Trash behind the Caveman Bridge Northeast parapet

Grants Pass shouldn't ban outdoor pot growing

A pot plant in deep leaf mulch, the best for stopping weeds and feeding soil

Honorable Councilors and Manager:

I read inthe Daily Courier that you want to make it illegal to grow marijuana outdoors in Grants Pass, even in a greenhouse. 

You say that it’s because some people can’t stand the smell.  There are other plants that stink, some powerfully.  Not all pot plants stink of skunk.  Some are piney; some smell like perfume; some have little odor.  And a properly vented greenhouse can send most of the smell over people’s heads.  If you want to control plants with noxious odors, you could do a nuisance ordinance forbidding plants that emit noxious odors outside the property.  Or tell people it’s a civil matter; take the neighbor to court (as you do with theft and kidnapping!)

Growing 4 large, full-sun plants indoors is difficult, hard on a house, takes a room most people don’t have, and is expensive, with grow lights and electricity that will compete with air conditioners for power on the grid.  Why should we have to buy powerful lights and electricity when we have sunlight?  Why should we have to buy expensive filters for the very necessary ventilation of grow rooms?

You want to make it illegal for poor people to grow pot.  It is no comfort that our police chief says that it will be enforced by complaint only.  That only allows for unequal enforcement of the law.  We already get almost no enforcement against litter and weeds in poor neighborhoods, where it is dangerous to complain anyways, about things that are obvious to anyone who looks. 

Poor people who are afraid to complain about their neighbors will get no protection from this law, and can expect no protection when our complaints about trash and weeds are ignored.  The auditors you hired told you that enforcement by complaint isn’t enforcement; doesn’t work; and is unfair to citizens.  But you’ve ignored them, too.

Likewise, the legislature passed a law allowing medical marijuana dispensaries, but you won’t allow them.  We passed Measure 91 to allow us to grow our own and buy it in stores, and you fight it every inch of the way.  Do you wonder why we don’t trust our local governments, and why the county levy failed again?

If you pass such an ordinance, we will ignore it.  Many won’t even know about it….

(I ran out of time, with two sentences left).

How police can restore our trust

Open letter to police and their superiors:

Honorable Public Servants,

          Police across the country are asking us how to restore trust in police and the governments they serve.  You can start with how you talk and write about us. 

Stop calling us males and females!  We are men, women, boys and girls, simple words that convey not only our gender, but whether we are adults or children, and our humanity.  Any animal and some plants are male or female.  Only people are men, women, boys and girls.

Don’t call us subjects.  We are people, person in the singular.  Calling us subjects makes us either a topic or inferior to our public servants, not people equal in right.  We are subject to the law, not to the people who enforce it, who are also subject to it.

Don’t call me an individual, which only means one, not even one person but one thing, and takes 5 syllables to do it.  The longer the word, the less it touches our hearts and changes our minds.

These words not only dehumanize us, they take the humanity and drama out of reports of our conduct.  When writing reports, you should feel and convey the humanity of the people you are writing about and the drama of our actions and yours, using few and simple words to do it.

We may not think about the words you use about us, but we feel excluded by them just the same.  You probably don’t think about the way they exclude us and elevate you, but the words you use show and affect how you think about us.

Enforce the law equally against and in favor of us all.  Unequal enforcement and protection of the law angers us even more than how you speak about us, because we think about it.

For instance, it takes at least two people in many cases for a piece of litter to hit the ground and stay there: the person who dropped it and the one who lets it lie on his property.  Sometimes they are the same person.  But the person who dropped it is likely to be cited if you see one drop it in public, while the one who lets it lie on his property until it rots is rarely even warned to clean it up, though the offense is ongoing and obvious.  What’s more, the one who dropped it is only likely to be cited if the person looks poor.

Enforce codes against property neglect as you go about your business, and do not make citizens do your job of complaining about disorder.  Unlike barking dogs and parking too long on the street, the offense is ongoing and obvious to all; citizen complaints are unnecessary. 

Enforcement of property maintenance codes by citizen complaint is unfair to the citizens who pay you to enforce the law.  It is particularly unfair to the poor, because complaining about a neighbor’s property in a poor neighborhood can be dangerous.  When poor people complain about property neglect, we get blown off, belittled, and sometimes threatened or attacked by the offender.  When rich people complain about a neighbor violating code, they get enforcement. 

Much has been said about the abuses of “Broken Windows” policing, and the superiority of Community Policing.  But both policing theories are featured in the same article, “Broken Windows,” by James Q. Wilson, published in the New Yorker in 1982.  In it, he started out writing about how unrepaired broken windows cause more vandalism and theft, and that a broken window on a car will cause it to be battered and stripped in a city where it would otherwise be respected.  He moves on to how people are more satisfied with police that walk their neighborhoods and talk to them instead of driving around in their cars. 

But he never mentions the disorderly neglect that gets a disorderly person to break the first window in an abandoned building: weeds and litter.  And he goes on to tell us that police should control disorderly street people by unequal enforcement of nuisance codes, concentrating on vagrants, prostitutes, and drug dealers.

We got Community Policing in the ‘90s, encouraged by federal grants for more police.  It went away after the grants ended, and you moved on to just oppressing street people and drug dealers.  The property bubble that started growing during the ‘90s allowed bankers, developers and speculators to take over our city governments and stop enforcement of property maintenance codes, allowing them to hold vacant lots without the expense of maintenance until they got the price they wanted.  Some never got that price, and those lots still grow and spread nuisance and noxious weeds and collect litter.  So do businesses whose owners don’t care to keep their lots clean.

The true function of government is to keep order, and its means are the necessary evil of nagging, backed up by force: fines and jail.  Rights are necessary evils, allowed and defended by governments to keep people from being so oppressed that they revolt.  

Street drug dealing and prostitution are created by bans on drugs and prostitution, laws that create disorderly black markets.   Repeal the bans and the prescription system; allow drugs and casual sex to be sold, regulated, and taxed like any other product or service; and street selling will stop.  Enforce and obey city and county codes against litter and weeds, and  disorderly people will not find the disorderly habitat that encourages disorderly conduct.

Talk and write about us as people, not things.  Enforce property and nuisance codes against rich and poor alike.  Repeal laws that create disorderly black markets that pull our children away from honest work in favor of risky riches.  Do these things, and we will love and trust our governments.

City: Give businesses a level playing field

Litter at Walmart, 8:00 AM, 2-16-15

It is sometimes said that enforcing city codes “provides a level playing field” for businesses.  What does this mean?

A playing field with goal posts has to be level from end to end or one team would be running uphill to score, while the other would be running downhill and would have a built-in advantage.  So it is when property nuisance codes are not enforced.  One business spends the time and money it takes to keep its property clean and orderly, while another doesn’t spend it, and can price its products or services a little cheaper and attract more customers.

You might think that customers would be offended by litter and weeds.  That might be the case with businesses selling luxuries like hot tubs.  But customers of big-box and convenience stores are not so offended that they don’t shop.  Big box stores aim their advertising at people more concerned with price than orderly appearances, and convenience store customers care most about convenience; they won’t drive around, looking for a neater, safer-looking store.  Bars serve customers who are generally more disorderly and create more litter; butts scattered around the entrance don’t deter them.

As our city has become more weedy and littered, many of us have become used to it, stopped seeing it, and cleanliness has lost its value as advertising.  Visitors who come from cleaner places usually don’t say anything, but they also don’t come back.  Industries thinking about moving here think again, because we don’t look industrious.  But litter and weeds look good to call centers that depend on people desperate for any work they can get.

Walmart, front of store, 2-16-15

We have two big box grocery stores next to each other, with another soon to move in nearby.  The first one, Fred Meyer, was fairly neat, having regular employees picking up litter during the day.  Walmart has a crew come in every two weeks to clean up litter, apparently at night when it is harder to see but there are few cars in the way.  Between visits, it gets quite littered.  When asked why, they said that they have too much business to keep up.

Fred Meyer, next to the bottle return

Fred Meyer started slacking off on its cleaning in the last year and is now nearly as littered as Walmart.  Our new big-box home improvement store, Home Depot, has been rather littered since it opened, and is littered even inside their store.  It is surrounded by weeds, though they sell landscape maintenance equipment.  Winco is coming; will they copy Walmart too?

 Old litter in shrubs at Home Depot, 2-16-15

 Litter inside Home Depot

Litter in the weeds surrounding Home Depot's parking lot, 2-16-15

Big corporations do nothing that local police don’t make them do when it comes to maintaining cleanliness and order.  They set the tone for landscape maintenance in our city by default.  Ask our police to enforce our standard, and provide the clean, level playing field that we need for all businesses.

Grants Pass Property Nuisance Codes:

5.12.050 Weed, Grass, Snow and Ice Removal.

1. No owner or person in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on a public sidewalk or right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk may permit:

A. Snow to remain on the sidewalk for a period longer than the first two hours of daylight after the snow has fallen.

B. Ice to cover or remain on the sidewalk, after the first two hours of daylight after the ice has formed. Such person shall remove ice accumulating on the sidewalk or cover the ice with sand, ashes, or other suitable material to assure safe travel. (Ord. 2901 §9, 1960)

C. Weeds or grass from growing or remaining on the sidewalk for a period longer than two weeks or consisting of a length greater than 6 inches.

2. Property owners and persons in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk shall be responsible for the maintenance of said right of way, including but not limited to: keeping it free from weeds; watering and caring for any plants and trees planted herein; maintaining any groundcover placed by the City; maintaining any groundcover as required by  other sections of the Municipal Code or the Grants Pass Development Code. (Ord. 5380 § 18, 2006)

5.12.060 Weeds and Noxious Growth.

No owner or person in charge of property may permit weeds or other noxious vegetation to grow upon his property. It is the duty of an owner or person in charge of property to cut down or to destroy weeds or other noxious vegetation from becoming unsightly, or from becoming a fire hazard, or from maturing or going to seed. (Ord. 2901 §10, 1960)

5.12.070 Scattering Rubbish.

No person may throw, dump, or deposit upon public or private property, and no person may keep on private property, any injurious or offensive substance or any kind of rubbish, (including but not limited to garbage, trash, waste, refuse, and junk), appliances, motor vehicles or parts thereof, building materials, machinery, or any other substance which would mar the appearance, create a stench, or detract from the cleanliness or safety of such property, or would be likely to injure any animal, vehicle, or person traveling upon any public way. (Ord. 2901 §11, 1960; Ord. 4397 §1, 1981) (Ord. 5379 § 18, 2006) 

Special February protest issue, sold at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Pass this leaflet to the City Grants Pass, or call.  Write a letter to really impress them.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener        541-955-9040           rycke@gardener.com

City: Enforce Our Codes; Give Us Order

Behind the parapet of the Caveman Bridge on Riverside Inn property, 9-13-14

We have long had a problem with law enforcement in our city and county, long before the federal government stopped subsidizing our county with timber cutting and grants.   Petty theft was rampant long before we had to start releasing inmates from our jail. 

One reason is the disorder that the city has tolerated for decades.  Disorderly criminals know that they can do what they wish on a neglected property, because no one cares about it.  They build their disorderly habitat by littering, and target disorderly places for camping, vandalism, and theft.

We recently had a public safety performance audit.  The auditor made a point that the city must enforce its property maintenance codes; that enforcement by complaint is not enforcement, does not work, and is unfair to citizens who hire police to enforce laws; and police and firemen should notice and report violations as they go about their work.

City police seem to think that they need special permission from the Council to enforce laws that are already on our books.  Our City Charter mandates that the City Manager enforce all city codes.  Police have all the authority that they need from the Council and citizens; they don’t have the authority to ignore our codes and our Charter. 

Our property maintenance codes are among our nuisance codes and development codes.  The nuisance code provides for abatement when the City Manager determines that a nuisance exists.  It doesn’t have to be considered a safety hazard any more, as it was recently changed by the Council.  The admin fee for abatement was also raised to 20%.   

This should be sufficient signal from the Council that they want the codes fully enforced.  But the city apparently still cites and abates only when a nuisance is determined to be a safety hazard, and still doesn’t bother to warn property owners or residents before officers consider it worth abating, even telling the offenders that there is no violation when violation is obvious and has been complained about.  They don’t appear to cite and abate any businesses or vacant lots, but only residential properties and smaller lots near residences.

The city should warn people when they are in violation of our code while it is easy to clean up, and stop hazards from developing.  They should start with litter, a word not mentioned in the code, but which is obviously included in it.  If the city would stop tolerating trash on the ground and warn us to clean it up, it would be cleaned up within a week, or a month for those who insist in being cited.

Special January protest issue, at GPlittercleaner.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Pass this leaflet to the City Grants Pass, or call.  Write a letter to really impress them.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener             541-955-9040               rycke@gardener.com

Grants Pass Property Nuisance Codes:

5.12.050 Weed, Grass, Snow and Ice Removal.

1. No owner or person in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on a public sidewalk or right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk may permit:

A. Snow to remain on the sidewalk for a period longer than the first two hours of daylight after the snow has fallen.

B. Ice to cover or remain on the sidewalk, after the first two hours of daylight after the ice has formed. Such person shall remove ice accumulating on the sidewalk or cover the ice with sand, ashes, or other suitable material to assure safe travel. (Ord. 2901 §9, 1960)

C. Weeds or grass from growing or remaining on the sidewalk for a period longer than two weeks or consisting of a length greater than 6 inches.

2. Property owners and persons in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk shall be responsible for the maintenance of said right of way, including but not limited to: keeping it free from weeds; watering and caring for any plants and trees planted herein; maintaining any groundcover placed by the City; maintaining any groundcover as required by  other sections of the Municipal Code or the Grants Pass Development Code. (Ord. 5380 § 18, 2006)

5.12.060 Weeds and Noxious Growth.

No owner or person in charge of property may permit weeds or other noxious vegetation to grow upon his property. It is the duty of an owner or person in charge of property to cut down or to destroy weeds or other noxious vegetation from becoming unsightly, or from becoming a fire hazard, or from maturing or going to seed. (Ord. 2901 §10, 1960)

5.12.070 Scattering Rubbish.

No person may throw, dump, or deposit upon public or private property, and no person may keep on private property, any injurious or offensive substance or any kind of rubbish, (including but not limited to garbage, trash, waste, refuse, and junk), appliances, motor vehicles or parts thereof, building materials, machinery, or any other substance which would mar the appearance, create a stench, or detract from the cleanliness or safety of such property, or would be likely to injure any animal, vehicle, or person traveling upon any public way. (Ord. 2901 §11, 1960; Ord. 4397 §1, 1981) (Ord. 5379 § 18, 2006) 

Big Business, help us keep order

We have a problem with keeping public order in Grants Pass and Josephine County.  Our voters have so far refused to pass a law enforcement levy for Josephine County.  While we have plenty of police officers in Grants Pass, we are short on guards for our county jail, prosecutors to enforce minor violations, and juvenile justice beds, and will be short at least until we pass a levy.  If we don’t pass one, public order will only deteriorate further.

Thanks to the property bubble and its decades-long dominance of our city government by developers and bankers, our property maintenance codes have not been enforced at the nuisance level in years, and safety hazards are enforced mainly against homeowners.  Enforcement was greatly weakened in 2006 when our then-City-Manager David Frasher stopped police and firemen from noticing and warning against property neglect and started a Code Enforcement department, soon called Community Service, which is the place where property nuisance complaints go to die.

We have recently had a public safety performance audit.  One of its findings was that property maintenance codes must be fully enforced; enforcement by complaint is not enforcement and is not fair to the citizens; and police and firemen should notice property neglect and report it to Community Service/Code Enforcement.  But the ship of government is slow to turn, and our public order and safety is in critical condition now. 

Enforcement of maintenance codes creates a level playing field for businesses to compete while keeping their properties neat, clean and safe.  Non-enforcement creates unfair competition from those who do not maintain their properties and creates the disorderly habitat that criminals prefer.  Large businesses with large parking lots set the tone for property maintenance for smaller businesses, and have an outsized influence on the people who shop in such stores, getting them accustomed to litter and weeds.

Please do not wait for Grants Pass to start enforcing its nuisance codes against litter and weeds; hire the workers necessary to clean your lot and keep it clean all hours you are open.   Such workers can also serve your customers with eyes and security in your parking lot.  Then ask Grants Pass to enforce its code against your competitors, and create that level playing field. 

Show your orderly customers how much you care about their enjoyment and safety while walking in your parking lot and shopping in your store.  Show your respect for our laws and city codes.  Make thieves less comfortable stealing from customers in your lot, and litterers feel less free to drop their trash.  With your help, we can clean up Grants Pass.

Special December issue, at GPlittercleaner.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th St. 

Pass this leaflet to a big lot business or the City Grants Pass.  Write a letter to really impress them.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Grants Pass Property Nuisance Codes:

5.12.050 Weed, Grass, Snow and Ice Removal.

1. No owner or person in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on a public sidewalk or right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk may permit:

A. Snow to remain on the sidewalk for a period longer than the first two hours of daylight after the snow has fallen.

B. Ice to cover or remain on the sidewalk, after the first two hours of daylight after the ice has formed. Such person shall remove ice accumulating on the sidewalk or cover the ice with sand, ashes, or other suitable material to assure safe travel. (Ord. 2901 §9, 1960)

C. Weeds or grass from growing or remaining on the sidewalk for a period longer than two weeks or consisting of a length greater than 6 inches.

2. Property owners and persons in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk shall be responsible for the maintenance of said right of way, including but not limited to: keeping it free from weeds; watering and caring for any plants and trees planted herein; maintaining any groundcover placed by the City; maintaining any groundcover as required by  other sections of the Municipal Code or the Grants Pass Development Code. (Ord. 5380 § 18, 2006)

5.12.060 Weeds and Noxious Growth.

No owner or person in charge of property may permit weeds or other noxious vegetation to grow upon his property. It is the duty of an owner or person in charge of property to cut down or to destroy weeds or other noxious vegetation from becoming unsightly, or from becoming a fire hazard, or from maturing or going to seed. (Ord. 2901 §10, 1960)

5.12.070 Scattering Rubbish.

No person may throw, dump, or deposit upon public or private property, and no person may keep on private property, any injurious or offensive substance or any kind of rubbish, (including but not limited to garbage, trash, waste, refuse, and junk), appliances, motor vehicles or parts thereof, building materials, machinery, or any other substance which would mar the appearance, create a stench, or detract from the cleanliness or safety of such property, or would be likely to injure any animal, vehicle, or person traveling upon any public way. (Ord. 2901 §11, 1960; Ord. 4397 §1, 1981) (Ord. 5379 § 18, 2006) 

Walmart, Keep Your Lot Clean

When this litter-cleaning protester started cleaning Walmart’s lot one day back in January, one of their managers forbade me to do so, perhaps recognizing that it was not a service; it was a protest of their litter. 

She said that they have a crew that cleans their lot, every two weeks.  I pointed out that every two weeks was clearly not enough.  She said that they also send out people to clean as needed.  And yet, their lot was very littered.  “We have too much volume to keep up with it!” she cried.  I said that meant that they make enough money to keep it clean, yet I have never seen anyone cleaning their lot, though I have at other stores.

Grants Pass Walmart, January

I called Walmart headquarters about their litter cleaning policies.  They said that they have a separate litter crew clean every other week, and clean otherwise as needed.  I told them that, at this store, it is not cleaned as needed.  While traveling later that year, I checked out Walmarts in other cities; they were just as bad as ours.  It seems that Walmart, like many corporations, has a policy of doing no more than local police make them do to comply with city codes, and like ours, many cities don’t push them to keep their lot clean.

Newport Walmart, March

Fast food franchises also have a lot of disorderly customers, but they actually work at keeping their little lots clean, sending out a worker several times a day to clean, to protect their franchise reputations.  People expect restaurants to be clean, outside as well as inside.

Fairly new bark in Grants Pass Walmart lot, holding litter, mostly butts

Letting litter lie around Walmart’s lot builds the disorderly habitat that criminals prefer, contributing to theft in their lot.  Having a few people out in the lot cleaning all the time would not only make the place more orderly; it would provide security to shoppers.  Cameras are useful mainly after the crime and cover limited areas; a person working on litter cleaning can see someone breaking into a car and call the cops immediately, and criminals know it.

Litter, mostly under bottle machines, because they sweep rather than using a grabber

The tools provided for cleaners by the bottle machines: brooms and a dustpan

As one of the largest stores and parking lots in town, they set a bad example for the rest; other large stores seem to follow their lead.  They have improved slightly lately, but are clearly not giving their workers sufficient time and proper tools to do the job, as small litter abounds.  Litter cleaners need litter grabbers, an item that Walmart sells and could easily provide to their cleaners.  They should have 3 or 4 cleaners with grabbers and buckets in their lot during the day and evening hours, working on it for their whole shift, and rotate that duty among their newer workers, teaching all of their employees not to litter and to pick it up when they see it.

Lots of little litter means not enough time spent or proper tools used

Walmart shows their contempt for their customers and employees by not keeping their lot clean.  Most of us do not litter, and we would prefer a clean parking lot.

Special December issue, at GPlittercleaner.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th St. 

Gardening is easy if you do it naturally.  Litter is tagging, marking the territory of the disorderly.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener                 541-955-9040             rycke@gardener.com