Well, now I've had it. I can understand the need for city ordinances, I suppose. Some are for safety reasons. I do believe they are getting out of hand. I blogged on this before. We had a 12 inch snow here in Garland, Texas and had an over-zealous city worker decide to go out and apparently hit everyone one in my neighborhood for city violations on that day. My hit was for not having my house marked with 3 inch letters in the alley. Apparently there's a city ordinance that if you have an access in the rear of your house, it has to be marked with your house numbers. Since we had 12 inches of snow, it was COVERED WITH SNOW and couldn't be seen. I'm sorry, I didn't get out and SHOVEL IT OFF. I sent her a border-line nasty email, that if she went out to my alley, located my American flags, and looked directly below it, she would find my house numbers. They had been there since I bought the house almost a year ago.
Well, now I got a hit on the tree in my front yard. I have a really nice and large crepe myrtle. I actually didn't know a crepe myrtle could get this big. It's about 14 ft high, maybe 13. I'm from Missouri originally and I've only seen them about 8-10 ft high. It blooms late, compared to the rest of the neighborhood, but it's pretty. So we got a notice that it hangs too low. They wanted it trimmed to 8 ft off the sidewalk, and I could have sworn it said 8 ft off the street. So the SAME DAY that I got the notice, I was out with a manual tree trimmer, trimming my tree back. I don't know if you've seen those or not, it's a long stick that has a saw with a clip on it to clip smaller branches. I didn't actually measure it, I have to admit. I'm 5'5. I trimmed until I couldn't reach it by jumping. I know what an 8ft ceiling looks like. I put up Christmas trees. I piled everything up on the side of the street like I was supposed to do.
Yesterday I get another notice. It wasn't good enough. Apparently they got out a tape measure and actually measured it and it wasn't exactly 8 ft. We got hit for over the sidewalk not being 8 ft, and now they want it 14 ft off the street. And now there's a notice saying that if we don't take care of it "The City will take actions to correct the violations and shall place a lien against your property to recover incurred costs. Additionally municipal court tickets may be issued for non-compliance." EXCUSE ME? I did comply. I cut my tree back TWICE! We called the LADY, and believe me I use that term very loosely, and left a message that the WHOLE TREE ISN'T 14 FOOT TALL. We said to cut the tree back anymore would mean removing the whole thing.
We're tempted to cut it back to a stump and leave a notice on it saying that this is a result of the city of Garland, and leave her name, which is by the way, Deena Williams, saying that they intend to PLACE A LIEN ON OUR HOUSE because we didn't cut it back far enough.
And the bite in all this? Two houses down is another crepe myrtle in full bloom, shorter, hanging over the street and sidewalk even further than ours was. When my husband called her to leave a message he wanted to know if that house got hit. I want to know if their tree is going to get trimmed by the city and a lien put on their house for recouping the cost?
This is nothing short of bullying to get us out of the neighborhood. I call it racism. We are one of the few white faces in this neighborhood. If everyone else can play the race card, why can't I? Maybe it's because I'm a republican. Maybe it's because I made a stand for my country. But, you see, I'm not a victim like everyone one else. Even though they try real hard to make one a victim. I'm a fighter. And a little bit of a smart Alec. I'm more for taking the whole tree down. I see where they're coming from. My property starts on the other side of the sidewalk, so they feel they have a "right" to do whatever they want. So I have a right to cut the tree down and make it look ugly. I didn't plant it, so I'm not attached to it. My neighbor across the alley did stop and help me trim it, but that was before I saw the lien notice. I wasn't worked up. He claims Deena is a nice lady if you get to know her. I claim, I don't want to get to know her. Not if she's gonna put a lien on my house for not trimming a tree enough the first time. She sounds like my MIL....nothing is ever good enough....a control freak. Another government official with a little power that went to her head.
We have got to shrink ALL government All government in these United States have gotten too big. It's a total shame when the largest employer is the government. When government jobs make more money than the private sector for the same job. Shrink the monster before they take all our property away.
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