Save my kids' garden bed from being destroyed!

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

The City of Somerville has given my family 4 days to destroy this beautiful flower and vegetable bed planted by my children on Powder House Blvd., else they will do it for us.
I have created a petition here-please sign and share:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-henrys-raised-bed-garden-in-somerville-ma/

Comments

[ratheripped.livejournal.com]

Not to be a jerk, but it looks like those sunflowers are about the height of the car behind it, so I understand why the city might be on your case about it. Not sure if your box is near a drive way or something, but it's dicey enough backing out onto the street, so I get why they want to enforce visibility where they can. Also, just because the flowers are that height now, doesn't mean they're not going to get taller. Sunflowers can get pretty ginormous.

Are you sure there's no place on your property or community garden nearby you can replant them?

[ron_newman]

I'd rather see the city prioritize gardening and greenery over the needs of car drivers, if that choice really needs to be made. Wouldn't the street look lovely if the entire strip between street and sidewalk were filled with box gardens?

[redheadedmuse.livejournal.com]

I was just admiring that garden bed yesterday with my kids! I hope it's not destroyed.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

By that logic, every car parked on the street is also a hazard :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yes, me too, just yesterday! :(

[smammy]

I admire Highland Road for the wide strip between sidewalk and street and the many lovely gardens and ornamental trees in said strip.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. But it would also be lovely if there were repeated auto collisions due to visibility problems.

I don't know if I have enough information to be willing to sign a petition. OP-- What reason did they give you for the removal of the garden? If it is, as suggested, a visibility problem, perhaps you could remove the sunflowers and replace with a shorter plant?

I am all for street beautification, but I don't feel like we have the whole story here.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

So you'd rather create more accidents and danger to cyclists and pedestrians by limiting visibility of drivers, Ron? That's a little crazy, IMO. How about shared space with common sense applied? There's no reason that the city can't prioritize gardening and greenery provided that the greenery doesn't create a safety/visibility hazard. It can be visible, but not, say, blocking critical views.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Good luck. One would hope the City of Somerville would have better things to spend its time and money on.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what I was thinking about too. I can't access the petition due to a bluecoat filter at my current location, but some more information would be great. I'd hate to see the kids' hard work be destroyed, but so would I hate to see someone get hit because of a less than great choice in plants/location.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Yes. This. more information is needed. Is this on your property? Is it in a place that makes it impossible (or very hard) for lawnmowers to mow the surrounding lawn?

I also think that if this IS a visibility problem, then it's not just "convenience for drivers" it's a safety issue for everyone (even bicyclists Ron) Perhaps the old tree was removed because it was causing visibility problems? And those sunflowers COULD cause problems.

There are enough places around here where there ARE visibility problems tha it seems to me to be very possible that this IS an issue.

OP, can you not re-plant the sunflowers elsewhere, but keep other, lower plants in that location? If it's just a visibility issue, then you should be able to replace the sunflowers with other equally pretty plants.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

A lot of people put cars in the piece of driveway that is between the sidewalk and street, and much of the time they overlap onto both the sidewalk and street. I guess it's legal, but it's pretty unpleasant and I cannot fathom how THAT isn't a safety/visibility problem if some *flowers* are.

[ron_newman]

The petition points out that the garden bed memorializes a tree that the city removed from the same spot last year. (I don't know why it was removed, but maybe it was diseased.) That tree was much taller than any of the sunflowers can ever be.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Believe me, it *is* a problem and when people park like that, I swear. A lot. It also makes it a pedestrian problem, particularly when you're with a child in a stroller, on a bike, or in a wheelchair. No doubt about it. I wish that was more enforced in all of the surrounding communities!

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the tree was removed because of visibility issues?

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

From the petition, since Ron failed to answer your question:

"The highway dept. went out to cut the 'over growth' only to find flowers planted. The flowers are growing to a height causing a safety problem and need to be removed. I am giving you a chance to re plant before the highway crew returns Monday July 30th to clean the grass area. If you have any questions please let me know.
Thank You
Steven MacEachern"

I note that in the photo, the box seems to be about the length of a car, and possibly able to block convenience access to a parked car.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how it's legal. It makes me not want to walk down Highland Rd, which is otherwise a very nice street.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

I guess we have no way of knowing. I see everyone saying that trees are taller than plants, however trees do not always have low-lying branches that can obstruct visibility at the 4-6' tall range. And if they do, they're (often) easily pruned to prevent visibility issues.

From my reading of Mindstalk's copy-paste of the letter, it sounds like the garden box is preventing the highway crew from cutting the grass. (I assume in this context that overgrowth is grass, not the plants) That coupled with the growth of sunflowers (They may be lower than the height of an 8 year old child now, but they grow tall enough to obscure vision for vehicles, I know this from personal experience) leads me to feel like the OP could have planned her garden box better, especially if this is an easement and not her own private property.

Sucks for the little ones, but the way this is presented makes me feel as if I should support it strictly because children are involved, not because it's unfair of the city.

[ron_newman]

I support it because I support gardening and urban agriculture -- and the City of Somerville's policy is also to support it.

[ron_newman]

I'm surprised that the city highway crew is mowing the grass here at all. In other places I've lived, the property owner is responsible for mowing grass between sidewalk and street. (ETA: and I believe the OP here is the property owner, not a renter.)

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I'm in agreement with this. I should also note that the memo received from the city didn't appear to state that "Somerville will destroy it if you don't!"

It seemed to be politely noting that this was interfering with work crews, creating a safety hazard, and could you please remove or re-plant by the specified date...etc.

Why can't this just be moved and re-planted? Is the OP unwilling to admit to his/her/their kids that they made a mistake and now it has to be fixed or removed?

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

But all reason, ordinance and common sense should be ignored because it's nice, pretty, and makes the city slightly greener? Come ON. SMH

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I support gardening and urban agriculture too, but I also support central planning and organization of activities that have the potential to affect others.

One garden box might not seem like a problem, but what if their neighbors decided to put one in too? And their neighbors -- and so on? It would quickly become impossible to exit a parked car on the curb side, leading to more doored cyclists and pedestrians suddenly popping out of cars onto the street.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

On a side note, did you test the soil for lead before you planted vegetables there? There are some very good reasons why not all the soil in Somerville is open to vegetable gardens. If you didn't test it, if I were you, I'd never risk feeding them to a child.