Julie Bass Faces Jail in Oak Park, Michigan for Planting Vegetable Garden

• LOOK thengarden is on her her front lawn  looks ok to me neat clean so what if she wanted to plant in her own front yard that is her business.  Going to jail over this WOW what a waste. I s that all the police have time to do.  Worry about crime  not about a mother that has a veg garden in her front yard,  So glad my city does not worry about stubid things like this the ploice have better thing to do.i

• I had some friends in Park City, Kansas who had a couple of run-ins with an overzealous "compliance officer." Eventually the officer lost his job, but only when he was arrested because he the BTK serial killer.

• No the garden is not going to keep her from going to the store! Thats not the point, she is standing up for her rights and the rights of all her neighbors. As for a effort of sustainability this is a huge step for  sustainability not only has she cut down the impact of her property she has caused awareness around the world. People are following her lead and taking action.  You saying that is the same as someone saying "my Vote doesn't count. This was her first shot at doing a veggie garden and she is doing just fine.

• Wrong, Wrong And Wrong, The Lawyer is doing the case Pro-Bono and the money she is raising only pays for the processing fees. In this country you have the right to  jury trial if you chose she doesent have to pay a penny for court cost if she wins........and she did!

• yeah we get it crabby, you hate the garden. get over it. are the the city guy in disguise? i dont find it ugly and all...and i grow vegetables ALL over both my yards...so i do know a thing or two about gardening.  furthermore..any money you can save on expensive veggies and the carbon footprint reduction should be highly applauded.

• Wow, got some tight neighbors up there in MI.  Come to Texas, you can put an oil well in the backyard and garden in the front

• This is one of the stupidest charge I've ever seen.  Would they rather she go out and rob a bank or steal to feed herself?  And look how neat it is!  Green friendly, neighborly and clean...who wouldn't want a neighbor like that?

• Yes but they didn't look like this.  This is an ugly demonstration.  So much for being poor.  She paid a contractor to build her garden, not some sweat equity after a trip to the DIY store.  It isn't going to garner much for her because it is a dumb garden plan.  She's just pissed because someone tried to tell her what to do.

• You are a fool.  You think they actually read that stuff?   

• Frankly, I do find it to be ugly.  Anyone knowing much about gardening also knows she has a worthless pan that isn't going to yield her much.  So much for the "i'm trying to grow food" argument.  So all this fuss for a few salads...

• Overly emotional, are you?  You seem to be homosexual afflicted. 

• And I am sure that he is all shook up over it, Joe. 

• Yes, it is an eyesore, and you can't tell me that she will get yield that justifies all the fuss.  This is a hobby garden at best, not a real effort as sustainability.  Look a the garden plan.

• I don't think so.  She has real balls asking for donations.  It is ugly and I wouldn't want it next to me. This isn't some sort of constitutional issue and she is hilarious in her "plight", comparing it to not being able to marry who you choose or sitting on the back of the bus. 

• Yes, he is working pro bono, but Julie Bass is still asking for financial donations on her blog.  She has to pay for a jury trial, not the state.  It becomes part of her court costs.

• And asking for financial donations on her blog.   I wouldn't want that next to me.  What real reason did she have for not putting it in the back yard?  Roo many rusting cars? 

• Not only should she be able to grow her veggies, but she should take over as City Planner.

• In case anyone would like to fax or email the moron making these ridiculous charges, his name is Kevin Rulkowski, City Planning Dept., City of Oak Park, phone 248-691-7450, email krulkowski@ci.oak-park.mi.us , fax is 248-691-7165. I highly recommend dropping him or his city manager/council a note about what a ridiculous waste of city resources and tax money this is! It is NONE of the city’s business what she wants to grow in her yard! We need to fight back on the politicians invasion of our homes and private lives…

• Here's an idea. Don't live in a city if you want to be a farmer. Grow veggies in the backyard so bums don't piss on them. 

• This is nuts  This is julie own front yard as long as it is neat clean, I see no reason not to have a veg gardin the front yard  Nuts to put her nuts to put her in  jail for somthing so lame.

• This is nuts  This is julie own front yard as long as it is neat clean, I see no reason not to have a veg gardin the front yard  Nuts to put her nuts to put her in  jail for somthing so lame.

• Did some american women beat your freckled ass or laugh at your itty bitty wang?

• Not true. The lawyer is working pro-bono.

• I would agree with you Arlo it isn't about gardens at all it is about "control".

• love the name

• I live in Michigan and I know the area of which she lives in and the city planner is just being  an assclown.  He has far more important things he "should" be doing than harassing citizens over a vegtable garden!!  If it was an eye sore that would be one thing but as you can see by the pictures - it is not.  This is purely a power ego maniac going overboard....

• you ass holes that can't find a freakin' caps lock...

• P.S. Also Julie, it's people like you that are bringing down the USA as the most obese nation in the world, vegetables are not fattening and your kids probably won't contract diabetes! Get with the times lady!!!

•  Julie, forget that garden and hike down to the welfare office and get food stamps and an EBT card, section 8 housing, medical, the whole nine yards! That garden is taking your kid's time away from violent online games, plus you are encouraging them to learn and  have actual conversations, also,  if they are working in your garden,  they won't be smoking pot, becoming gang members,  doing meth or having unprotected sex! Good God woman, you are acting like, oh, what is the word...oh yeah, a PARENT! Now, down a fifth of vodka, take some meth,  bulldoze that garden, and have the kids tested so if they have a 'learning disability' you can get even more government money so you can hang out and let the kids raise themselves! I mean, just where do you think you are, AMERICA?!?

• *prints off article for next time hubby tries to 'suggest'  we grow our own vegetables and not shop so much*

• What the hell? So this lady is going to court for some vegetables? I Hope the judge takes one look at the case and gives the city planner some time for being a tight ass.

• Kuei...cyber-diarrhoea...just add toilet paper.

• or she is being forced to be like one dude in Coon Rapids about 30 years ago. he painted his house Viking colours. he at the time lived on Egret Blvd. I'm not talking dull. I'm talking the bright colours used by the Minn Vikings team. . the house had cars going past it slowly. it got into the paper. many folks wanted the city to force him to repaint his house to being the average "blaugh" colourations the other houses around it had. others applauded him for wanting a house that wasn't a "cookie cutter" in looks, like paint, trees, etc...... . at that time there was almost no "gated" living. this included townhouses, condos, etc.... and his house was definately not gated.

• sheesh. . I remember reading that during war time in the past. growing one's own food was highly thought of. they were called Victory Gardens.

• just a guess, but there is a tree in the backyard(or an adjoining neighbor's yard) and its quite possible that depending on the way her house faces, it shades that area too heavily to get good crops(we don't even know how big it is). The front yard on the other hand has great light-perfect for sun ripening things like tomatoes-and for all we know may be the only space that was feasible. the bottom line is, if I own my own home-I take care of it and its not an eyesore(which looks like is the case here-nicely maintained raised planters-simple but not ugly) that I can do whatever I want. How many people have derelict oil dripping cars in the driveway for YEARS, trash in the front yards and untended yards and trees they leave for others to deal with the mess and they're going after her for THIS in the middle of a recession, for planting a garden in her front yard? priorities? Hello? Are things really that good in Michigan that they have enough free time and resources to bother?

• You're an idiot, learn to comprehend.

• It's kind of weird isn't it.. corn is ugly? Be funny if someone had a corn field on the front lawn, with scarecrows.. popular for halloween ... I think it's not to do about grass or corn, or carrots, it's about conformity and society being afraid of anyone that takes a step or two out of the long line..

• If no one has the guts (yes, guts) to challenge a law, how would it ever get changed? Posting a comment won't do it.

• What you get if you have a rock garden, life?

• get it on!

• Tomorrow, I will be emailing various Oak Park and Michigan officials. I am a published professional creative writer and editor, and I have a mean streak a light year wide. They WILL learn how wrong this is, if the have the juevos to finish what I write.

• Where I believe legal action over the garden is sheer lunacy. What I really don't understand is why she had to put the garden in her front yard? Unless she doesn't have a backyard (highly unlikely) or also has a garden in her backyard, it is a bit silly to have the garden in her front yard. She's asking for crops to either be stolen or find them smashed against her house.

• If there's any real justice in the world, she'll end up getting enough in donations to pay her court costs and for the sewer work she had done in the first place.  http://goo.gl/MHtnr

• The judge is going to take one look at this case, laugh, and dismiss it.

• are you this much a butthead in real life?

• Thanks for covering this Pete. Stories like this leave me to shake my head in wonder at all the small minded people with screwed up priorities who cannot see the forest for the trees.

• He could not stupidly spend the city's money and time misreading a law and hamhandedly enforcing his wrong interpretation, freeing up that money and time so it can be spent on crime prevention or criminal justice in general.

• simple leave the lady alone. Cause of him she got a ticket which is financial rape

• Forget Casey Anthony.  This is the true face of Evil.

• What a tight-ass! It's not as if a vegetable garden is unsightly, or anything. If anything, vegetables are often pretty. In fact, there was once a time in which tomatoes were incorrectly thought to be poisonous, but people grew them as ornamental plants. And should I also mention decorative corn and squashes?

• I think you are onto something.

• Tell me how City Planner Kevin Rulkowski is supposed to do anything about rapists.

• Playing the devil's advocate here, this is just another story of someone who thinks they shouldn't have to follow the rules, doing whatever the hell they want to, then playing the victim when they get called on it. Someone had to say it, ya'all. Also, most govt. agencies are enforcing little-known regs BECAUSE of the depression (yeah I said it) due to the shortage of funds. They're trying to raise money. All that being said, stupid f**king law. Change that b**ch.

• maybe he was upset because she was making the rest of the town look bad by having such a nice garden instead of weeds

• Shannanigans. Lulz.

• i hope her community stands up for her, to the point of massing and physically *through peaceful protest* prevents her incarceration. this shit has got to be stopped. common sense needs to be more common again.

• leave her alone...fuck dont they have real crime to worry about...if anything ppl should follow her lead....instead of goin on welfare she is self efficient???? hat wrong with that????(in the background ...some1 gets raped again) wth find some real crime and leave ppl alone

• I agree with a good majority of the comments. Just to add though, I refuse to believe that EVERYONE is letting it get this far!!! Not only are the police getting involved, but the state government too? I can't imagine they have nothing better to do...

• I noticed that you used the term "ass" or the Czech version "azzes" over thirty-five times in your recent posts and was wondering if you enjoy a complimentary proctology exam I am offerring this week.  If you let me know what kind of narcotics and alcohol you prefer, I can have my team sent over and they can start the procedure in the van.

• LOL, Pete's right, that's totally funny.  Do you do it at night so they think it's really other ugly and poor people from their own neighborhood?

• YOU ASS HOLES THAT DELETE THE POSTS ARE GOVERNMENT SUCK ASSES TOO !!!

• RIGHT ON LAYLA, YOU TELL IT !!!!!!!!

• ok that is dumb she has a garden on her ownyard front so what if it was neat clean. to put her in jail over somthing so dang dumb wrong.

• In addition, I would bet there are many uninhabited buildings or slum lord apts. right in her area (there is at least some everwhere)  that are in violation of county code, but those places never get addressed b/c the owners are rich influential business people and/or they live far away and it's not worth tracking them down.  If she could contact her local Fair Housing Authority and bring up the fact that those people are not in the slammer, she could have a great discrimination suit against the county. 

• I think you're right.  I applaud her efforts but we grow different kinds of vegetables every year and you don't get much.  If she has kids, though, they may go a long way since we all know kids are allergic to vegetables.  I like the idea of hanging carcasses out for the city officials. I bet there  is no ordinance against that.   A friend once told us to have a hired bartender standing on our deck at all times, even if we're not drinking, just to piss off the neighbors.

• This guy needs a e coli infected vegetable shoved up his cornhole and down his throat.

• I live in Michigan. It just keeps getting worse and worse for those of us who aren't wealthy. I hope she wins this one, but I think it is all about who you know in this whole state. At least it seems like it.

• Thanks Kimbev... Good point

• This is something the ACLU should be helping her with.

• In a hungry community, i'd be afraid passers might eat up the veggies before she could get them. Hope she gets a chance to sue the rotten bastards.

• Not much of a garden.....that would be a snack for my grazing ass.....she better Ted Nugent it and supplement he food with game. She could hang her deer carcasses under her porch and butcher them out right there.

• she is not in a gated community...geesh

• not true..if she doesn't "hire" an attorney..and pleads her case in court...

• Kevin Rulkowski -Director/City Planner - office:  248.691.7450 I encourage you to call and tell him what a dick he is.  I did. http://www.oakpark-mi.com/city_directory/page04.asp  

• I think she should sue the city for wasting tax payers money this is messed up she is trying to feed her kids for goodness sakes that guy responable for letting this happen needs his but kicked

• Maybe he's strictly carnivore and her vegtable garden is insulting

• How dare the town government get involved in this ridiculous waste of time, money and infringing on this women's rights.   Her garden is neat, productive and in no way is an eye sore.  This is the typical scenario of today's society of meddlesome people making others people's lives as miserable as their own.  Leave her alone.

• Fucking ridiculous!

• Someone sounds like they;re on a power trip. What difference does it make if its on the front yard or back yard?

• If you own your property, you should be able to grow whatever the hell you want, wherever you want.  Sounds like City Planner Kevin Rulkowski is not a good boy and does not eat his veggies. 

• You cracked me up with the line about throwing rocks at ugly people, Nucking.

• I would imagine this town has a ton of homes in foreclosure with weeds growing everywhere, Cristie. Pretty much every town in the rust belt does. But I bet the city isn't hassling the banks who own them the way they're hassling this mom.

• Ridiculous!

• No good deed goes unpunished!

• well, good for her for not backing down! She'd damn well better not end up in jail or I'll whip out my voo-doo and focus on Mr. Rudepowertripski what a TOOL! Who is this idiot trying to impress anyway? Scott's Representatives must be sending him commission checks

• Morning My2!

• Hi shannanigans!

• If those boxes had flowers instead of veggies, he wouldn't say a thing about it.  This is pathetic. I've been to Detroit, half the homes are fucking boarded up. He's going to shit a brick about some tomatoes? C'mon now!

• Heyas Illy!

• morning there sunshine!!

• Come on ...now we can't grow gardens in our own front yard here in Amurica? My husband has a community one growing in the side yard. It has saved us tons already on Cucumbers, Lettuce, and Tomato....Not just us but our neighbors and family and friends..........This shit is ridiculous. It's not like she has boat motors and broke down Fords all over her front yard.

• no kidding right?!... folks trying to do right by their family and all they catch is crap... I thought it was really cool that the kids from the neighborhood come to help too, makes it a great community project on top of it.

• Bullshit. 

• Yeah, harass a lady about a freakin' vegetable garden while robbers, rapists, child molesters, and drug pushers run around free. Idiots.

• definitely sphincterific move on city planners side

• lol hell, it is not like she's growing pot out in the front yard...geesh

• She wouldn't have to if they left her ass alone and let her feed her kids.

• I personally take offense to this article.  I live in one of these gated communities and we all love it very much.  We all agree to the rules and we get together at night and roam around the "other" neighborhoods to throw rocks at the ugly and poor.  This dude needs to chill the fuck out.  It isn't like she is cultivating ragweed or exploding melons.  She should just give the judge some of her bounty and I'm sure he will make the right decision.

• Ironically, she is spending more money taking this to trail, than buying groceries, or just complying.

TotalComments: 99