Oak Park, MI – The price of fresh vegetables has reached a new high in Michigan.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Julie Bass, of Oak Park, is facing up to 93 days in jail for — yes — planting a vegetable garden in her front yard.
Bass planted the raised vegetable beds in her front yard, ostensibly because the price of organic food his so high. But the city booked Bass under a regulation that says a front yard has to have “suitable, live plant material.”
The city gave her a ticket, and when she didn’t tear up her garden they charged her with a misdemeanor.
Bass explained to a local news station: “We thought it’d be really cool to do it so the neighbors could see. The kids love it. The kids from the neighborhood all come and help.”
Said Bass: “They say, ‘Why should you grow things in the front?’ Well, why shouldn’t I? They’re fine. They’re pretty. They’re well maintained,” said Bass.
She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing July 26.
Do you see any anti semitism there????
What doesn’t she understand about the rules governing a “front yard” vegetable garden? If I buy a house on a block where all the homes have neatly trimmed lawns, and some nutcase comes along and digs up the lawn and has tomato plants growing, its devalues my property. If I wanted that kind of neighborhood, I’d be living in willy where people pave over their lawns to create more parking spaces for their minivans.
If Casey Anthony can go free after clearly murdering her 2-year old daughter, this woman definitely deserves to be thrown in jail for planting vegetables on her front lawn. What a country we live in?
i grew up in oak park. the place could use a good garden here and there. Also, everyone knows the blacks use the burnt out ruins of detroit for “urban farming”. look it up. i think this is silly sub-urban mentality of uniformity that makes ppl hate living in the suburbs. at least its not southfeild. there these rules are worse. oak park needs stronger enforcement on house maintenance, not enforcing what plants one may or may not have in their yard.
This country is mamash insane. Casey Anthony gets out in 10 days, this woman faces jail for planting veggies??? Can someone explain this craziness (& don’t tell me time served for Anthony & she was found not guilty…I’m talking MORALLY here.)
I hate to say it, but in Oak Park they are obsessive about the front gardens(you could get a ticket if you grass isnt mowed for two weeks) The least this woman should have done is ask if a vegetable garden is allowed. The uniformity of the front lawns are one of the things that make Oak Park a really nice place to be.
How ironic.
Comment #1 sees anti-semitism when there probably isn’t, and comment #2 makes a somewhat anti-semitic comment about his own people.
What she is doing is much more eco friendly than water wasting lawns
I wouldn’t mind if my neighbors had nice neat vegetable gardens in their front yards, it’s better than crab grass and other weeds.
The landscaping in Oak Park is boring. Contrary to its name, there are very few trees there, just vast expanses of grass lawns. The issue here seems to be the definition of “suitable.” If the law doesn’t explicitly define it, I suspect she’ll win her case. BTW, I had a raised bed vegetable garden in my front yard years ago (not in Oak Park) and never had any complaints.
Silly. It’s her property and as she says it’s neat and well-maintained. They should call a meeting of all the homeowners in the area and take a vote. If neighbors object, she should plant her veggies in the back. If they are fine with it, the town should back off and pick on more serious infringements of the law.
Great Idea, Wait till ruthless Bloomberg sees this, a new source of revenue for the city… A new reason to ticket an extort money from the hard working homeowners. If you don’t mow your lawn in two weeks you’ll get a summons, then the city will do it for you and biiiill you for it…..
I think all those stupid laws can make life so complicated. What ever you do ends up braking some kind of law.
I think they should mind their own D business and let her do what she wants in her OWN yard.!!!!
Looks more like a semi-modern hippie-ish bt.
Not that there’s anything wrong w that, but not everyone who’s Jewish is a frummy.
Sorry, kollel-hater.
Code Enforcement in Oak Park is just over the top after all it is a revenue stream Hopefully the judges in Oak Park will rule vegtable beds as suitable
All of you who would prefer water hungry grass that requires poisons to keep it looking pretty, just shut up about food prices and shortages. Everyone should be allowed to grow a garden and raise a few chickens. That’s how many people survived the Great Depression but fine, live in you ghetto mentality in your filthy soul deadening cities and be dependent on China for contaminated food.
Where I live in Israel, I have a garden, working on getting chickens and can get plenty of organic fertilizer from the horses down the street and no, this is not a moshav or kibbutz. It’s a suburban neighborhood and not a blade of grass in sight. Well, maybe a few in common city areas.
Welcome to America. The land of the free.
Julie, Julie Julie……………You’re saving money by planting a veg garden because organic veggies are expensive…………How much will you be saving when you have to hire a lawyer????? Hatzolcha !!!!
Its Ironic, the mayor says he has no money for police patrols for the frum community but he has money to prosecute this family. The frum community has had to pay for private security on shabbosim and yom tov ! I am glad he is running for reelection in November as I would rather elect Mickey Mouse than him.
I think she needs to be respectful of her neighbors and live within what was the intended spirit of the law. Our religion requires nothing less.
I’m so glad that the cash-strapped Oak Park government has the time and money to prosecute someone for having a neat, well-maintained front lawn. It must have nothing better to to do all day, like catch and prosecute criminals; so this case must be a very high priority.
Someone once said, “If you maximize the trivial, you will soon trivialize the reaaly important stuff.” Someone is “enforcement” happy, to the tune of becoming completely stupid. What a shame our governments are not being run by people with common sense.
The law is (1) unconstitutional, (2) vague in its wording, and (3) stupid beyond belief. But whether this woman is an orthodox Jew or is Russian Orthodox is irrelevant.
What is the definition of “suitable live plant material”. Can’t raised vegetable beds fall under that category? During WWII people were encouraged to plant “victory gardens”. I think instead of fining this woman, planting gardens should be encouraged.
The beds look a bit sparse, if they were fully planted, thus showing ALOT more greenery then I would say she is within her rights. As it looks at the moment it is a bit drab. BUT, if she had planted some tall shrubs around them, thus hiding the beds from public view, she would have had a much stronger case to keep them……..
Does the law say that the lawn has to have only suitable live plant material? Michigan is michiganer.
It’s better than gravel, as I’ve seen some people put down to avoid mowing the grass.
“a regulation that says a front yard has to have “suitable, live plant material.”
That is so vague that there isn’t a chance in hell that it would survive a constitutional challenge. And if the city changed the ordinance to read “nicely mowed grass”, she would still be grandfathered in and allowed to keep her garden. If the city attorney is smart, he’ll ask the judge to dismiss the charges. If he isn’t the city will wind up looking really stupid, still have to pay her legal fees as well for it’s frivolous suit and charges and she’ll still have her garden.
Do a little research before you accuse, she had asked the town if it was ok, and they told her i do not know. So she asked again and still was not told no.
Houses in Oak Park for under $150k? Yes, quite a bit under $150k–more like $35-55k currently, approximately what they were in 1976. Anyone worried about property values in Oak Park declining because Mrs. Bass would rather garden in the front yard than in the back should go back to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
But, property non-values notwithstanding, there’s this issue of “suitable.” So I went for a walk this evening. Within two blocks of the Bass’s beautiful and well-tended garden, I saw “suitable” features like: multiple bare expanses of uneven dirt; several collections of weeds notable for their health and diversity; untrimmed bushes running wild; dead plants by the bushel; and yard after yard of brown, dried-out grass.
But so what? The important thing is that neighbors should not attack each other over petty disagreements. Frum people should not undermine the efforts of others in the kehillah to live simply and frugally. Planting a garden here, in this neighborhood, out in public, in this state, in these times, is a sign of bitachon and a lesson in emunah. It is a shame that so much hope and beauty has been lost in sniping about zoning irrelevancies.
Just checked the Webster online dictionary. Whaddaya know, “common” is NOT the definition for suitable – but “adapted to a use or purpose” is. Funny thing – the dictionary people want to know what prompted you to look up a particular word – ALL the comments (54 at last count) were related to this story.