Can't see the street for the grass

Recently in my little burgh, there's been a great debate on whether or not it should be a by-law to force homeowners to make sure the boulevards (def. 2) in front of their homes are cut regularly. Holy hell, did that ever go over well... kind of like a tonne of bricks.

For the last few years, homeowners - for the most part - have just cut the grass between the sidewalk and the street in front of their homes just because. To not do so would just be odd, I think. Prior to this - maybe 8-10 years ago - the city actually employed people, usually students, to go along with push-mowers and cut the grass. I know this because I was one of those students. I only lasted a couple of weeks, but I vividly remember having to cut 17 blocks (both sides of the street) of grass in a day. Oh, the fun.

So the mayor of this city (and I use that term loosely) decides that because 4% (or some random small percentage) of the city's boulevards aren't being taken care of by homeowners, there should be a law telling homeowners that they MUST cut the grass. In other words, the mayor wanted to force the 96% of the homeowners in this city to do something they already do, or face a penalty. Gee, Mr. Mayor, thanks for thinking the majority of the city is a bunch of incompentent fools. Oh, what's that - this debate is far more important than anything else going on in this city? Silly us.

I don't know why he couldn't have just come out and said, "Hey, citizens. I know that it's summer and sometimes we overlook the boulevards - how about you take care of those, too?" But no. Heavy-handedness is apparently the only way to deal with things in our city. But given most of the decisions that this mayor and his council have made in the recent past, not a shock at all.

Here's how I would have handled it, if I were in charge (this will be a recurring theme, I guarantee it):

• I would have tried encouraging people to take pride in their city for a change. There are few, if any, people who actually take serious pride in our city. For the most part - and I'm included in this number - people here like to bitch. ALL THE TIME.

• I would have suggested that if I was an unemployed 15 year old with access to a lawnmower, perhaps there was a business opportunity for a bit of extra cash for the summer (or for a future car). Why don't 15 year olds have lawnmowing businesses anymore?

• I would have come up with a completely new plan for dealing with this, which would incorporate Communities In Bloom. Our city (or at least, the Parks Dept.) is so hung up on this competition every year, that they put out view-impeding flower pots on the main streets. Why not take that idea - 'prettying up' the city, for lack of a better term - and work with the local greenhouses and offer citizens a grab bag of flowers, wild grasses, ornamental groundcovers for something like $20. They could use it either in their own gardens or - and this should be the real purpose - dig up the boulevard in front of their homes and replace all that grass with plants.

All he had to do was suggest that people take care of the boulevards, not be all totalitarian with this request. But, no. Yet another thing that's wrong with this city.

On the flipside to this whole 'must cut grass' story, Windsor, Ontario is going into it's 15th week of a city employee's strike. Because there's been no organized grass cutting of city property, wild grasses and flowers have returned, along with birds and wildlife that haven't been seen in the area for years. The biggest plus to this? The city has agreed to keep 100-200 acres of the natural landscape. I think it's an awesome idea and one that would never, ever fly in my city because 'it looks bad'. Yes, and grass shorn to within a millimeter of it's life, frying in the summer sun, is so beautiful.

Sigh.