Oak Park's "War on Veggies" is now an election issue and other news

There have been more, mostly good, developments since my last update. For starters, I was wondering when this would happen.

Candidate for Oak Park Mayor Marian Meisner McClellan's campaign website.

"Oak Park is going through a very difficult time with record numbers of foreclosures, property values sinking, and crime an all too often occurrence and threat. Devoting scarce public safety resources to prosecuting a vegetable gardener does not reflect our needs.

Sadly, when Oak Park residents hear crime, they think of theft, arson, hate crimes, and burglary - not vegetable gardens. We need city leadership to focus on jobs, fighting crime, and building strong and safe neighborhoods."

--Marian Meisner McClellan, July 12, 2011

Three days later, she met with Julie Bass and her husband. I'll let Julie describe the meeting.

my husband and i met this afternoon with a woman who will be running for mayor (against incumbent gerald naftaly) in oak park, michigan.

she is sooooooooooo sweet, but she’s also smart and down-to-earth and personable and easy to talk to.
...
even the police officers in oak park are on the side of this woman, so i decided to check her out.

we emailed her and asked her if we could sit down and talk to her and hear some of her ideas. and she emailed us back!

unlike the current oak park officials, who won’t even return phone calls, she got right back to us. now i know she is not mayor yet, and maybe if she had a city to run she would have less time for her constituents, but i don’t get that feeling from her. she seemed, via email and then in person, like a very genuine person.
...
i think more people should contact her and hear what she has to say. i’m not saying you should like her because i like her; i’m saying that if you meet her, i think you will like her all on your own

I'm really liking this development; it's good for both Julie and Marian M. McClellan and bad for the current Mayor, who is ultimately responsible for this mess.

Julie had more good news to report.

thanks to you, we currently have enough money to cover litigation costs. if things get more ugly and it looks like we will have to do more, i will post again to let you know. but for now, please don’t send any more donations. we don’t want you to be sending too much money ;)

thank you all really seriously for the tremendous outpouring of encouragement and support- you are what is getting us through this difficult time.

W00t!

Finally, Julie has her own summary of the situation so far. Please read.

That's it for this week in Oak Park's "War on Veggies."