David McElroy

City officials in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park apparently have so little to do that they’re taking the time to prosecute a woman for the dastardly crime of growing vegetables in some well-tended areas of her front yard.

This is a perfect companion to what I wrote Thursday about the need for “legal fences” that keep other people from telling us what to do on our own property. I was thinking more of free cities — and of one group not being able to tell another what to do — but it comes down to the same issues: choice and property rights.

In the Detroit case, Julie Bass faces 93 days in jail for having a small vegetable garden in her yard, because the city says she’s in violation of the city regulation that says front yards must have “suitable” vegetation. Bizarrely, the city has taken the position that this word only means “common,” so Bass is only allowed to have grass, trees and flowers that are common in other yards. (For the record, none of the dictionaries I checked agreed with the city.)

Keep Reading

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at just how far-flung the audience for this site has been so far. It was just eight weeks ago today when I opened the digital doors to the place, but people have already made thousands of visits from 57 different countries around the world.

There have also been visitors from 48 of the 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia. Vermont and South Dakota have been the only two U.S. states missing for weeks. What are you guys waiting for?

Even though I can’t personally identify who comes to visit or exactly where you’re coming from or anything of that nature, the system does give me general information. For instance, I know that the U.S. state sending the most visitors is Alabama, which makes sense considering that I live here and lots of people here known me.

After my home state, the top 10 U.S. states in numbers of visits so far have been Texas, New York, Florida, California, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania. (Massachusetts barely missed the cut.)

Keep Reading

I was in the back yard with my dog, Lucy, this morning when I started reflecting on the effects of a fence between one of my neighbors and me. More importantly, it made me think about the lack of a fence between another neighbor and me.

Ever since I’ve lived here, there’s been a fence separating me from the guy in the back. I’ve met him. I speak if we both happen to be outside. But that’s about it. There’s no fence between a neighbor on the side and me. They’re nice enough folks. We speak if we both happen to be outside, but there’s nothing else between us, good or bad.

But with the neighbors on the side, there have been minor irritations over the years. Someone who lived with them for awhile parked on the grass next to the street, frequently letting much of his car end up way over on my grass. It didn’t really make any difference. I wasn’t using it anyway. But it was my yard, not his, so it bugged me.

Keep Reading