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 . . . 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.” So what is suitable? From another local news report: . . . 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. God forbid your yard doesn’t include beautiful trees, bushes and flowers. It’s your job, Oak Park citizens, to give Kevin Rulkowski pretty things to look at. According to Bass’s blog, she’s demanding her right to a jury trial. So the city plans to throw the book at her. our attorney spoke to the prosecutor today. (for the record, my crush on him is totally finished after today.) his position: they are going to take this all the way. officially, this means i am facing 93 days in jail if they win. no joke. http://www.theagitator.com/2011/07/07/does-michelle-obama-know-about-this/
fucking criminals, tying up our court system and costing us money. I hope she gets the death penalty, at least then she won't do it again. barfo
I bet they wouldn't say shit if she put a gaggle of garden knomes all over her yard. What a fuckin' joke.
I wonder if its a health issue such like OSHA. If you have vegetables in your front yard it encourages people to pick your plants and have the off chance you get sick? Or is it merely an appearance issue?
Typical prosecutor behavior to be on an ego trip. Each added charge costs thousands for its investigation, paperwork, etc. Everyone working on this makes a very high hourly rate.
I hope this ends up as being one her strikes! In fact give her a strike for each raised vegetable bed!
That's about as bad as it gets. Oh well, another liberal town. Over 56% of the citizens are registered democrats. Barfo, you should be ashamed.
It's amazing how many people making their living in the legal profession have such limited understanding of the law, and in this case the English language.
In most communities, vegetable gardens are in the yard that gets the most direct sun regardless of where the house and street are located.
where'd you see that "over 56%" of the citizens were registered democrats? Because Obama won 57-41? Kerry BARELY won there in 2004 50-49. Does that mean that 50% of the city was registered democrat?
No, I googled the percentage of registered dems in the city. It was something like 56.5%. But more so, I wanted to give barfo a bad time. I have to admit his response was pretty funny.
I readily admit my googling skills suck...what did you search for? Because what I found was usually in someones comments about the city, and not real clear about things. Including one that said 56.5% of the WHITE people were registered democrat.
