City Councilman Thomas Crowder, apparently, takes the City’s new regulations on the height of grass, outdoor cafes and hot dog stands pretty seriously. He sounds like a dedicated advocate of Urban Correctness. The problem is, sometimes, he sounds like a killjoy too. When the City fined Lew Barnes $236 for not cutting his grass to specifications, Barnes explained he didn’t receive notice of his ‘violation’ and asked the City Council to wave the fine. The Council didn’t exactly let him off but did vote to cut his fine – everyone, that is, except Councilmen Crowder. In effect, he told Barnes, no how, no time, no way. Not mowing your grass is a serious offence.

Here are some more examples of Urban Correctness:

• ‘The Halloween Queen,’ a lady who owns a costume shop downtown, was threatened with a $200 fine “if she didn’t stop sending her costume clad children to wave at cars from the sidewalk.” (News and Observer 10-29-06)
  
• A coffee shop owner was cited for using the wrong kind of planter boxes at his downtown sidewalk café.
  
• Last year, Raleigh handed out 4721 tickets for the crime of parking too far from the curb.
  
• A man put a ‘twig pile’ in his yard (his grass was too high, too) and was fined $400.
  
• A café owner, who’s outdoor tables were “too far from the building,” was threatened with two $500 fines. He told the News and Observer, “We’ve lost that kind of genteel way that Raleigh was. Before someone would come and say, ‘You need to move that chair. Now, we feel like we’ve got to threaten folks with a $500 fine.”

Since Mayor Meeker opened Fayetteville Street, he (or the City) seems set on regulating everything from cafes to newspaper racks to awnings and street performers and hot dog stands. Which led Councilman Phil Isley to comment, “You look at somebody wrong, and you’re going to get a fine.”

Regulating awnings and newspaper racks are small matters. But they’re part of the bigger matter. Freedom tends to get a little messy. People are eccentric. Some like twig piles. Some like costume shops. The News and Observer likes one type of newspaper rack. Maybe what we need from Mayor Meeker and Councilman Crowder is a little less Urban Correctness, and a little more live and let live.

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