City Wants to Tear Disabled Girl's Playhouse Down

[XLFD]

A city government can often act in an unaccountable manner, which is why we have elections and why we have recall procedures in place, to address when they go bad.  An elected mayor and city council have the same oversight over each other at the local level, just like governors, presidents and their respective legislatures at the state and federal level. 

To alleviate local individuals from an accountable form of government, councils of some cities have adopted the City Manager system of government.  Not only does this neuter the powers of the elected mayor, it gives the city council a smokescreen and a whipping boy.

Such an arrangement can lead to the elected city council and mayor using the City Manager to deflect accountability away from any controversial policy choice. or it can lead to a City Manager using his office in such a way as to obscure his own personal agenda which may be totally different than the public mandate, as reflected by elections.  A product of the progressive era of 100 years ago, this is not good for the republic because it operates totally against American political ideals.

But this is not a story about political systems it's the story of a little girl, disabled throughout her young life as witnessed in this 2010 article about Tiffany Miranda and her debilitating condition.  She was lucky enough to get the Make-a-Wish Foundation build her a special playhouse in her backyard.  Now, on their own initiative, the city through its city manager is trying to get the backyard playhouse torn down because it is a public nuisance. 

After numerous harassing letters to Tiffany's parents, claiming some concern about their own personal health and safety due to clutter in the fenced in area.  But the yard doesn't look all that bad, and now the manager appears to be retracing some of their demands when exposed to the clear light of public transparency.  The story follows, and you can check out the video at the link at the end of the article.  Perhaps you can determine what is the real public nuisance.

SANTA FE SPRINGS (CBSLA.com) — A family say they feel unfairly targeted by the city of Sante Fe Springs after they were told they had to dismantle a backyard playground that means the world to their special needs child.

The Miranda family said the playset was a gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation for their 10-year-old daughter, Tiffany, whose severe seizure disorder makes it practically impossible for her to go to a city park.

“Just just loves it. She’s able to be a normal kid. She has her own special park,” Tiffany’s mother Jessica Torres said.

Jessica and her husband, Felix, said they can’t believe the city is telling them they have to take down the playground because it’s allegedly a public nuisance.

“When I asked the city, ‘So where do you expect my daughter to play?’ they said ‘Well, the city’s not responsible for your daughter’s disability,'” Torres said. “They said ‘Your Tiffany is not our problem.'”

The city manager said he’s concerned for the health and safety of the family because of clutter around the play area.

 

But Torres, who’s an oncology charge nurse at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, showed CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Adrianna Weingold the backyard, front yard and the inside of the family’s home and things looked relatively neat and tidy.

Torres showed Weingold some of the tickets the city’s issued, calling on the family to remove all items from the backyard and front yard, including all playground equipment.

 

The city said they have asked the family to clean up around the playset, but the city manager told Weingold that, despite what’s clearly written on the ticket, the playground can stay.

But Torres and her husband said no one has communicated that to them.

“I’m not going to let this go. I’m not going to remove the playhouse and I’m not going to remove her canopy and I want them to stop picking on my Tiffany,” Torres said.

The city manager told Weingold he’ll be in touch with the family to hopefully clear up any miscommunication about their citations.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/10/07/santa-fe-springs-family-f...

Perhaps the city manager of Santa Fe Springs is Paul Young singing:  "But I've got news for you,
I hope it don't hit you too hard.  One of these days while you're at play, I'm gonna catch you off guard. I'm gonna tear your playhouse down pretty soon.   I'm gonna tear your playhouse down room by room". 

 

 

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[Willy]

This type of thing happens all over. I've seen it in other cities. Many Government officials become out of control when they have power over other people. This includes the police. I've seen cities where code compliance has almost become the new Nazi's.

[XLFD]

This is one of the reasons why I cannot support Bill Summerfeld's fight against blight in Ludington, even though I did point out that there was some city-sponsored blight in this thread:  http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/ludington-s-downtown-...

If our current city leaders and our Planning Committee, et. al., wade into the battle, we will have similar battles over playgrounds and backyard landscaping between the people and City Hall.  Any battle over blight has to realize some reasonable middle ground between personal property rights and the community's desire to have some minimal standards for all.  Our city managing unit has a bad record on respecting property (and civil) rights and on compromising.

[AQUAMAN]

Santa Fe Springs code enforcement: over the top, out of control, totally unreasonable, and gestapo-like. Legal defense: sue for cruel and unusual applications/interpretation of city codes, mental and physical torment to the little girl and parents. Total tally: $500,000 punitive and exemplary damages. Where's their attorney?