The High Drama of Tall Shrubbery

Last year, Santa Monica's City Council decided to enforce a 60-year-old forgotten statute. Hedges over 40 some inches, it was found, were illegal. This was a surprise to all of us in Santa Monica, who see vast hedges everywhere.

A council meeting was called at which furious and tearful residents pleaded that the ordinance be discarded. The hedges, the residents testified, were traditional, beautiful, historical, healthful. They afforded privacy, they cleaned the air, they harmed no one. Why, oh why was the Council intent on their destruction?

This is a very good dramatic premise.

Now, at the meeting, the drama really kicks in. The Council, strapped for money, as are all organizations, had hired a consultant to comb through the city statutes and find those whose more stringent enforcement might generate revenue.

The Experts found the ancient hedge ordinance, and the Council sent out notices to the offenders: Cut down your hedges or be billed $25,000 for each day of non-compliance. A bit heavy-handed? Well, yes.

Tears and screams and pleas at the meeting. Now, to this point the Council was acting in a legitimate, understandable, if regrettably blunt, fashion. Its duty was to administer the city, the city was going broke, it endeavored to raise revenue.

But at the meeting the drama ticked over into Act Two. The Council's Wise Experts testified that the hedge ordinance existed for safety reasons -- and were that not enough, that it also existed to afford pedestrians an unimpeded view of their neighbor's property.

These reasons, though inventive, were specious; and, more important, dramatically, they were needless. The Council only need have said: "We're enforcing the ordinance because we need the money -- if you worthies can find a better way to raise money for our city, you do it."

Had the Council responded truthfully, the discussion could have been carried out without rancor, perhaps along these lines:

Tens of thousands of cubic yards of plant waste would be created by enforcement. Who is to pay for its cartage and disposal?

Lawsuits by individuals, consortiums and environmental groups are going to play havoc with the Santa Monica treasury.

Thus:

Raising money = good idea. Raising money this way is a loser. Let us, Council and Citizens, put our heads together and raise some money by other means.