It seems to me that the stated code of 6" tall grass for private homes and 12" tall grass codes for commercial property, as I read from the city website, seems a bit arbitrary. In a drought prone area, as ours, I think it prudent to let the grass grow closer to the 12" tall spectrum, maybe 9" to 14" before cutting it. St. Augustine and bermuda grasses, as my yard is, hardly reach such heights in a hot summer, without considerable effort.
If we were talking about 4' tall johnson grass too thick to walk through, I could see the health hazard (rats and mice) and the need to get serious about cutting it in a city environment. However, I've never seen St. Augustine grass over 9 1/2" tall in my life. I actually grow mondo grass in my flower beds that I grow to the same height. And unless I water at every opportunity, my bermuda grass falls down to about 3" at most.
I think we should revisit such code enforcement to be based on all the facts, including the forced carbon footprint that mowing to such low levels requires of our citizens, not just blanket violence imposed upon the once free citizens of our community.
And if you think this through, from a Tolstoyan-Gandhian perspective, that code enforcement person who comes out to hassle you about your 7" tall St. Augustine has a badge that is backed up by a gun that is only a phone call away. That is the powerful empowering the powerful (government) to threaten murder against you for an inch or two of St. Augustine grass. That's the coarseness of our society in ten thousand different ways, the death of that good feeling you once had to have lived in a free society. And that is the violence that I am running for Texas Governor to redirect away from our good citizens.
Most respectfully,
Gene Chapman,
Tolstoyan-Gandhian Libertarian Candidate for Texas Governor
(Endorsed by Dr. Noam Chomsky, Intellectual of the Age)
ChapmanForTexasGovernor2014.com
gkchapman2012@hotmail.com
P. S. And consider the unfairness intrinsic to the law that imposes a threat of murder for the private home owner at the 6" tall St. Augustine grass threshold while allowing the owner of the local Burger King to not be threatened with murder under law until the 12" threshold. I think the citizens of our town should demand equal murder threats under law from our city government.
P. S. And consider the unfairness intrinsic to the law that imposes a threat of murder for the private home owner at the 6" tall St. Augustine grass threshold while allowing the owner of the local Burger King to not be threatened with murder under law until the 12" threshold. I think the citizens of our town should demand equal murder threats under law from our city government.
