As the first flakes of winter begin to fall, so do the letters to the editor about the hypocrisy of city code enforcement;
The same thing happened to an elderly friend of ours a few years ago. She was 95 years old and was out trying to clean ice off the top of her driveway with an axe and broke her wrist, all because of a city citation.
Those giving out these citations can surely tell if the walks were shoveled or not.
The same double standards apply to the citizen’s boulevards. A lot of the city boulevards are just as unsightly and dangerous as the people’s, but that is another story.
The same double standards are going to apply to the poor and middle class people this next summer with swimming. Only the rich will be able to swim in the public pools and the wonderful new indoor pool. We will be having problems with the rest of the children trying to swim and drowning in the Sioux River, The Falls, etc.
Or how any new business, church or non-profit in Sioux Falls must supply adequate parking, yet the Events Center is exempt from the rule.
In October, Sioux Falls code enforcement decided to fine and prosecute a resident on a little known ordinance (even though the mayor and city council has promised a moratorium on boulevard plantings until the ordinance is revised);
160.518Â DRIVEWAY SAFETY ZONE.
(a)Â Â Â No monument style sign or other sign with its face less than ten feet above grade or any fence, wall, shrub, evergreen or coniferous tree or other obstruction to vision exceeding three feet in height above the established street grade shall be erected, planted or maintained within the area from the curb line to ten feet behind the curb line.
The issue, the resident had 4 foot day lilies (I have heard once day lilies hit that 37″ mark they tend to attack cars driving by and small children, they have even been known to swallow fire hydrants alive). And while the city has plantings by the downtown library that exceed almost 5 feet, they waste tax dollars going after a resident, AFTER they promised a moratorium. Now that’s hypocrisy kids.
Sounds like a either a driver or a pedestrian complained to code enforcement about the 4 foot height of the day lilies being a safety concern….which gets right to the heart of the boulevard issue that is currently before the Council.
Oh, yeah, the safety issue. I have yet to hear from anyone on the council, from the SFPD or the SFFD to tell us of at least one instance in the past 4-5 years where flowers, grasses or shrubs over the height of 36″ has caused an accident or safety issue. The question has been asked. If any of these entities can produce proof that ‘tall flowers’ are making our city less safe, I may have a change of mind, but at this point, just a bunch of hyberbole.
The bigger issue is the abuse of power at especially the strong mayor level but also throughout city government. Here, a permanent monument gets confused with flowers. It seems obvious there should be cuts in city overhead and employees when several departments get involved when someone wants to plant a flower. Normally, a city employee would compromise but a third of city personnel live outside city limits. For they, because they must come to work, we (citizens of SF) get harassed.