Submitted by tuesday in USA

Do people in other countries keep lawns like Americans do?

Like do you have laws about the length of the grass on your property and get tickets when it's overgrown or otherwise not manicured?

I'm asking because one of the things that you see in immigrant areas are a greater focus on the outward appearance of houses and keeping lawns clean and things that are considered "inappropriate" off of front of the house property areas. And this tends to disproportionately affect the immigrant population, especially if they're brown, with increased fines and threats of jail time.

I mean we all saw the thing with that judge just shaming an old immigrant who had cancer for not caring for his lawn? And he's not the only one. I was listening to a podcast recently about a town that had an influx of Mexican and Colombian immigrants and part of the show was a sort of ride along with a community liaison who was going to properties and telling folks about the laws about the things they could keep in their yards and in the front of their houses.

So I'm left wondering, aside from clearly being in large part a very racist practice, is it also just profoundly American?

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Comments

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ziq wrote

Only rich people have lawns here.

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tuesday OP wrote

Growing up in a very big, very urban city, I thought that was true of America. Only really rich people live in houses with laws (because that was true where I lived).

Boy was I wrong.

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moonlune wrote (edited )

There are laws for the color you paint your house. People are not allowed to have chickens in their garden in cities either. Some neighborhoods (the ugly beige ones) we're only allowed to grow vegetables at the back, not in front of the house. Some places no vegetables at all. Flowers/roses are ok most of the time.

Most of the laws are shit but our villages where the laws are even more extreme (windowsills can only be painted in X color) are pretty. You don't risk prison but there are fines.

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tuesday OP wrote

It's so cute when towns have sort of regimented colors that you can pick from so they're all soft and beautiful but that's also restrictive in that you can only use THOSE colors.

In America it's restrictive because generally we're not trying to make houses look beautiful, but instead uniform. In home-owners associations there are restrictions on basically how different your house is allowed to look from the others in the neighborhood and then in the most bland ways possible.

I just moved into my own little house and I'm chewing on the idea of painting it the colors of the rainbow flag just to be cheeky and because I think it would make me really happy, but I live in a VERY conservative small town so even if there's no law against it I'm pretty sure there would be consequences if I were to.

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Bezotcovschina wrote

I thought lawns laws in USA is a joke

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[deleted] wrote

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lettuceLeafer wrote (edited )

I remember there was a controversy that Ancap Reddit loved and made a bunch of drama on anarchist Reddit. Someone didn't mow their lawn so the state sent someone to go mow it. The homeowner than shot the person mowing their lawn.

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metocin wrote

I live in kkkanada, so not much different than the states. There are similar expectations here but I don't think you would get in any serious trouble for not following them. It's very much a suburbanite status symbol, you'll see some houses with massive lawns, just wasting green space. It's disgusting. If I ever live in a house with a lawn I'm tilling it and planting a food forest lol.

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lettuceLeafer wrote (edited )

Also an American there are actually plenty of urban places where cutting grass isn't required. I've ran into quite a few places where the grass and plants where like knee high. Tho this was in like the poorest areas in the city and dangerous too. Tho this is a deviation from the norm where almost no one snitches and the I es who give out fines are probably too scared to go there. Tho I will mention this is a big deviation from the norm. Tho grass cutting is far more lax and is cut less in general. But it isn't being rewiled by no means.

Turns out all u gotta do is to shoot a bunch of people and u won't have to mow your grass.

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tuesday OP wrote

Tho this was in like the poorest areas in the city and dangerous too.

Funnily enough (it's not funny) this is also racism. The people who own the buildings in inner city/urban areas aren't the people who live there. Not only are the owners not held liable for the care of the buildings and grounds, but instead the people who live there are more frequently policed on the idea that because they don't take care of those properties (that they don't own) that they're more likely to be criminals.

AKA: Broken window policing.

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deeppurplehazedream wrote

I'm sick of my groundskeeper taking advantage of me and constantly plotting against me. Just kidding. I've really been thinking of getting a goat to eat my grass. This is against the private association rules- no farm animals of any kind, even chickens. But this is openly disregarded unless the immediate neighbors complain enough.

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Tequilx_Wolf wrote

No laws here, I never see lawns but they have unkempt ones in the suburbs so far as I know, and well-to-do ones in places where people can afford gardeners.

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