Woman Faces 93 Days In Jail For Vegetable Garden

[Tx4obama]

Oak Park, Michigan Resident Julie Bass Faces 93 Days In Jail For Vegetable Garden

Article and Video: http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/07/08/julie-bass-jail-vegetable-garden_n_893436.html

[Amonester]

1. And I thought I had seen it all...

Fascism against vegetables!

Watta effed up society.

[RegieRocker]

2. We bring it onto ourselves.

[Tx4obama]

3. It won't happen but .....

It would be pretty cool IF Michelle Obama 'were to hear about this story' and to speak out and defend this woman :)

Michelle Obama has a vegetable garden on the White House lawn!

[roxiejules]

9. There is an online petition

Stop the Prosecution of the Bass Family for Growing Veggies

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oak-park-hates-veggies/


Target: Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski
Sponsored by: Mark Milotay & the League of Urban Homesteaders



As health and environmental concerns rise, so does the popularity of urban homesteading. While growing your own carrots may seem like a harmless enough practice, Oak Park resident Julie Bass now faces serious charges for setting up a vegetable garden in her front yard.

Bass set up her garden in the hope that she and her family could eat organic without having to buy from expensive grocery stores. The garden has become a community favorite as neighborhood children are encouraged to help her maintain the garden and eat from it.

However, the City of Oak Park is now charging her with a misdemeanor for not having a "suitable" lawn in accordance with city code. The city prosecutor is pursuing a full trial against Mrs. Bass bringing charges against her that could carry a 93 day jail sentence.

Protect residents' rights to urban homesteading and demand that the ridiculous charges brought against Julie Bass be dropped.


Sign petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oak-park-hates-veggies/

[sudopod]

20. I wouldn't hold my breath. :3 nt

[Kablooie]

4. Glad to see these vicious criminals taken off our streets.

[Lucian]

5. What the hell is our country turning into?

Goddamn.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Recommended. nt

[SoCalDem]

7. "...front lawn..."

MANY (most?) cities have CODES about landscaping, and what is "allowed" and what is not.

"Your" garden may be lovely, but then someone else may decide to plant corn or some other LARGE plants.

When we CHOOSE to live in neighborhoods & within city limits we also have to accept that there are codes. Here in So Cal, there are exceptions made for "natural" landscaping in front yards to conserve water, but even those have to meet community codes..

We actually got a notice from the code people because our yard was dead.. and we chose to not re do it for the umpteenth time.. It would have been a $300 fine if we had not "improved" it by the time they checked back, so we put up some sticks & string & rototilled it.. So far they have not been back:evilgrin:

[Retrograde]

10. Around here we call dead lawns patriotic water-conserving landscaping

I'd estimate only about half the houses in my town have a traditional green lawn: the rest are drought-tolerant plants,or shrubs, or landscape bark/rock, or nothing at all, or even vegetable gardens.

What's wrong with corn in the front yard? Is it any worse than pampas grass - a common imported weed in California - or bamboo? To each his own taste: if I were writing landscape regulations I'd ban star jasmine because I hate the smell of it.

[xphile]

11. There's nothing wrong with corn in the front yard. I've seen it done lots of times

in NYC.

Better for someone to have a vegetable garden than some pesticide laden lawn.

[Posteritatis]

16. Tends to piss off busybody HOAs types, though

... Though I suppose pissing them off can't exactly be considered a bad thing.

[xphile]

22. I could care less about the busybody HOA types. They can kiss my ass.

The amount of control they want over other people's lives is more than a little disturbing.

[SoCalDem]

26. there are more places without HOAs than with them, I would guess

People who buy, should check this stuff out BEFORE they buy. I have never heard of an existing neighborhood becoming HOA-regulated, and there are probably lots of houses available in non-HOA communities. If you agree to buy in one, you really cannot get all irritated when they enforce.

And even in non-HOA neighborhoods, there are still community standards that code-enforcement people are required to enforce.

People who truly want to "do their own thing", should consider buying in "landed" communities where neighbors are not a part of their daily lifestyle.

Some HOAs go to the extremes, and it might be wise to talk to people in the neighborhood BEFORE buying that house, but most of them are in place because they want a certain ambiance and the rules are there to maintain it.

[SoCalDem]

19. UNLESS, there is a city/town/community regulation against it

and when told that you are in violation, you persist and flaunt the rules.

Many neighborhoods , as much as many of us may not like the cookie-cutter-ness of them, are designed to be just that....uniform in design.

This woman's legal troubles originated with her own reaction to the issue..

We want to put in a front courtyard in order to remove most of the "grass" in the front, BUT there are rules regarding the "sight-line" from the street, as well as the relationship (spacially) to where the garage wall is located. Even though WE would prefer a whole other look, we have to work with the rules where we live.. We would also like a higher retaining wall, but we are limited...again because of the rules in place .

"The commons" is in play here. Just because "some people" would be good neighbors and maintain a lovely-to-look-at, as well as nutritionally sound front yard garden, if "one" is allowed, then ALL would be allowed, and not everyone would be as good at it or careful with the plants they chose.

Another thing to consider is that food-plants attract insects, and others in the neighborhood may not welcome the invasion..

[xphile]

23. She has ground cover. The rules doesn't say no vegetable gardens. And I think it's a rule worth

fighting. Good for her.

Far be it for me to break the news but there are more insects than there are humans on this planet. They'll make their way to the neighborhood. The ones that benefit gardens are not a ones to worry about.

This isn't the commons, the lawn is part of her property anyway. Unless the city is going to take care of said lawn for her, pay for the water, the pesticides and take on the exposure to said pesticide she should be able to do what she wants. We're not talking about roads, bridges, or other actual commons here.

[SoCalDem]

25. Even though it's "her" land, and the city does not water it, she lives in a neighborhood

and she's bucking "the system". We may disagree with it, but she's just another in the long line of people who are fighting "rules,codes & regulations" of the place she chose to live in.

We hear of these cases all the time:

the guy with the overly-tall flagpole
the guy with the noisy flagpole
the people who put up an ugly chain link fence, where everyone else has stucco/wrought iron/no fence
the people who keep bees
the people who have inside furniture on their front porch
the people who keep "junk" in their yards.
etc.

Until the rules get changed, these people will always brush up against them, and most will never be "outed", but if even one neighbor rats on them, they will face a lot of legal bills and angst.

[DeSwiss]

24. So the choice is follow the "codes" or starve?

From: RT's, Adam Kokesh vs. The Man:

Adam Kokesh (reading from viewer email): "On your last show your guest Stefan Molyneux said something that both disturbed and saddened me. Concerning Ron Paul, he stated something like "you do not get into an immoral and criminal enterprise in order to turn it into something better..." -- inferring (?) I assume, to the United States Federal Government. He went on to say that it is foolish to believe that one can go into the belly of the beast and come out a knight in shining armor."

Stefan Molyneux: "I certainly didn't mean to imply that "only" the federal government was an immoral and criminal enterprise. I actually expand that to all levels of government and all organizations that initiate the use of force to get their way. And any individual or group that uses force to get their way, violates the fundamental moral law, the non-aggression principle, and violations of property rights -- so no, I wouldn't limit it to the federal government."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ1xwfrvke8">link

[SoCalDem]

27. Starve?

I seriously doubt that her front yard garden is the only thing keeping her fed.

She is calling attention to a regulation she wants changed.. maybe she'll prevail..maybe not.

[xxqqqzme]

8. It will look much better next

year. Then the raised beds will be surrounded by flowers, blooming herbs and wispy carrot tops. Just you wait - it will be beautiful!

[rug]

12. if she's growing kale, I'm with Oak Park.

[theHandpuppet]

28. What's wrong with kale?

I always have a couple of raised beds full of delicious kale. If you don't like kale, it must be because you've never had it properly cooked. It's also one of the most nutricious veggies you can put on your plate.

[Taitertots]

13. Why are they using such a misleading title?

She is facing jail time for refusing to comply with reasonable court orders.

[Posteritatis]

17. Er, *what* reasonable court orders?

"The law, therefore the law" doesn't cut it, especially if it involves jailing someone over aesthetic decrees.

[Pisces]

14. Same nonsense with people in in Colorado who can't collect rain water.

Sometimes rural living makes more sense. No neighborhood police to worry about.

[originalpckelly]

15. I know why the politicians don't like the vegetables, they don't want competition.

[lovuian]

18. you can't throw everybody in jail

that 93 days cost thousands of taxpayer dollars so we could protect Monsanto

[sad sally]

21. and you wonder what's wrong with America?

liberty and justice for all

[jimmyflint]

29. This is so back wards.

lawns should be discouraged, not gardens. Gardens are a valuable renewable resource, lawns are a waste of resources.