Horticultural freedom of expression vs. city "blight" laws.

Are both individual horticultural freedom of expression and Mother Nature currently outlawed by the heavy-handed intrusive blight ordinance of the City of Oakland in California?

by James K. Sayre

The Prelude:

Recently it has come to my attention (in a rather forceful and unpleasant way) that city governments have established and maintained some very overbearing and rigid laws that regulate what city residents and property owners may grow on their own land. There are various traditional rationales for this opressive activity include the traditional city interest in "health" and "safety" and even the maintenance of neighborhood property real estate values.

A Kafkaseque nightmare:

In the city where I live, Oakland, California, my landscaping and gardens were the subject of a vicious and totally unannounced raid in mid-October, 2005. A small group of men showed up and started pruning, shearing, chain-sawing and weed-whacking plants in my front yard, side yards and back yards. I asked them who they were and by what rights they were acting, and the head guy just repeated, "Call the City of Oakland." I was in a rage by the time I started trying to find someone in the City government that had a clue as to why this was happening and who ordered this massive destruction of my gardens and landscaping.

The Kafkaseque nightmare contines:

I first called the police; they wouldn't take any action and the clerk on the other end of the line told me to call the Housing Dept. I tried several numbers there, but all I could do was to leave voice mail messages. I finally called my City Council person and one of the staff members was supportive and helpful. All this happened on a Friday morning. The destruction of my garden and grounds went on for several hours. I was a nervous wreck by the end of the day.

Gradually, I pieced together an idea of what had happened. A couple of my busybody and bullying neighbors had decided that many of my plants were "overgrown." They called the City and registered complaints. The City has a mechanism that allows anomyous complaints to be registered against neighbors. This is similar to the communist system that used to run East Germany with anonymous informants squealing and telling on their neighbors. In the City of Oakland, California, enforcement of the Blight ordinance is complaint-driven. In other words, if there is no complaint, there is no "enforcement" of city codes about "blight."

Selective enforcement of city codes: discriminatory on its face:

Of course, by definition, this system of selective enforcement is descriminatory. Gardeners would seem to have virtually no civil rights or civil liberties to grow what they want on their own "private property" within cities that have established blight codes. Conformity seems to be the order of the day. "Freedom" is just a word in this situation.

Maintaining real estate neighborhood property values:

The traditional bugaboo about maintaining neighborhood property values is a joke in urban California cities in the 21st century. Real estate values have jumped about 20% in just the last two years, for example. I would suggest that nothing short of a nuclear attack would significantly lower the obscenely high property values in Oakland and other coastal cities in Califnornia.

The damage done in one city raid:

Plants killed in my front yard: .Front yard plants killed

Plants killed in my back yard: .Backyard plants killed

Plants severely pruned in my front yard: Front yard plants severely pruned

Plants severely pruned in my back yard. (coming soon...)

The present over-reaching and draconian blight law of the City of Oakland needs to be eased a little to allow gardeners, residents and property owners in Oakland to have natural bird-friendly gardens and landscapes, without fear of neighborhood tattletales, busybodies and bullies going to the City to demand conformity to their own personal horticultural and landscaping standards.

Q: Is this the land of the horticulturally free and the home of the horticulturally brave?

A: Only time will tell...

End.

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Web page last updated on 9 December 2005.