Whistleblower's antennae always perk up whenever a city orders a property owner to get something out of his or her yard. Cities often have good reason to do so - nobody wants to live next to a drydocked boat that's become home to a family of mice and raccoons, as a Minneapolis woman complained to Whistleblower last week.
What makes these conflicts fascinating is how the common good faces off against the individual. In her Sunday column, my colleague Lora Pabst described one Fridley homeowner's effort to hang onto his shed, which the city says is violating the state building code. Judging by the comments, people get exercised when a city messes with a man's shed.
