[ZinGirl]

and if he slips and falls....who do you think he would sue?

look...I give loads of credit to the guy. I'm sure he's a nice guy. But we all can't just go out and do whatever we want to because we think it's "nice". This is why we have laws....so we don't govern ourselves on feelings.

Also...my husband is an avid gardener. He would consider 1,000 morning glories as "terrorism". :P

[Mrs. Don-o]

First, the transit authority said they'd respond to the preferences of the local community--- but they didn't. It was "up yours" to the locals.

Second, they spent a sh*tload of money which is in extremely short supply, NOT to clean the human sewage out of the bottoms of all the stairwells, NOT to clear out the tons of paper and discarded-food trash, NOT to erase the gang tags and the filthy obscene graffiti, but to destroy a project which was popular, harmless, and beautiful. They have really idiotic priorities.

Third, the authorities expose the public to risk every day with their dirty and pooly-maintained metro stops. If I were inclined to lawsuits, I'd sue them for exposing me to E. coli.

Fourth, I don't think the Phantom Gardener was using the Convolvulus genus. More likely the Ipomoea. These are actually valuable around public sites. Because of their tolerance for poor, dry soils and their maintenance-free habit of flourishing, they are excellent vines for creating summer shade on building walls, thus keeping the building cooler and reducing heating and cooling costs.

Fifth, I don't think you an assume the planter is a sue-the-city kind of guy. To avoid liability, the bureaucrats could have insisted that he sign a "hold harmless" agreement which would protect them from lawsuit, and everybody would have been a winner.

Now everybody's a loser. Good grief, what a display of duh.

[SampleMan]

Perhaps we should wait and see if spontaneous public beautification projects become a real problem. I don't think there is a big threat of people spending 100s or 1000s of dollars of their own money and their own time to "deface" public spaces with flowering plants.

I notice that the government isn’t nearly as concerned about cleaning up gang symbols, graffiti “art”, and trash.

I think I’m correct about their priorities in this matter. What if everyone planted flowers in barren public areas? I suppose we would have better looking public areas. Its not like he removed anything to do this.

[GladesGuru]

” But we all can’t just go out and do whatever we want to because we think it’s “nice”. This is why we have laws....so we don’t govern ourselves on feelings. “

Jawohl! What is not forbidden ist mandatory!

[1010RD]

You're absolutely correct. Alex de Tocqueville is a fool. That at one time in our history Americans formed ad hoc groups to resolve their own problems simply and swiftly was an historical aberration. That they were able to do it without government involvement or sanction was a crime.

Let government run things as they see fit. We've got our representatives to do the thinking for us. You vote once and your troubles are over.

Go get me a coffee, slave.