Election Section

Are horticultural freedom of expression and Mother Nature both currently outlawed by the vegetation section of the “blight” ordinance of the City of Oakland? This highly intrusive law needs to be severely pruned back to allow a breath of horticultural freedom in Oakland.  

The present wording of this ordinance actually encourages local busybodies and bullies to complain to city officials about neighboring properties. Many of Oakland’s other laws encourage freedom, diversity, civil liberties and the respect for differing opinions and attitudes of others. However, this blight ordinance encourages conformity and uniformity and rewards bigotry and prejudice in the suppression of neighbors landscaping of their own yards and gardens. 

Arbitrary city rules limit heights, trimming, types and character of yard and garden plantings by Oakland residents. Neighbors are even allowed to snoop and peer into neighboring backyards from their upstairs windows and then report your alleged horticultural peccadilloes to city officials, even though the backyards are completely hidden from public view. This system of informants smacks of the totalitarian tactics used in the former communist regime in East Germany.  

If you are a gardener who respects and encourages Mother Nature, your efforts may be labeled as “blight” by the City of Oakland and then summarily trashed and destroyed. Under this blight ordinance, the city has voted itself vast police powers to secretly observe, document, photograph and track the appearance of your yard and garden. Busybody neighbors can call into city officials and complain about the appearance of your yard and garden. This is the rule of Others, with the concept of “private property” being tossed out. After sending you a written notice of complaint, the city can then send in private contractors to “clean up” your yard.  

In the case of my Rockridge home, the title is still in the name of my late parents, who lived out of town and who both passed away some two years ago. So when the city mailed their notices to the “property owner of record,” they were never forwarded to me since the one-year post office forwarding order had already expired. It is funny though that the Alameda County property tax bills from the same county recorder’s office have been arriving to my address in fine form. (Incidentally, I have been paying the property taxes promptly.) Obviously, the method of notifying owners and residents about possible property blight violations needs to be broadened to ensure that all interested and responsible parties have been contacted. 

On Friday, Oct. 14, a half-dozen men from a contracting “debris removal” service showed up unannounced and began trashing my yard and gardens. My protests were to no avail; I was told by the supervisor of the group to “call the City of Oakland.” What a Kafkaesque nightmare. I called the Oakland police, my City Council representative and left messages with several city officials. Meanwhile I anxiously stayed in my house while this crew devastated my yard and gardens for several hours. They were armed with chain saws, pruning shears and weed whackers. Many fine healthy specimen ornamental plants were severely pruned, debarked or killed and tromped on by this crew of ignorant workers. It took several days for me to find out what had happened and why I never received any written warning.  

Killed in the front yard: Blue Dawn perennial morning glories, fuchsia, acacia, roses, lavender, black bamboos, Himalayan blackberry, licorice plant, pink rockroses and a black cherry tree.  

Killed in the back yard: Anise Hyssop, avocado seedlings, Bartlett pear, blue gums, blue gum seedlings, scarlet-flowered gum seedling‚ pignut hickory, cardoon, a dozen cherry tomato plants, chives, feverfew, hydrangea, Himalayan blackberry, coast live oak seedlings, loquat seedlings, nasturtium, parsley, peppermint, red Gravenstein apple seedling, spearmint, thread agave, yarrow and a white Dr. Van Fleet rose.  

Severely pruned in the front yard: agave, bamboo, bottlebrushes, tulip tree, jade plant, Pride of Madeira, ferns, golden dewdrop, Abraham Lincoln rose, heavenly bamboo, salvia, pink pussy willows, sago palm, cabbage palm and English hawthorn.  

Severely pruned in the back yard: toyon, jade plant, lapin cherry, Santa Rosa plums, Fuji apples, braeburn apples, akane apples, Royal Blenheim apricots, kangaroo paw, rosemary, foxglove, ivy, blackberries, rhubarb, cardinal flowers, wire vine and even a potted scented geranium. 

Now my yard looks devastated; no natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina hit here, just the City of Oakland and its sloppy careless hired contractor workers. Were the many plants that were either killed outright or severely pruned all considered fire hazards, aesthetic threats to a conformist mentality? The Rockridge-area property values are already obscenely high; surely my front yard landscaping did not present a threat to them. Or was this invasion and destruction of my yard payback for my several-year front windowpane postings of protest signs against the illegitimate Bush regime and its dirty war on Iraq?  

I believe that it is the right of any Oakland resident to make their landscaping bird-friendly. Hummingbirds, bushtits, house finches, scrub jays, English sparrows, brown towhees used the hawthorne tree, the tulip tree, fuchsia and coyote brush for roosting, perching and as sources of insects. I believe that horticultural and landscaping is part of our freedom of speech and is thus protected by the U.S. Constitution. The vegetation section of the Oakland blight ordinance needs severe pruning. Oakland gardeners need a horticultural and landscaping Bill of Rights. If you would like to help in this matter, please contact me. I’m in the book and on the web.  

James K. Sayre is an Oakland resident.