Mr. Colombo's Profile

The issue is not that there is a vegetable garden in the front yard. The issue is what the neighobors and the rest of the citizens want their community to look like. If you live in a city where it's OK to have a couch on your front lawn, oh well - OK then. And if you live in a city where residents like to maintain their lawns - then that's what the majority wants. Obviously the neighbors and residents in the city felt a planter bed in the middle of the front lawn was something that didn't look right in Oak Park. Many people from all over the country commented on this from afar when it happened. But no one really listened to the residents in that City and asked them how they felt. Julie Bass, a resident in the community decided to do something that did not sit well with her neighbors and quite a number of residents. If the residents really felt she was in the right, then many could have shown up at a Council meeting to voice their support - that's the whole idea behind local rule. But none did - instead people all over the country chimed in and decided for the residents how their city should look. I'm not suggesting a community is always right, but in this instance, Julie Bass played to the media, was not willing to compromise or listen to her neighbors and stirred everyone into a frenzy. No one told Ms. Bass she could not plant a vegetable bed - all the neigbors wanted was - could it not be in the middle of the front lawn. Oak Park is an urban community right outside of Detroit - with hardworking families who take pride in how their small 1950s ranch home looks. You will find fathers, grandfathers and sons brushing off the sweat on a hot summer weekend - mowing the lawns, trimming the edges and working side by side with grandmothers, mothers and daughters planting flowers - beaming with pride that their small ranch homes are just as beautiful as the million dollar bungalows a mile away. Julie Bass planting her bed in the middle of the front lawn took that pride away - it gave this urban community that "look" - reinforcing all the stereo types of an urban city. It was not about whether vegetables can be planted in the front yard - it was all about being able to shout out to the world that you are a proud owner of a great looking home in a wonderful neighborhood.