<body><div>This property on Rochambeau Avenue in Providence was tagged for being overgrown with weeds. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI New)PROVIDENCE — Property owners can spray poisons with impunity. Gasoline-powered leaf blowers can scream for much of the year. Fertilizer can be tossed about without thought. One would think maintaining a lawn at any cost is enshrined in the city’s charter. So what if dogs and wildlife are poisoned. Air and noise pollution spread. The Seekonk River overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorus. The city has more pressing issues to address, such as threatening a 71-year-old Rochambeau Avenue resident because she has flowers, plants, and shrubs where an outdoor carpet should be. In a “1st Notice of Violation and Correction Order” issued Oct. 15 by the city’s Department of Inspection and Standards, Lynne Bell, her two daughters, and the local bank that previously held a now-paid-off home equity line of credit were warned. Someone was going to pay for this garden-variety yard. The violation order was preceded by a Sept. 8 “Warning Notice.” Both notices list as the violation code 302.4 Weeds. They noted Bell needed to “cut the overgrowth around the entire property.” “At first, I didn’t sleep at night, and then I feel I’ve done everything. I’m not guilty of anything,” Bell said. “What are they going to do? They’re going to fine me, and do I have to take a day off from work and go to court and pay court fees? I don’t know.” I visited with Bell and toured her lovely yard Saturday morning. I was contacted about this City Hall action by a pissed-off neighbor. That overgrowth of weeds that desperately needed to be whacked includes raspberry bushes, tomato plants, milkweed, cardinal flower, Joe-pye weed, goldenrod, violets, irises, crocuses, blue false indigo, black-eyed Susan, and other native and nonnative vegetation. “I think it looks wonderful, and everyone who walks by loves my yard,” Bell said. It does, and they should. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1QHKmo_1H1bso5w00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1QHKmo_1H1bso5w00" width="1600" height="1067" ><figcaption>After being warned by the city that her yard was overgrown and needed to be cut back, Lynne Bell put up this sign. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI News)</figcaption></figure>Bell moved into her East Side home in 1986, after living in Fox Point for seven years. The Maryland native came to Rhode Island to attend Brown University. She never left. When she moved to her current home 40 years ago, lawn dominated the yard. Only a small patch of grass remains, which Bell cuts once a month, except during No Mow May, with an electric mower. She doesn’t own a car. This long-ago barren wasteland features pollinator plantings, a food garden, and three compost bins. The beautiful and carefully-maintained property is anchored by a champion white oak that is at least a few centuries old. Upon receiving the warning notice, Bell trimmed the plantings back in her yard and in the strip that runs parallel to the sidewalk. She then called the city and left a voicemail message asking someone to visit and confirm that the work she did addressed the department’s concerns. No one got back to her. “I called them and I said, ‘Please come and tell me exactly what more you want me to do because I don’t know,’” said Bell, who ended up making multiple calls. “They didn’t get back to me. And then I got the second letter.” Four weeks later, she received the notice of violation. She finally spoke with the inspector after receiving the second notice in mid-October. She said she was told that nobody had been by again since the city’s initial inspection in mid-August. “Someone must have not liked it. Now, I have to say I admit that I had something sticking out at the end of the property and I didn’t notice until I walked that way to go to CVS,” said Bell, who works full time and walks to her job. “As soon as I noticed it, I cut it back. So maybe a dog walker, someone with a stroller, was upset about that. “But it said all around my property, so I don’t think they were just upset about one thing. I thought it looked pretty.” Before moving to Portsmouth in 2017, I lived in Providence for 12 years. Many sidewalks in front of private properties were never cleared of snow, as required by law. I would frequently see gas-powered machines blow leaves into the street, where they would eventually clog storm drains. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2uHnyS_1H1bso5w00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2uHnyS_1H1bso5w00" width="1600" height="1200" ><figcaption>This is what the yard looks like in bloom. (Lynne Bell)</figcaption></figure>I reached out to the city Monday morning about the notices. A city inspector told me an individual had filed a complaint about overgrowth in the yard and how it was blocking the sidewalk. The inspector, in a Nov. 9 email, wrote, “I did go by the property this morning after receiving this email and I did abate the violation and closed the case.” The property was initially inspected Aug. 17. An Oct. 13 follow-up visit found the overgrowth still in place, according to the city. “It says cut overgrowth around the entire property. Well, I don’t really know what the problem is,” Bell said. “Someone doesn’t like raspberries, because we’re talking about in August. Things look different in August than they do now. I had a lot of tall things.” This isn’t the first time the city’s current administration received a complaint of overgrowth and immediately unleashed weed whackers. An award-winning meadow at the downtown train station was mowed down by the city’s Department of Public Works because of a single complaint. The city received one call “from a constituent reporting overgrowth” at the back entrance of the train station on Railroad Street. The DPW responded by obliterating 12 native plant gardens. Many of the plants that were destroyed were Rhode Island ecotypes whose generations are endemic to the region. The plants came from wild stocks growing on federally protected lands. A sign, titled “Urban Bird Habitat in Providence,” explains the gardens’ purpose. We value the wrong things in a yard, and in public spaces. If anyone should be threatened with enforcement action, it should be those with chem-lawns free of dandelions, clover, native vegetation, and leaves. A tiny sign stuck in the ground warning of pesticide use doesn’t absolve the harm done. The best yards, for public health and the natural world, aren’t a tidy extension of the home’s living room. Note: Last year the City Council approved an ordinance that bans the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers in the city by 2033.Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.</div></body>

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PROVIDENCE — Property owners can spray poisons with impunity. Gasoline-powered leaf blowers can scream for much of the year. Fertilizer can be tossed about without thought. One would think maintaining a lawn at any cost is enshrined in the city’s charter. So what if dogs and wildlife are...

Providence Puts Hit Out On Native Plants

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PROVIDENCE — Property owners can spray poisons with impunity. Gasoline-powered leaf blowers can scream for much of the year. Fertilizer can be tossed about

Providence Puts Hit Out On Native Plants

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