Remember the story back in 2012 about the Newton resident who was growing upside down tomatoes in his front lawn only to be told by the city’s inflectional services that this was illegal he needed to remove them?
The story was, if I’m not mistaken, front page news in the Globe and breathlessly covered by all the local TV stations.
Well, it turns out, the tomato grower was Eli Katzoff, who is now running for mayor (and naturally he made a video about it).
On the plus side, he must understand how ridiculous and stringent local government intervention can be.
Um, no. The hanging tomatoes were on a structure that would have gotten an “F” in wood shop. According to ISD, he had chintzed on wood and it was unsafe. A high wind could have blown it over. Moreover, it was in the front setback, right next to the sidewalk, and was a hazard to pedestrians.
Thanks Ted. A great example of how someone reading a headline can roll their eyes and scoff at a local government decision, because they didn’t read the committee report or attend the committee meetings where the issues were discussed. Just like in, oh, every other area of life, it helps to do your homework before coming to a conclusion.
I had hoped this would spark a conversation about Eli Katzoff, rather than about scoffers (or scoffing at scoffers for not attending as many meetings as she does).
It seems Katzoff did something environmentally-inclined people might not scoff at but in a way that was scoff-able because it was not up to code.
But those who did their homework also know that in the end Katzoff, did the right thing when he complied with the city and found a suitable location for his plants.