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Received: 109/16 Given: 65/4 |
Where I live our community will do the same thing
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...40717?irpc=932
(Reuters) - A Southern California couple who scaled back watering their lawn amid the state's drought received a warning from the suburb where they live that they might be fined for creating an eyesore - despite emergency statewide orders to conserve.
Michael Korte and Laura Whitney, who live near Los Angeles in Glendora, said on Thursday they received a letter from the city warning they had 60 days to green up their partially brown lawn or pay a fine ranging from $100 to $500.
"I don't think it's right for us to start pouring water into our lawn in the middle of July during a drought," said Whitney. "We're kind of in a quandary about what to do."
The letter, bearing the official symbols of Glendora and its police department, came the same week that statewide water regulators passed emergency drought restrictions for outdoor water use. Those regulations, to take effect this August, require cities to demand cutbacks in water use, and empower them to fine residents up to $500 for overwatering their lawns.
California is in the third year of an extreme drought that is expected to cost the state an estimated $2.2 billion and more than 17,000 agricultural jobs. Democratic Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in January.
In Glendora, City Manager Chris Jeffers said the city did encourage conservation, but that Korte's and Whitney's lawn was in such bad shape that it was reported as possibly abandoned.
"We were responding to a complaint that we received of a possible abandoned property," Jeffers said. "Crews visited and determined it was not abandoned, but not kept. The landscape was dead and there were large areas of just dirt."
Instead of citing the couple, he said, officials opted to leave a letter explaining that conserving water did not mean abandoning the landscape.
"Conservation does not mean neighborhoods need to deteriorate because property owners want (the) landscape to die or go unmaintained," he said.
Glendora's action provoked a strong response from state environmental officials, who said such moves undermined conservation efforts.
“Throughout the state, Californians are making serious efforts every day to cut their water use during this extreme drought," said Amy Norris, spokeswoman for the California Environmental Protection Agency. "These efforts to conserve should not be undermined by the short-sighted actions of a few local jurisdictions, who chose to ignore the statewide crisis we face."
(Reporting by Jennifer Chaussee in San Francisco; Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney)
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Received: 4/0 Given: 1/0 |
This is so stupid considering the city is going through a drought and water needs to be conserved. I'm all for taking care of the outside of your house but during a freaken drought some things need to take a backseat. More important things than making sure the grass is green.
They could just spray paint the grass green though lol.
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Received: 1/0 Given: 0/0 |
This is the kind of story that makes me want to crawl up into a little ball and hide from society for the rest of my life. People are more concerned about their lawns and appearances then actually developing redeemable traits. Things looking nice isn't a bad thing at all, but the degree to which we as a society, especially in America, give it importance is devastating. All that wasted time and energy could be used towards much more productive means.
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Received: 11/0 Given: 6/1 |
Loob.
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Received: 1/0 Given: 0/0 |
That is so absurd! What has our government come to? They should sue the government for harassment!
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Received: 109/16 Given: 65/4 |
We almost gone fined for not cutting grass lmao
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Received: 15/1 Given: 3/14 |
Well, here's another example of something that makes absolutely no sense. I live in California, and the drought is pretty bad. There's no reason people should have to keep their lawns green with how little water the state actually has within its boundaries.
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Received: 56/2 Given: 57/0 |
Cali' loves the grass.
Ahahahahaha...ha...ha...ha...
Nobody?
'K.
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Received: 1/1 Given: 8/0 |
Going to jail for something as small and simple as grass?! SERIOUSLY CALIFORNIA?! Come on now! How many more absolutely ridiculous laws are going to be legitimate in this damn country?!
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Received: 13/1 Given: 6/0 |
Jesus.. >.> They would not get away with that down here. Some of the lawns I see are just nasty.
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Received: 109/16 Given: 65/4 |
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Received: 13/1 Given: 6/0 |
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Received: 8/0 Given: 11/1 |
That's crazy. I thought California was doing the opposite and fining people for wasting water on their lawns. I might be wrong though. Glad I don't have to deal with that drought stuff over here where I live.
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Received: 0/0 Given: 0/0 |
HOAs are fucking awful. I previously rented a house in a nicer area of my city and I could never get them off my ass. It was always something incredibly trivial too like a friend dropping by after work and leaving his truck out in the open too long or I hadn't cut my grass in the right way or something that wasn't even my problem was an issue or ARGH.
Watering a lawn in California though is incredibly stupid with a drought. I'd fight that in court and wouldn't think twice about it.