Community Feedback: Code Enforcement's Crackdown on Weeds And ‘High Grass’
The Elmwood Park Advocate reported earlier this week that the Village of Elmwood Park stepped up its enforcement of the code against weeds and “high grass.” What we published led to quite a few impassioned responses.
First of all, what we reported about code enforcement was news. Residents should know when the Code Department is responsible for such a significant spike in tickets. But the community did not learn about the increase in tickets last June from any village leader. They learned about it from this newsletter.
One property was wrongly ticketed. The newsletter brought further attention to this story, and the day after, Charlie Garcia Jr., who lives at this address with his family, told the newsletter that code enforcement stopped by to inform him that the $50 fine was the result of a typo. Code enforcement also apologized.
“[Y]our newsletter helped me get my message out there and Code Enforcement owned up to their mistake and removed the fine from their records (they even followed up with a receipt of that),” Garcia posted.
It will always be worth our time to ensure that our local government treats residents the way that they should be treated.
Let’s get to some of the community feedback that we received.
From John and Mike:
Multiple comments from residents, like John or Mike, expressed approval for the spike in tickets that occurred last June. They saw the increase as evidence that code enforcement was “doing their job.”
It’s perfectly alright for residents to insist that property owners maintain their lawns and control the growth of vegetation. However, if the past month is what it looks like when code enforcement does their job, how should we view enforcement during the same month last year?
Only 46 tickets were issued in June 2024. A year later, 140 tickets were issued. Either code enforcement failed to enforce the code in 2024 or the department went overboard this year with potentially dozens of residents receiving fines who do not deserve the fines.
From Robert:
The newsletter did not call attention to code enforcement’s crackdown with the intention of telling Elmwood Park residents that we should not have a “good clean community” for our families.
Our intention was to raise the issue of whether code enforcement was fairly enforcing the code against weed vegetation and high grass.
We mapped the addresses that received tickets last June. The northern part of Elmwood Park was disproportionately impacted, and it’s hard for us to not treat what we see as a disparity.
Does anyone really think the following: unlike residents living south of the train tracks, residents living in the northern part of Elmwood Park are notoriously bad at taking care of the vegetation on their property?
Based upon the data from June 2025, it suggests code enforcement has ignored the southern part of the village. Maybe the extremely low number of tickets has something to do with the average household income in this area.
From Erica:
There were multiple comments that urged the village to focus more on traffic safety. To be fair, the police are responsible for ensuring safe driving and not code enforcement. Although that does not mean that we believe the frustration is unreasonable.
From Debra:
We hate the rats, too. It has long been accepted that tall grass and overgrown weeds can be places for rats to hide. Though it seems unfair to say that neighbors who complain about rats are the same ones who do not take care of their lawns.
One resident, Nick, had a response to people mentioning rats to justify the spike in tickets:
What Nick argued caught our attention. We’re interested in these studies, and unfortunately, you probably will be reading more about rats in Elmwood Park in the future.
We wouldn’t dare come for your native garden! Please let us know if code enforcement ever says you cannot have your “pride and joy.”