Gazette Editor Questions City Role On Curb Weed

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One of the editors at the Janesville Gazette posted a complaint editorial with a photo showing a singular three foot tall weed that appears to be growing out of the joints between the curb and the road surface, and questions whether or not it is the city’s responsibility. No kidding.

JG Blog Excerpt:
Don’t these weeds violate city ordinance?
Is this the city's responsibility, or is the owner of the adjacent parking lot responsible?

Don’t these weeds violate city ordinance? Why they sure do, but only if they are growing on private property.

Is this the city’s responsibility??

The city is not responsible for tall grass or noxious weeds growing anywhere because the city government has exempted itself from the same laws they impose on their own residents.

In a section titled site planning and maintenance standards under the Janesville Noxious Weeds Ordinance is this little statement.

Excerpt:
5. This section shall not apply to properties owned by governmental entities or where federal, state or local regulations provide otherwise.

So while you’re out there on your hands and knees pulling and bagging thousands of invasive garlic mustard sprouts from your yard and spraying dangerous herbicides and other poisons that eventually find their way into the Rock River and groundwater aquifers, the city’s own parks and right-of-ways of Garlic Mustard, Pigweed and Dandelions are packing their bags full of seed just waiting for the next windy ride into your yard. They have diplomatic immunity.

One has to wonder how backwards we've become as a society when government demands its citizens to adhere to restrictive ordinances and laws that are designed to hinder a natural growing landscape on private property. And we comply. Nature needs a permit to grow while we exhaust fossil fuels to comb a lawn or praise the cosmetic appearance of a chemically controlled garden. Good grief!

Sure, this all seems so trivial - to be analyzing a complaint about weeds when there are a multitude of economic challenges facing the city. But last year the city administration amended several ordinances with new language that not only exempts the city from following its own laws (that happened to include the noxious weed ordinance), it also allowed the city to trespass onto private property without a court order. The city council approved of such tactics. That was by far more obnoxious than some plant growing in a city parking stall. Where was the newspaper when it really mattered?

When it comes to most of its own ordinances, Janesville city government is simply above the law.