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$300 fine for 6-year-old who colored on sidewalk with chalk
Filed under: Weird But True
How many days did you spend making chalk drawings as child -- using the closest sidewalk as a canvas for your temporary art? Apparently with every scribble you were vandalizing public property.
At least that's the opinion of one of Natalie Shea's neighbors. The 6-year-old used sidewalk chalk to leaves a blue splotch on her front stoop, and some grumpy curmudgeon called the city to complain. Subsequently, Natalie's mom received a form letter, which read: "Please remove the graffiti from your property. Failure to comply...may result in enforcement action against you." That "enforcement action" is a $300 dollar fine.
Sounds crazy, right? But technically, the sidewalk art is illegal -- at least according to a law passed by the City Council in 2005, that broadly defines what constitutes graffiti. However, the only way Natalie could be charged, is if the markings were made without the building owner's (Natalie's mother's) consent -- which obviously isn't the case.
Natalie's father, meanwhile -- obviously recognizing the severity of the issue at hand -- told reporters: "I do love that kid, but I wish she would stop capping my tags."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
10-12-2007 @ 7:20PM
Jillian said...What the heck does "capping my tags" mean?
Reply
10-12-2007 @ 9:15PM
queenoqueens said...Tee-hee, I think we should make an example of this six year old. Who does she think she is? Perhaps she is a terrorist!
Jillian, like you I was curious what that phrase meant, so I looked up "cap" and "tag" in the Urban Dictionary. From what I can make out, it seems to mean: embarrasing/humiliating your name.
Reply
10-12-2007 @ 9:59PM
Joy said...Isn't it sad that a little girl can't even draw with chalk?? Perhaps your right Queeno..terrorist maybe! I thought, "man, I'm getting old." I didn't know what "capping my tags" meant either. I wish I had nothing better to do than cause these kinds of problems for someone else. Poor kids to live next to such a grump!!
Reply
10-13-2007 @ 1:36PM
Sandyone said...In England, they are very un-fond of sidewalk chalk. We lived in an American neighborhood that was managed by a British lady. She would come into our cul-de-sac for her weekly lawn inspections and she was simply horrified at the chalk. She dropped some pretty non-subtle hints, we smiled, nodded, agreed that it was "unsightly". Then we mentioned how much fun it is for the kids and how it is so very temporary. Until she showed us a regulation about it, though, we sure weren't going to stop it. It's England, for pete's sake...the rain comes nearly daily to wash it away.
Bah. Some people have no idea about how there's a season for everything.
Reply
10-13-2007 @ 12:45PM
Ann Adams said...The sidewalk leading to my house was full of drawings, a large tic tac toe, and often hopscotch. Sometimes they overflowed on the main sidewalk.
No one ever complained; possibly because everyone on the street had kids.
Reply
10-13-2007 @ 4:57PM
DaMoKi Bob said...The unbending limbs of a tree often break in a strong wind: so too with a city ordinance in the wind of good sense. I read the original article and it look like there is little danger the grump will win. Too much vague wording in the ordinance, and if challenged in court it would not hold up.
Want to bet the grump next door never had kids, or learned to be empathetic. Too bad! Someone should tell him. “Ya man H UP!”
Reply
10-16-2007 @ 12:49AM
SKL said...We used to live next door to a grouch like that. He would confiscate anything left even partly on his driveway - one wheel of a three-year-old's trike, for instance. Once a girl accidentally over-threw her football into his yard, and he kept it for about a month. He had a hissy when I shoveled our driveway (which was adjacent to his) and some of the snow ended up on his side of the line. He would call the cops if we played music at midnight on New Year's Eve. He had a birdbath but when the birds came, he shot them with a BB gun - he said "the only good bird is a dead bird." There is no way we would leave a chalk mark on his property. We just felt sorry for him for being so miserable.
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