Clinton Street Flower Planter is Verboten!

All credit to the Brooklyn Record for bringing our attention to today's Daily News story (motivated, we presume, by a story in the Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Courier, which we hadn't checked in on this week) about the crackdown on the, um, sidewalk planters in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill.

One would think that New Yorkers without backyard gardens or front yards or even flower boxes would be entitled to get their green thumb on by putting some flowers in planters. Hell, one would think the city would give out merit citations for bringing a bit more color to the urban streetscape. But, no. Department of Transportation inspectors are ordering the removal of some sidewalk planters on Clinton Street and threatening $1,000 fines.

Yes, it's only a few planters, and the inspectors say someone called 311 to complain. Yes, GL has been upset with 311 ever since calling to ask about having a dead rat the size of a Yorkie removed from the sidewalk out front and being politely told that sidewalk rat removal was our civic responsibility, even if the thing was big enough to scare Cujo. (Speaking of which, a resident told the Courier, "Someone ratted us out.") Somehow this little item says a little something about how stupid bureaucracies can be.

Says Brooklyn Record:

If crowded sidewalks are the issue, what's next? The removal of elderly Italians parked in lawn chairs? In this neighborhood, the transportation department better watch their step.

The next time GL heads to Court Street for an Italian Ice at the Court Street Pastry Shop, as per A Brooklyn Life's suggestion (we've never tried one), we will attempt to seek out the offending flower planters and photograph them.

Unless they've already been whacked by DOT.