Why did this woman’s native plant garden lead to $2,000 in fines and four court appearances after the town gave her money to plant it? #NewYork #garden #gardening #gardeningideas
Why did one woman’s native plant garden lead to $2,000 in fines and four court appearances after the town gave her $500 to plant it? That is Sheiling Jang. The county next to her, Suffel County, has had the highest rate of pesticide use in New York State. As a result, for years, algel blooms and dead zones have gotten worse. To reduce these problems, the town of North Hempstead, where she lives, set up a $500 rebate program encouraging people to grow native plant gardens. Native plants are lowmaintenance, pesticidefree. They provide food for pollinators and need minimal water. The state even has a 10-page list of what to grow. So, Sheilene did research, designed a garden, and worked with town experts to put something together, which cost about 4 grand. She grows 20 different plant species, including multiple milkweeds, sunflowers, indigos, you name it. I’d love my garden to be like this, but in the village of New Hyde Park, apparently all their crime is solved. So, now they’re policing your property. Here’s the thing. Sheile lives in the town of North Hemstead, but she also lives within the village of New Hyde Park. North Hemstead encouraged her garden, but New Hide Park has rules against it. Apparently, some neighborhood Karen reported her for not maintaining her yard and having plants over 6 ft high. New Hid Park, which has its own beautifification committee sent her a summon. Apparently, her garden violated village code because she didn’t notify them of the change. Mayor Christopher Deain, whose yard looks like this and is the apparent self-appointed expert in garden aesthetics, even said that front yard looks hideous. Over the next nine months, Sheilene had to go to court four times. She noticed 90% of the people there were minorities, Chinese, Indian, Hispanic, who don’t speak much English, don’t know the complex codes, and have trouble navigating the overlapping jurisdictions. Since this was her first violation, the village threatened her with fines up to $2,000, but penalties can go as high as 10 grand. Sheilene said no. She showed proof of documents and even pointed out her yard has native plants like Highline Park, but they wanted everything gone. Then they said, “Move it to your backyard.” And by the third visit, demanded to see her garden plants. So at her fourth court appearance and to get it over with, she proposed moving the really tall plants to the back and keeping the front yard under 4t high. It helps her avoid fines for now, but if plants hit 50 in, she could feel the wrath of the master grower. I mean career lawyer turn judge turn mayor. Who wants to know which property would you like to live next door to? I don’t know. Maybe the lady with beautiful wild flowers and not some dead crab grass overgrown pesticide laden lawn.
30 Comments
the dude in the background on his porch being judgy. lol I hope Sheling is able to keep her native plant garden.
The problem is, these types of gardens are really ugly. She's doing good work, but the result is an ugly garden. My mum is like this as well. And the plants are nearly as high as my head. The logic here is the plants come first over looks.
All you had to say was new Hyde park, that literally explained the stupidity
land of the free!
The amount of time and resources wasted for court hearings over plants and grass is wild
No idea, but you are maga. So no need to look for sense in what you are saying😂
Burn the mayor's house down.
Burn down every home that belongs to HOA.
The mayor's house looks like a golf course. Golf courses are beyond evil.
Half of his grass is yellow and all he has is evergreen shrubs! How fucking boring! I bet his closet is entirely grey and white as well.
HOAs should be abolished and the control freaks who run them should be in prison.
the manicured lawn – which dates back to 300 years old snobby aristocracy who maintained it with indentured servants – was intended to be jarringly unnatural. it was a symbol of having so much wealth that you can just throw it away maintaining a constantly harvested and maintained field of a crop you cant eat.
this should have stopped being normal like at least 50 years ago, genuinely baffling that its still a norm that nobody ever thinks twice about, its just something everyone has to do
always remember to remind your landlords and HOA boards that they are an active detriment to society and they should do something else with their lives
In my neighborhood, there is an informal agreement among the neighbors that every property will have a patch of wildflowers so the bees can do their thing. Everyone seems to follow it (though in different ways).
She don’t need garden or go to court. She need a machine gun
Mi casa is not your casa. Abolish the HOA.
The dude’s lawn looks fine for the winter/offseason, so your roast there didn’t land. Not sure how you can say it’s overrun by crabgrass, yet you show a wintertime photo when none of the grass is green- ironically including crabgrass which does not appear at all in colder months. Her yard looks like a jungle, and is not at all “beautiful”. She also failed to check her jurisdictions and local laws, which is nobody’s fault but her own. As with every US citizen, you are under federal law, state law, county ordinances, and, if applicable, city/town ordinances. She failed to check those, but that doesn’t exempt her from any of them- as with anyone residing in the US.
This is horrible. Our town burned literally. I bought property wanted to rebuild. Taxes paid improvements made. My 5th is warm and cozy but its in my neighbor's yard because my county says i took to long. Im living in my car now. My county officials prefer this. Im 53 waiting on my ssdi insurance 3 years now. City government can do want they want. Thank goodness she has you.
Yard Nazis!
Code Enforcement is almost as bad as ICE
You really need to stop with the stupid HOA stuff.
Y'all are insane over there, oppressing using stupid rules that turn a county into a homogenous waste land.
I give her credit for spending time figuring out how to pronounce her last name!
I think she should run for his job.
They are doing it because it’s better for the environment
This is just a disgusting, overreaching power-grab typical of that controlling area. I'd literally rather live in a crime-ridden area like Portland, Chicago, or Detroit and take my life in my hands 24/7 than live in such a nice area controlled by ridiculous nosy-ass neighbors and government officials who annoy and fine people for beautifying their own property. Just disgusting and without reason or purpose.
OMG….
Can't people just mind their own business
We really arent going to make it as a civilisation are we, we are just all going to choke to on regulations made by morons until we cant function and die.
Normally, I wouldn't agree with a hard left leaning channel like @ReasonTV, but truth be told, this one I can get behind.
His grass doesnt even look good
Is Xilin Zhang ok now? If not, is there any way we can help her? She doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment!
Thank you for shedding light on the monster Kevin hating on the lady and her native garden. Throw the word “native” in there n it’s a wrap smh. “Home of the free” my behind.