Reply #6: I have a little of this, sort of.......

[Burma Jones]

My house backs up to an open space designed to help funnel rain water away slowly rather than have all that water head straight to Seneca Creek, and then to the Potomac. There is a flat area which is partly my lawn and partly the open space before it drops off to the drainage area. If I were to build a fence, it would appear to cut my back yard in half. Now, I am expected to mow and otherwise maintain this area right up to where the land drops off, and so I do without any problem. However, I have planted a garden that encroaches on this space, as have many of my neighbors. But, it's the space which I am expected to maintain, not the publicly maintained space. There have been no complaints, but if someone wants to get officious on me, I have no recourse.

However, a group of the neighbors (Chinese Immigrants, many of whom survived the Cultural Revolution) appropriated a larger flat space on the other side of the drainage ditch, put up a fence and managed to grow vegetables until well after Christmas. This garden was banned and the fence removed, although I supported the Gardeners, since they were often out there working and keeping an eye out on all our back doors, noticing all the toddlers and just generally being good neighbors.

In another instance, an airline encroached on one of our neighborhood parks by dropping a piece of a jet on it.........