Boulder man faces $2000 fine/day for guerilla garden fencing

Via BoingBoing (complete with video):

“[L]ast month, an enforcement officer from Boulder’s Environmental and Zoning Enforcement office showed up and said a neighbor had complained about the garden.

“She said to take it all down — the tomato cages, the trellises, the posts, the basketball hoop, everything,” Hoffenberg said.

Hoffenberg has until July 14 to take down the trellises and fencing. At that point, Arthur said, he could be cited, and a judge could impose a fine. Or the city could remove the impediments, since they’re on public property, Arthur said, if they’re not able to reach a compromise.”

Myself and three other neighbors here in my Los Angeles neighborhood are doing exactly the same parkway vegetable planting Hoffenberg is doing. All it takes is one disgruntled and unhappy neighbor. We gotta change the paradigm folks–food not lawns!

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8 Comments

  1. That makes me so mad!

    It reminds me of the time 5 years ago when a little kid living in my town was ratted out by a neighbor for selling lemonade without a business license.

    Don’t these “neighbors” have something better to do?

  2. the problem seems to be with all the fencing he has up and the basketball goal, not the garden itself. He just needs to find a way to take down the hardware so that people still have public access. Maybe next year plant the stuff that doesnt need all the support in this garden and leave the tomatoes and other tall stuff for another place in his garden. I have plants in the front too but I just accept that Im going to lose some to animals and neighbors!

  3. The amazing thing is that if it was a block of concrete there would be no complaint.

    A guerilla garden on the other hand – clearly a public nuisance. And another thing, I thought enforcement officers liked fences…

    I really don’t understand any human response other than “wow that is a great use of space, I wish more folks were gardening.”

  4. When we read the original newspaper article it says the city has no problem with the garden itself just the fencing and the trellises. When you look at the video, you’ll notice it appears he lives on a corner. If the fencing and the trellises block the view of a driver on that road, then there could be some safety issues. Some timid and/or elderly drivers may have a problem with the visibility issue, especially if the cross street is a busy one. The gardener also seems to have plenty of room in that front yard of his (he seems to have a large front lawn too!) to put up some tomato plants, corn, whatever… We have a few of these gardens in my neighborhood in Seattle and I love them and think it be great if more people got into it. That’s why I read this blog. At the same time we gotta remember not to have these knee jerk reactions when somebody asks us not to do something. The city of Boulder may be playing a heavy hand with that fine but are they really asking him too much here? Keep the garden just make sure others can safely get around or past it in this case. Remember we have to live with them if we expect them to live with us. Anyways, love the blog.

  5. The Civil codes of the corporatist have enslaved us all! Try doing “Straw Bale and watch the officious bastards stall true progress! These folks mindlessly enforce the current “Staus Quo” an unsustainalble anachronism in face of rising oil prices and falling purchasing power of the dollar, and until extreme circumstances, where their bellies are affected will continue to prescribe to their own downfall! Our Democracy, strangled by corporatism and slod out by the Capitalists, who were given disproprtunate powers , made into irrevokable laws on behalf of the “Haves” and against the “Have-Nots” during the Bush years. We are a scik nation, ripening for revolt or rotting in the fields, a failure! Your call America, and Last Call1 Last Call!

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