. Denial about what the future might bring? I dunno. (Reply to this)(Parent)

ecchaniz0r
2011-07-11 04:32 pm UTC (link)

Ignorant people think that it 'looks poor'--that you obviously cannot afford to go to a chi-chi upscale organic market and shop there so you must 'stoop to' growing your own.

I've heard similar complaints made about my friend Cris's father's huge, beautiful backyard gardens. He has grapes and blackberries and cabbage and omg everything is so good and so pretty. He doesn't use freak chemicals and he takes good care of the yard...but people whine. Because it doesn't look upscale enough.

I've heard similar complaints made of the lovely butterfly gardens that began to pop up around the city here when we had too many water shortages and people got sick of crunchy grass. No one has been ARRESTED, but there have been waste-of-time-and-money fines and disputes. The city tends to just tell the complainers to cry more and that it's only a problem if there's horrible toxic/invasive weeds or Dandelionzilla is eating bikes, now.

(...Detroit's 'blight'. Sure. Dollars to Timbits says they mean 'those brown people'. They're just too chickenshit to say so outright. I know where their stupid 'logic' leap is going on, too: there is an association between DIY veggie gardening or community gardens and OMGZ TEHM POOR PEEPZ and itchy-bottomed types just get SO het up about said gardens because of that.)

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eleutheria
2011-07-11 07:58 pm UTC (link)

My husband made me raised beds like those for the front lawn because I have severe chronic pain and can't bend anymore and my back yard is completely wooded. I live in suburban Northern Virginia. Holy FUCK did my neighbors get pissed. I didn't get fined because they really can't (no HOA on this street thank god) but I did get threatening postcards in my mailbox where the person was so angry they nearly scratched through the card with the pen.

We're selling in a year or so, soon as we can afford to fix this place up more. I can't wait to gtfo of here to something more reasonable.

The lady's yard in the picture has no grass around the boxes, that's "even worse" to middle-class idiots like these. It looks "low-rent" and "lowers property values", dontcha know.

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ecchaniz0r
2011-07-12 06:32 pm UTC (link)

WOW, RAGEAHOL. What stupid people; I don't know how it works where you live but up here in pinko commie maple leaf ville that kind of thing can get your ass trying to explain shit to the cops. Like, "You were angry about her little veggie garden so you threatened to beat the shit out of her. Uh-huh. Right. You considered therapy?"

Yes, I'd be 'mean' enough to do that; bullying gitwads get no leeway from my ass. I can fully understand why people wouldn't do likewise, I'm just a vindictive jerk. XD

Blargh. Grass is overrated XD; It's nice to have a picnic on and good for golfing on but it doesn't have to be everywhere, and there are groundcover plants that hold up better and smell nicer than grass, So - yeah, screw them jerks.

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	staroverthebay 2011-07-14 01:11 am UTC (link)
	or Dandelionzilla is eating bikes, now. That is a pretty awesome mental image there! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	littleshebear 2011-07-11 01:27 am UTC (link)
	But that's so neat and tidy! That's actually really attractive, what the hell is their problem? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rachelmap 2011-07-11 03:10 am UTC (link)
	It's a practical enhancement to the family table rather than a sign that they have money to throw away on something decorative and useless Like a flat patch of grass. In other words, people who grow food on their property signal that might actually (gasp) work for a living, and are hence not fit neighbors for those idle and wealthy enough to tend a lawn. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	agent_hyatt 2011-07-11 04:53 am UTC (link)
	If we spin it as people who have time and energy to spare raising their own vegetables to go that extra step beyond 100% organic, think that would help? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rachelmap 2011-07-11 05:05 am UTC (link)
	Make it a status thing to grow your own veggies? You bet it would help! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	full_metal_ox 2011-07-11 09:04 pm UTC (link)
	I can think of someone very high-profile indeed who's planted and shown off a home vegetable garden, hoping that others will follow her example; has anyone tried to bring this case to the First Lady's attention? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	darksumomo 2011-07-10 10:48 pm UTC (link)
	Oops. Sorry, you weren't telling me I'm wrong. Yes, you're right, Oak Park is misunderstanding what happened to Detroit. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2011-07-10 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	No problem. So, am I reading it right that the Oak Park government is basically a really controlling neighborhood association? Sounds like a lovely place to live. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	honorh 2011-07-10 11:22 pm UTC (link)
	Sounds like that to me. I can understand not wanting your neighborhood to go to pot. It's annoying when you keep your house and yard beautiful and your neighbor's house and yard look post-apocalyptic. But there's gotta be a better solution than Stepfordism. (Reply to this)(Parent)

darksumomo
2011-07-11 12:00 am UTC (link)

So, am I reading it right that the Oak Park government is basically a really controlling neighborhood association?

I never thought of it that way, but that's a good way to describe them. Thank you.

Sounds like a lovely place to live.

I work with several people who live there and swear by the place. They think so. Obviously, it's not my cup of tea or my wife's either. She called the place "cookie cutter."

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evilsqueakers
2011-07-10 11:51 pm UTC (link)

I don't really have family in Detroit since Aunt Sue moved from Grosse Pointe to the upper peninsula area...I think (she may be on the Muskegon side now, though). But what I mostly know is from House Hunters. I remember Royal Oak being showcased at least once.

I don't think I'd want to be in Oak Park or anywhere near it. Looking at the planter boxes, if you just added like 5 big flowering plants between them...it'd look just like one of those big HGTV/DIY showcases for a small space in the middle of an urban setting.

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darksumomo
2011-07-11 12:15 am UTC (link)

All of these suburbs of Detroit in southeast Oakland County are very different from each other and have their own character. For example, the next town to the east from Oak Park is Ferndale, which is very liberal and the home of the LGBT community in metro Detroit. The place has had such an economic revival once that happened that the place markets itself as "Fabulous Ferndale." No, I'm not kidding. Royal Oak is about a mile to the northwest of Ferndale and touches Oak Park on one corner and it's very trendy--and that's not just because my wife and I live here.

Good point about the garden looking like something out of HGTV. It really does!

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wook77
2011-07-11 12:04 am UTC (link)

Royal Oak sounds like a fucked up place. They'd like to have a giant, empty auto dealership rather than a lower-cost grocery store that brings in plenty of union jobs and city/state taxes? Good luck finding anyone that will take over as sizable a property as a former auto dealership.

And they're hassling people about their gardens? I thought my homeowners association was awful but this really takes the cake, at least I don't face jail time for planting things in my front yard.

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	herongale 2011-07-11 06:52 am UTC (link)
	Oak Park, not Royal Oak. (Reply to this)(Parent)

herongale
2011-07-11 07:07 am UTC (link)

Oh wait, I see what you're referring to now. Oops.

But I'm opposed to anything that hurts the mom & pop grocery stores that already exist in Royal Oak, and there's a Kroger grocery store on Telegraph and Maple (a somewhat near location in a neighboring city) that recently shut down due to lack of business, so I feel like... well, I'm okay with leaving a giant empty auto dealership empty instead of putting in another bland chain store. Surely something else can be found for that location.

/Holiday Market partisan, lol

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darksumomo
2011-07-11 07:38 am UTC (link)

There's an even closer Kroger at the triple intersection of Woodward, Coolidge, and 13 Mile, which is inside Royal Oak, but which will lose its lease either this year or 2013. Beaumont Hospital owns that land, and will probably use it for Oakland University's School of Medicine.

As for Holiday Market being outcompeted by Kroger, I'm not that worried--that place is more upscale than Kroger. I'd be more worried about the Hollywood Market up Main Street. Kroger could run that store into the ground.

Also, hi, neighbor!

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	herongale 2011-07-11 08:10 am UTC (link)
	Hi neighbor! XD But yeah, I do agree that it's more of a risk for the Hollywood Market, and I love that place too because it is adorable and pretty much always has whatever I want whenever I go in there for something. I JUST LOVE THE HOLIDAY MARKET MORE BECAUSE OF THE DELICIOUS CAKES. And... so I worry about it beyond reason. BECAUSE OF THE CAKES. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	b_jellybean 2011-07-11 02:21 pm UTC (link)
	Every time I go to Holiday Market (the Canton one, not the Royal Oak one) I just stare and stare and stare at the case of delicious. And then I buy cannoli. (Reply to this)(Parent)

quantumreality
2011-07-11 01:21 am UTC (link)

Nice amping up done here, but TBH I'm not so keen on praising Drudge. This is the same guy who's made a career pushing every half-baked right-wing notion about anything that smacks of ZE OPPRESSIVE GUMMINT.

Stopped clocks, twice a day, is what I'll chalk this one up to.

Re the veggie garden itself, it defies comprehension that a person could face jail time for doing things on their own property.

(>_<)

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	darksumomo 2011-07-11 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Stopped clocks, twice a day, is what I'll chalk this one up to. Same here. This is probably the best thing Drudge has ever done, as far as I'm concerned. The second best was being sued by Righthaven. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	telegramsam 2011-07-11 03:27 pm UTC (link)
	What a bunch of stuck-up, hide-bound asshats. I'd love to have a veggie garden in my yard, I just don't have the time to tend one right now. :\ (Reply to this)

	dreamer_marie 2011-07-11 07:43 pm UTC (link)
	re: city officials coming to your house to mow the lawn in your place. Wouldn't that be trespassing? Or do they get warrants and if so, how do they convince the judge to sign them one? (Reply to this)(Thread)

cereta
2011-07-12 01:22 am UTC (link)

Cities in the US typically have local ordinances about residential properties, including how long you can let your grass grow, how much trash you can have lying about, what kind of furniture you can have on your porch (we had several fires that involved couches on porches). It all sounds ridiculous until you live in a neighborhood where people let their yards go to the point that it's (a) legitimately a health hazard to the neighbors and (b) enough of an eyesore that anyone attempting to sell a house nearby is seriously undermined. I prefer minimal intervention, and I think regulating a vegetable garden is stupid, but I wasn't exactly sorry that the city told my neighbors they had to clean up the mounds of trash in their back yard that kept blowing into mine.

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	dreamer_marie 2011-07-12 06:39 am UTC (link)
	The city telling people to clean up their mess is one thing, but coming in and cleaning things up without asking for permission seems to me like a violation of the 4th amendment. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cereta
2011-07-12 02:34 pm UTC (link)

If it is, no court that I know of has ruled it one. Our city came and cleaned out another neighbor's back yard a few years ago, and charged the homeowners for it. There has to be some way to enforce the ordinances, and in my neighborhood at least, they're dealing with people who think court dates for criminal charges are just suggestions, really, so slapping on more fines doesn't do much. The homeowners just ignore them. So what's the greater offense: coming onto the property and mowing it, or throwing them in jail for not mowing their lawn?

Like I said, some of the ordinances are ridiculous, and lord knows I'd rather have a vegetable garden next door than the piles of dog poop I do have, but it's very easy to talk about individual liberty until you're the person living next to a literal garbage dump out front, or trying to mow your own lawn around the six-foot weeds hanging over your fence.

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	staroverthebay 2011-07-12 03:05 am UTC (link)
	sounds like some seriously dickish neighbors. "OH NOES THEY HAVE TOMATOES AND CUCUMBERS IN THEIR FRONT YARD INSTEAD OF BORING GRASS!" Also, jailtime. REALLY? Good lord. I can see a small fine, maybe, but this? Good lord. (Reply to this)

vorpal_blade
2011-07-12 04:29 am UTC (link)

What is the actual wording in the ordinance on what people can do to their yards? I find it utterly ridiculous that someone thought it was a good idea to escalate the condition of a person's front yard to the criminal level, instead of leaving violations of this sort at the misdemeanor level, at most. You don't go to prison for misdemeanors, usually.

The laws concerning this are, across the country, grossly out of date and do not allow people to plant species that are actually appropriate to each region, which the type of grass used for lawns usually is not. And because of height restrictions on plantings a lot of perfectly good plantings are therefore outlawed, even if they are native species, drought-resistant, picturesque, etc. Perfectly manicured, weeded and fertilized lawns are a blight on the environment and unnatural anywhere you don't have grazing animals to eat them and keep the grass naturally short. The fact that they are ENFORCED BY LAW all over the place is horrible.

On top of this, it's the city government that trashed their OLD yard? Why the hell didn't the city put the yard back the way it was then, or pay the family enough to reimburse them for getting new sod put down? For the city to destroy what was there and be this dickish about the replacement just doesn't wash. Asshattery is putting it lightly.

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cereta
2011-07-12 02:44 pm UTC (link)

The difference between a misdemeanor and felony is time of incarceration. Typically, misdemeanors are less than a year of jail time, so usually served in the county jail rather than a state prison. So this almost certainly is a misdemeanor (which is criminal rather than civil). I would imagine what makes it criminal is some form of contempt. You can be jailed for refusing to carry out a civil order.

Again, to be clear, I think this is a stupid case with both stupid regulations and a stupidly excessive consequence, but if we're going to discuss the legal principles, they're fairly common: cities have restrictions on how you use and maintain property in city limits. If you violate those restrictions, you can be fined. If you don't pay the fine or still don't adhere to the restrictions, the penalties can escalate.

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	black_spot 2011-07-15 07:26 pm UTC (link)
	Now I'm thinking maybe they should return it to lawn and keep a couple of goats - one sure way to improve the neighbourhood. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ruslan 2011-07-12 05:23 am UTC (link)
	They have the same disease my mother has. The world will fucking EEEENNNNNDDD if she sees somebody doing something with their own life that she wouldn't have. I will never understand how that type manages to go through life with that kind of stress. (Reply to this)

	napalmnacey 2011-07-12 06:57 am UTC (link)
	93 days in jail? Are you fucking KIDDING ME? Here where I live, you'd get a letter and a warning and at most a fine. Fucking hell... (Reply to this)

	thebratqueen 2011-07-13 03:04 am UTC (link)
	What especially bugs me is that it's a perfectly fine garden! Raised beds, well tended! You WANT people like this in your neighborhood! (Reply to this)

wyf_of_bathe
2011-07-13 08:16 pm UTC (link)

Last night, I pitched the idea of a backyard garden to my fiance's admittedly yuppie parents. And they Lost It. I have never heard anyone argue so emphatically against vegetables.

I am totally baffled by this. I grew up always having a vegetable garden! My great-grandma taught me to work in her victory garden she'd had since the forties. My grandmother lives in a townhouse with no available garden space, so she makes do with crates full of topsoil encased in chickenwire. My mom grows peppers and onions wherever she goes, lol. I grew up tending marigolds (to keep pests out) and my own little herb garden. My little sister is five and already starting to grow beans and tomatoes with my mom. I thought that this was just Something People Do!

So can someone explain why on earth some people have the impression that growing a garden is trashy or something?? I genuinely have no idea! The first I'd ever heard of it in my life was last night, and now this! My mind is blown.

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	kattahj 2011-07-16 08:03 am UTC (link)
	I am puzzled by this anti-gardening policy. If they hate frontyard gardening, do they also hate allotment gardening? Or growing tomatoes on your balcony? What are they afraid of, vegetables spreading? And if so, so what? I mean, if the family were growing crabgrass or dandelions, I might see the problem, but... shakes head (Reply to this)

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