Oak Park Retaliates Against Front Yard Garden

Probably due to intense media pressure, Oak Park City, Michigan has temporarily backed off of its effort to fine and/or jail Julie Bass for her front yard vegetable garden.

Oak Park has, however, reinstated an old charge against Julie Bass for unlicensed dogs. The dogs were eventually licensed to bring them into compliance, and the charges were dropped. Now, Oak Park is bringing the charges back so they can have a shot at jailing her again.

Clearly, Oak Park is retaliating against Julie Bass for embarrassing the city over their ridiculous harassment of her and their capricious enforcement of an ambiguous ordinance.

Woman Faces Jail for Vegetable Garden in Front Yard

Jason and Julie Bass Housein Oak Park Michigan
Photo: WJBK

With all of the economic troubles and urban blight in Michigan, you would think a worthless city planner in Oak Park would have something better to do than harass people for growing vegetables in their front yard, but you would be wrong. Oak Park City Planner, Kevin Rulkowski, is demanding Jason and Julie Bass remove the vegetable garden they planted in their front yard after a pipe repair project left their yard is disarray.

Kevin Rulkowski, Oak Park City Planner
Photo: My Fox Detroit

Sure, the vegetable garden is not terribly attractive, and it is out of the ordinary, but Kevin Rulkowski has yet to present an ordinance that specifically bans vegetables from front yards. Rulkowski is claiming the vegetables are not "suitable" under the law, because they are not "common" in the community. The ordinance specifically uses the phrase "all unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass or ground cover or shrubbery or other suitable live plant material." This where the deception begins. Rulkowski is trying to play word games by claiming Webster's dictionary states "suitable" means "common." Actually, that is false. Webster's dictionary has the following definition.


suitable

adj.
1. [OBSOLETE]: similar, matching
2. a : adapted to a use or purpose
b : satisfying propriety : proper
c : able, qualified


Even if Rulkowski is attempting to use the obsolete definition for "suitable," he is still on shaky ground. If he wants all yards to be "similar" or "matching," he is opening a huge can of worms. "Similar" or "matching" could mean all sort of things. Maybe all homeowners could be required to plant matching oak trees. Maybe homeowners could be required to plant the same kind of grass. The interpretations could go on and on. Rulkowski might even be able to bend the ordinance to a point where everyone in Oak Park has to have a yard similar to his.

This mindless conformity is ridiculous. Why does Rulkowski have enough time to worry about some lady's vegetable garden? Maybe the garden does not look nice, but is it hurting anyone? So what if it hurts the property values a little. Is a slightly higher selling price worth selling personal freedoms? Is it so terrible people are making good use of their land to grow food in a world where millions of people are starving? This is just another example of an abusive government with too much power.

Well, Julie Bass has been charged with a misdemeanor over her garden, and she is going to court on July 26, 2011 to stand trial for the heinous crime of planting vegetables in her front yard. She could go to jail for ninety-three days.

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Oak Park Hates Veggies