Ludington's Community Garden of Garbage and Grasses

[XLFD]

Ludington's Community Garden grew from the demolition of the downtown bowling alley in the 200 block of West Ludington Avenue.  For a couple of years, people in the community have been allowed to grow vegetables in wooden enclosed areas, in what has been trumpeted as a great idea for this currently idle space in the downtown. 

Ludington leaders have big plans for this area and beyond.  They would love to put in a multipurpose convention center/hotel/retail space in the block which would necessarily relocate the fire department and other businesses in the block, but they are falling short in being able to fulfill that dream for now.  If such a plan does achieve fruition, it will be greatly subsidized by the local and state taxpayers, as I have learned from a recent FOIA reply.  But that is for another article. 

In this one, we will focus on the current use of the block and how it runs counter to several recent moves by the city council in order to better control blight issues in our fair city.  In the middle of May, the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) dutifully reported this year's plans for the space:

"Ludington’s community garden space is becoming more of a pocket park, with a stage, more picnic tables and benches, a rain garden, miniature teepees and more, along with the artwork already in place on the surrounding buildings... 

Brandy Henderson, Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director, said the group wanted to clean up the space and turn it into another community park. 

Henderson, Jordan Miller, John Henderson, Todd and Julie Schrader, Nick, Heather and Aiden Tykoski, Jordan and Heather DeVries, Carrie Kosla, Michelle Hemmer, Laura Paine, Chris and Eva VanWyck, and Anita Wilson spent the day Sunday transforming the space. 

They used pallets and donated wood to build a stage, planting some of the raised gardens, digging to start the rain garden, and preparing the site for some help from the public this coming Saturday, May 23. The community will be asked to help paint the tables and benches and otherwise beautify the space in downtown Ludington...

If the block is developed as hoped and some mixed-use project is created in the future, the park pieces will be moved. 

The community wants to see the block at its highest and best use, Tykoski said, but until a development, “we’ll make it a fun gathering spot.”"

http://www.shorelinemedia.net/ludington_daily_news/news/local/artic...

The community garden is being transformed into a downtown Ludington pocket park, here with local community leaders donating their time Sunday afternoon. A public work bee will be held Saturday, May 23.

The work on May 23 and May 26 did produce some results.  The community garden before that had been left neglected since at least the previous year, and was basically an eyesore.  The two days of community work and the additional work on the planters and planting done on June 2 by LHS students had a stage at the site, some order to the chaos, benches, and even a wooden walkway.  But after May 26th, with several projects left undone including clean-up of scrap wood the community garden sat, and sat... and sat with the unfinished projects and leftover scrap wood left on the lot. 

Here is a picture taken on July 1, over five weeks after the tepees were started and the scrap wood was put in a pile behind them (that's a pile of weed-infused earth to the right): 

From this angle, you can better see the scrap wood pile and the incompleteness of the tepee construction, you'll also notice a bunch of weeds:

Over the winter, our city council in order to fight urban blight enacted an ordinance to regulate people who leave junk on their property.  Junk was defined as: "all waste material, including but not limited to ... waste building materials...".  This is clearly junk.

Sec. 18-152 of the Ludington City Code says:  "No person shall place or store any junk... on the exterior portion of any property in the City of Ludington...".  This junk is clearly on the exterior portion of the property.

Sec. 18-153 of the Ludington City Code says:  "First offense. A violation of this... shall constitute a municipal civil infraction.  This should have been caught in the intervening six weeks by our vigilant code and law enforcement teams and written up as an infraction. 

You know they won't do this, because this is their own bailiwick, but hear what happens when they do this to a common citizen's property.

Just last year, the City of Ludington went onto a man's property and took 'junk' which wasn't junk.  It was actually valuable building materials and other construction equipment and personal items worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.  They charged the homeowner for having them commit this theft giving them a sizable bill for transporting the 'junk' to a landfill.  This home is in my neighborhood.

The City code enforcers justified this by saying that they sent a certified letter to the homeowner telling them of their intentions and had a court date made.  But within the city's records (received through a FOIA request), they never had a return service for this letter or for the court hearing.  The homeowner claims to have never received such letters, which is seemingly verified by the lack of a return service.  The result was that a court hearing was convened and the homeowner never showed up.  A default judgment occurred and your city leaders invaded this man's property and took his valuable 'junk'. 

Yet, even after some hasty rearranging of the 'junk' at the community garden before the Fourth of July parade, the junk remains in the exterior of the community garden, blocking the artwork, as seen in this picture taken on July 5th: 

If you look at the picture you can see more of the hypocrisy of our city government.  Some of the weeds to the left of the pictures are over 60 inches high.  Reportedly, people are getting notices all over the city for grass that hasn't yet reached the city's new limit of ten inches, but on their own community garden, their weeds are over six times that length. 

Yet our city has already invaded our fellow citizens' private yards this summer (as confirmed in FOIA responses) in observance of a new 'tall grass ordinance' to mow lawns at an incredibly high figure and attach a 25% 'administrative fee' for their own enrichment.  They are under exactly no obligation by their new ordinance to notify you of this service after they have noticed your lawn is in supposed violation. 

They can freely violate the laws that they make you pay dearly for without even having to notify you of your violation.  This is what is considered just and fair by your current city leadership, and is why that leadership needs to undergo a drastic change. 

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos Streeter, plus document the entire episode with pics. and a video, then see what happens. Wiould the LDN actually post it? 

[XLFD]

That would be futile and what I would consider an encroachment since the city does not actually own that 'public area', Morris Street LLC (a development company) does. 

My law books and ethos say that entering onto someone else's private property and changing it without their explicit approval is wrong.  That's why I am so offended by the city's Tall Grass and Junk Ordinance.  The city now allows itself the ability to come onto your property without any consent or due process and either take what's yours, or cut your grass and charge you an arbitrary rate for it.

If I came onto this lot and took their junk wood and junk pallets without permission, or went over to their warehouse and took their junk barrels, I would likely be arrested for theft.  If city officials come onto your property and take your stuff without permission or notice, it's called code enforcement, and they'll send you a bill and a citation.

[Willy]

stump, your guess was right. I was driving east. Aquaman, I'll stop back and take some photos.

[Willy]

I took some pictures and in all fairness the items stored and weeds are a very small part of this large lot. There has been a huge improvement and appears to have been a lot of work going on trying to make this area into a usable space. The weeds could be eliminated in a matter of minutes and the items stored appear to be usable building material. The barrels, it seems, are used to store water for use on the plants. The pictures make it seem that the lot is not as tidy as it really is.

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks for the follow-up pics. Willy, nice. Here's the deal for me: if this was a private property owner's lot, would the city code enforcement walk by without writing a citation? Does the Municipal Marina property look like this? Does the Loomis St. ramp park look like this? Does Stearns Park look like this? What if any other downtown property is in this condition? And doesn't have a code enforcement person that would see this as unacceptable? How did the porta-toilets look, clean, or stinky, requiring sanitation work? Is that "music stage" have proper foundations for performers? It appeared it was stacked pallets, not a safe stage for people to stand and dance on. Would you bring your friends and family there to picnic or visit? 

[Willy]

I completely agree with you Aquaman. The representatives of the City have an obligation to set an example and there should be nothing on this lot that could be considered a violation of City code.