So were these cops master gardeners too?

God help anyone who grows ornamental grasses!! You could get a life
sentence!!!!

If the cops had too much free time on their hands, they should have been
spending it trying to track down real criminals instead of trying to force
their sterile sense of aesthetics on the neighborhood. Then again, gardeners
rarely shoot at them (unless they get them really ****ed off!!). Probably
next you will hear some story about a cop that shot and killed someone who
was coming toward them with a weed wacker and claiming it was self
defense!!!! You can never be to careful when dealing with these criminal
masterminds!!!


Dave Allyn (Dave Allyn) wrote in message
...
This reminds me of a neighbor just up the block: He got a notice
from the town basically stating that if he didn't keep his grass less
than 12 inches, he was going to be fined. Let me note that he has an
immacculate lawn. no weeds, mows once a week to keep it perfect,
etc... Needless to say he was abit upset. he called the town, and
asked what was the deal, and where did they see grass to be cut? they
looked up his address, and said the cops say tall grass on the north
side of his garage.

" Tell then they are F***'n Idiots!!! those are my day lillys!!!"
click



This discussion is very pertinent to me right now. I have a brand new bed
(my 80 year old neighbor didn't recognize the difference between roundup
and
something specific for dandelions and killed off most of my parking
strip.....LOL). So in the dead sod I planted giant grasses last fall, and
bulbs, and early this spring planted (by seed) rows of tall and short
wildflowers (tall in the center, short at the edges) Things like
nemophila,
linaria, poppies, california poppies, flax, bachelor buttons, dame's
rocket,
annual phlox, lupines, larkspur, foam flower, sweet alyssum, etc.
Unfortunately, the only ones I recognize for sure, having grown them
before,
are poppies, california poppies, alyssum, and linaria.For a long time, I
thought I would let everything grow and sort it all out later, but of
course
there's lots of grass coming up, as well as dandelions, and some other
familar weeds of this area. (Most of the wildflower seeds also sprouted).
My
worst mistake was thinking that a certain spade-shaped leaf was something
precious, but this past week, it has started to resemble something I
recognized very well - BINDWEED!. Fortunately, all in the seedling stage,
so
easy to remove. I will report on it as an experiment, in the middle and
at
the end of the summer. It occured to me that most of these things will be
bloomed out at the end of July, so I have planted some four-oclocks,
cosmos,
and lavatera to take over at the end of the summer.
I'm sure my neighbors think I'm nuts as I stand on the street or
sidewalk looking into this bed of what looks like a derelict waste garden
intently, then reach down and pluck out a single plant here or there. I'm
hoping that in 2 or 3 weeks, they will understand better what I was up
to.





email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

On Fri, 30 May 2003 10:03:27 GMT, "Cereoid-UR12yo"
wrote:

So were these cops master gardeners too?

God help anyone who grows ornamental grasses!! You could get a life
sentence!!!!

If the cops had too much free time on their hands, they should have been
spending it trying to track down real criminals instead of trying to force
their sterile sense of aesthetics on the neighborhood. Then again, gardeners
rarely shoot at them (unless they get them really ****ed off!!). Probably
next you will hear some story about a cop that shot and killed someone who
was coming toward them with a weed wacker and claiming it was self
defense!!!! You can never be to careful when dealing with these criminal
masterminds!!!


The "weed police" in my town are part of the "codes & compliance"
department, not actual cops. I doubt many are master gardeners, and
the mistake about daylily foliage is a funny story. Most municiple
codes relating to plant life are meant to prevent/reduce rampant
overgrowth of weeds and plants that are a recognized nuisance to
others. I very much doubt a carefully maintained landscape that
included ornamental grasses would arouse any complaint. In fact,
whether the basis is fire danger or aesthetics, local ordinances here
ban uncontrolled weed/grass growth over 8 or 12" tall, which means one
might possibly be perfectly safe in maintaining a "lawn" of
dandelions! Not popular, to be sure, but not illegal.

Beware, however, the term "eyesore." My goodness, there are a lot of
people with sensitive eyes. From clotheslines to large (US) flags to
trucks on the street, some are offended by anything that doesn't match
their decor. I had a *real* cop come to my door one day about my
harboring a "derelict" car in my driveway. I hope my licensed,
inspected, registered, insured, and daily-driven elderly VW didn't
hear this canard.

Frogleg wrote:

Beware, however, the term "eyesore." My goodness, there are a lot of
people with sensitive eyes. From clotheslines to large (US) flags to
trucks on the street, some are offended by anything that doesn't match
their decor. I had a *real* cop come to my door one day about my
harboring a "derelict" car in my driveway. I hope my licensed,
inspected, registered, insured, and daily-driven elderly VW didn't
hear this canard.


That's enough to make one want to buy a *real* p.o.s. vehicle for $50 and
park it out front -- with current license, of course. Just to **** people
off who obviously enjoy being ****ed off.

At least where I live, if the vehicle has current plates, there's nothing
they can do about it if it's on your property. If it's parked on the
street is has to be moved every 12 hours; never enforced, but it could be
if the neighbors complain.

Best regards,
Bob

lazy cop didnt call in the license number. we have an old beater too. last time it
was hit it was totaled. but my DH works at local high school and the car has already
been vandalized so why would we want a better car. school is only 1 mile away going
to take another year to put it over 200K which is what we are waiting for... LOL.
Ingrid

I had a *real* cop come to my door one day about my
harboring a "derelict" car in my driveway. I hope my licensed,
inspected, registered, insured, and daily-driven elderly VW didn't
hear this canard.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Our town was in the process of reworking its "nuisance vegetation"
ordinance. The first draft outlawed all plants that had any parts
poisonous or injurious to humans or animals. We would have been left
with nothing but lettuce!

Regards, Dianna
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

You vote idiots into public office and that's what you get, Fluffy.

Most "nuisance vegetation" can be found on public property, especially
median strips, trying to be passed off as landscaping!

What about those trees and shrubs blocking traffic signs and with police
cars hiding behind them looking for "speeders"?


Dianna Visek wrote in message
...
Our town was in the process of reworking its "nuisance vegetation"
ordinance. The first draft outlawed all plants that had any parts
poisonous or injurious to humans or animals. We would have been left
with nothing but lettuce!

Regards, Dianna
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

Oh you'd hate me as a neighbor. My median strip has no turf and a heavy dose of
Gaura linderheimerii.


On Fri, 30 May 2003 20:17:57 GMT, "Cereoid-UR12yo" wrote:

You vote idiots into public office and that's what you get, Fluffy.

Most "nuisance vegetation" can be found on public property, especially
median strips, trying to be passed off as landscaping!

What about those trees and shrubs blocking traffic signs and with police
cars hiding behind them looking for "speeders"?


Dianna Visek wrote in message
...
Our town was in the process of reworking its "nuisance vegetation"
ordinance. The first draft outlawed all plants that had any parts
poisonous or injurious to humans or animals. We would have been left
with nothing but lettuce!

Regards, Dianna
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

On Sat, 31 May 2003 07:29:35 GMT, (Dianna
Visek) wrote:

Our town was in the process of reworking its "nuisance vegetation"
ordinance. The first draft outlawed all plants that had any parts
poisonous or injurious to humans or animals. We would have been left
with nothing but lettuce!

That's the problem with wholesale legislation and regulation. When you
leave out common sense, things become nonsensical. Anyone with an
ounce of sense knows the difference between, say, ornamental grasses
used in a landscape design, and wild grasses growing high and
unattended and drying to present a fire hazard. The line between
"it's my property and I can do what I like" and "everyone must think
the same way I do" isn't a clear one. I think *most* people would be
agreeable to making minimal effort to be in tune with previailing
norms. This growing dependence on legislation and regulation is what
bothers me. It appears to be designed to relieve all involved from
thinking at all. A can be fined because he has more than 3 dandelion
plants per square yard in an area less than 10' from a public road. B
goes without sanction because he only has a back yard full of poison
ivy. There's also a diminishing effort for neighbors to actually
*talk* to each other, instead of calling the Codes department. You
have a problem? Sic the law on 'em. Don't go over and say, "did you
know there are water restrictions here now?" or "would you mind if I
trimmed your cottonwood tree?"

Some of this stuff get done so people/govenrment can act on it, but
communal restrictions are often about making the neighborhood "look"
good. Like laws they are often written by idiots who are qualified to
deal with the subjects at hand.

When I used to park on the street outside my building I found out that
if you leave your car parked in the same spot three days the city can
seize it as abandoned...which they did. The law is meant to enable
police to get dead cars within 72 hours. However in my case I left a
ticket on the window and some prick of a cop seized the car. Probably
the same guy who would write tickets at 8:01 AM every street-cleaning
day. The law was designed for seizing regular cars but assholes abuse
them.



DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

day. The law was designed for seizing regular cars but assholes abuse
them.

(not directed at you)
let's not forget the idiots who made the laws required in the first
place. if everyone would keep the grass mowed every few weeks there
would be no need for the "nussence vegitation" laws in the first
place. if people wouldn't abandon thier cars, those laws wouldn't be
needed either.

people do not have enough creativity to make up insane laws out of
thier heads as preventive. there needs to be a case where someone
says "there should be a law againat that" and then makes one.

99% of these laws had good intentions.. and were then abused, or made
so broad where the intent was lost, and bordom of others saw and
exploited.




email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

Dave Allyn wrote:

people do not have enough creativity to make up insane laws out of
thier heads as preventive. there needs to be a case where someone
says "there should be a law againat that" and then makes one.

I'm going to go way off-topic here, but this is a funny story.

I'm semi-proud to say that something I did resulted in a change in a
law. About 20 years ago I made some extra money as a taxicab driver.
There was a nice nightclub that was a good place to pick-up people who
were too drunk to drive (or had planned to get too drunk to drive), and
had enough money to afford to be in such a nice place. Translation: Good
fares going a long way from downtown to nice suburbs.

Across the street from the nightclub was a bus stop. The lane behind the
bus stop was closed for sewer construction. It was hours after the last
bus went by. Someone coming out the door of the nightclub could see a
taxicab parked in this bus stop before they got out the door. It was the
perfect place to sit and wait. I was out of the way, yet right there to
scoop up a willing drunk.

Along came the leader of the tactical squad, spending time between real
emergencies just cruising around. He told me to move on, and drove off.
By the time the traffic signal turned green, he was three blocks away,
and I saw no need to drive away. He actually had circled around, and
walked up behind me. He wanted to write me a parking ticket, but because
of his rank, he didn't carry a ticket book, so he called one of his
squad over to write the ticket.

He apparently didn't make himself clear on the radio, because within 90
seconds, the whole tactical squad had the street closed-off, and they
were breaking out the weapons as they surrounded my taxicab. (Yes. This
is a true story! The tactical squad closed a street, surrounded me, and
broke out their weapons!) Finally, some muscle-bound flunky hands me a
parking ticket.

(A friend of mine was a cop working in an adjoining district that night.
I asked him if he had heard about the event. According to him, they
started to shift manpower from his district to the district this
occurred in as the regular patrols in that district went to help the
tactical squad with traffic control. But then the whole operation was
suddenly called off, which he thought was sort of odd. Once he heard my
story, he had a good laugh. Seems the leader of the tactical squad was
thought to be a bit over-the-top by the rank and file.)

Well, I had more free time than people should have, so I took it to
court. At the first appearance, all the judge let me say was guilty or
not guilty. Three months later, a trial is set. I represented myself,
and the assistant city attorney offers to reduce the ticket to a $10
fine. I decline, and she gets all upset about how I'm being stupid, and
I'll loose. (Keep in mind it's only a $25, and I've already had twice
that much entertainment!) I get on the stand and quote the city
ordinance that says "bus stops" are for use of "common carriers". I then
read the state statute that defines "common carriers" and specifically
mentions taxicabs.I also mention that had attempted to say this at the
first appearance in the other courtroom.

The judge stops my defense, pulls out his copies of the ordinances and
statutes, reads it for himself. He then asks the assistant city attorney
whether she had even bothered to read the ordinance. She admitted that
she hadn't. The judge immediately dismissed the case, and scolded her
for having wasted so much time on a case that she clearly couldn't win.
The judge also stated that it was a good idea that I would park my
taxicab in order to entice possible drunk drivers off the road.

(Incidentally, it was the same assistant city attorney who had a few
months earlier lost a case against me. I was ticketed for running a red
light. The cop testified that I was doing the speed limit of 30, and the
light turned yellow when I was 50 feet away. The judge pulled-out his
calculator. I went on the stand, and the only thing I said was that the
officer was correct. I was found not guilty.)

Within three months the city council was changing the laws that referred
to bus stops. They changed all references from "common carrier" to
"franchised motor bus". No action was ever taken to make it easier for
drunks to have easier access to taxicabs.

All that because some cop with too much time on his hands decided that
he wanted to hassle a taxicab driver. The least they could have done is
name the new ordinance after me.

To sort-of bring this back on-topic, the same city council had also made
it illegal to put food scraps on your compost pile, and declined to
rewrite the noxious weed ordinance to allow people to grow ornamental
grasses.

I live 2000 miles away from that place, and it's 20 years later. One
thing that the Internet has made it easier to do is see what's on the
agenda of the city council where I now live. If something stupid appears
on the agenda, I'll speak-up before any new dumb laws are passed. Living
in a much smaller community, I think the council members are more
familiar with the motives behind the items put in front of them, and are
less likely to rubber-stamp some knee-jerk reaction from some bureaucrat
who wants more power to hassle someone in particular. On the other hand,
in too small of a community, one jerk can have far too much influence.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.

The real problem is neighbors not being good neighbors.

If one was willing to help out a fellow neighbor by volunteering to mow
their lawn while they have their own mowers out, the neighborhood would be a
more peaceful and harmonious place. Instead, the jerks are quick to call out
the "garden police" if their neighbors don't conform to their own obsessive
ideal. There are far too many self-centered vindictive assholes out there
and that is what really needs to change.

Too many laws are not well thought out and are enforced by those who go out
of their way to find ways to abuse them.

So called "neighborhood improvement organizations" are the biggest offenders
for making up arbitrary rules and using them to harass those who they don't
like. Those people really need to "get a life".


Dave Allyn (Dave Allyn) wrote in message
...
day. The law was designed for seizing regular cars but assholes abuse
them.

(not directed at you)
let's not forget the idiots who made the laws required in the first
place. if everyone would keep the grass mowed every few weeks there
would be no need for the "nussence vegitation" laws in the first
place. if people wouldn't abandon thier cars, those laws wouldn't be
needed either.

people do not have enough creativity to make up insane laws out of
thier heads as preventive. there needs to be a case where someone
says "there should be a law againat that" and then makes one.

99% of these laws had good intentions.. and were then abused, or made
so broad where the intent was lost, and bordom of others saw and
exploited.




email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

Cereoid-UR12yo wrote:
=

The real problem is neighbors not being good neighbors.

People have gotten away from going to the other person and discussing
one-on-one the problem at hand.
-- =

J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - commercial
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal webpag=
es

On Sun, 01 Jun 2003 08:33:26 -0500, J Kolenovsky wrote:


People have gotten away from going to the other person and discussing
one-on-one the problem at hand.

There is always a neighbor nobody wants to say anything to. Of course, he lives
next door to us. He shoots doves out of trees and eats them, has a stuffed wild
boar head complete with huge tusks over his fireplace and hangs dead deer from
the basketball hoop in the driveway. I reported him and he has a citation as a
result.

There are people you cannot talk to about anything.

This same neighbor trapped another neighbors' cat and dumped it many miles away.
Of course I warned the idiots who let the cat out that this would happen and it
did. When the cat owners approached the asshole neighbor he would not tell them
where he dumped the poor cat. Then the cat thief pointed his rifle at them and
threatened to shoot the man AND his wife.

So, the talking isn't always a good idea.

That is not what we are talking about.

We am talking about neighbors making an effort to help out their elderly and
disabled neighbors who are unable to cut their grass and weeding their
flower beds by volunteering to help them by doing it for them. That would be
for the benefit of all and go a long way toward creating harmony rather than
silly feuds over nothing. People really need to make an effort toward not
being so selfish all the time and working together. Your own neighborhood
is a good place to start, don't you think so?

The law will eventually catch up with your gun happy sicko neighbor. The
kind of help he needs is the work of professionals, if you know what I mean.
He is an aberration not the norm.


animaux wrote in message
...
On Sun, 01 Jun 2003 08:33:26 -0500, J Kolenovsky
wrote:


People have gotten away from going to the other person and discussing
one-on-one the problem at hand.

There is always a neighbor nobody wants to say anything to. Of course, he
lives
next door to us. He shoots doves out of trees and eats them, has a
stuffed wild
boar head complete with huge tusks over his fireplace and hangs dead deer
from
the basketball hoop in the driveway. I reported him and he has a citation
as a
result.

There are people you cannot talk to about anything.

This same neighbor trapped another neighbors' cat and dumped it many miles
away.
Of course I warned the idiots who let the cat out that this would happen
and it
did. When the cat owners approached the asshole neighbor he would not
tell them
where he dumped the poor cat. Then the cat thief pointed his rifle at
them and
threatened to shoot the man AND his wife.

So, the talking isn't always a good idea.