[Got an anonymous confession or rant you just have to share with the world? Submit it to I, Anonymous HERE!—eds]
Here a bush, there a bush, everywhere your damn overgrown bushes! We all know you love to garden, and we’re all “impressed” with the 10,000 different species of vegetation you’ve packed into your front yard and planting strip. But, now that it’s grown all summer, it’s time to get those clippers out, and go trim ALL of the damn shrubs, bushes, and branches that are clogging the sidewalk, making it almost impossible for me to walk by your house.
Portland, it’s time to stop hating on people who use baby strollers and wheelchairs. It’s time to show kindness to pedestrians. TRIM YOUR DAMN BUSHES!
It’s called a public right of way for a reason, and the public has a right to use it for access to getting to things; like our jobs, the grocery store, brunch, and the record store. It IS your right to recreate the Portlandia version of the Amazon Rainforest in your front yard – but NOT if it starts to BLOCK THE SIDEWALK.
If there is any progressive ideal we can all agree on, and rally behind, it should be access. Let people walk down the sidewalk without being assaulted by your shrubbery!
If you want to get into the “weeds” about it, the city has codes for this kind of thing-
“Vertical Tree Clearance:
Tree limbs and vegetation must clear sidewalks by at least 7.5 feet (and higher over streets) per Portland’s Street Visibility & Clearance Guidelines.
All public sidewalks shall have a minimum clear area for pedestrian passage of 5 feet. On all arterial and commercial streets, and in the Central City Business District, a minimum of 6 feet of unobstructed sidewalk area shall be maintained. The total clear pedestrian passage shall not include the width of the adjacent curb.“
Wait, what’s that I hear?
It’s your Compost Bin!:
“FEED ME!”—Anonymous