While the city struggles to mow vacant lots with multiples of $400,000 and $400,000 and then, again $400,000 budgets, has anyone ever stopped to think about our apparent obsession with mowed lots?

Does it have anything to do with the insane residents of Olathe, Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs and Parkville who spend all their discretionary time working on their out-of-doors in an apparent pursuit of creating an expansive and manicured green lawn worthy of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews?

What’s so wrong with the weeds that tower over the head of our physically imposing Mayor?

Is it truly blight, to let green things grow on lots owned by mostly absent and scurrilous property owners who truly do not care about concepts such as good neighborliness and beautification?

Yes, routinely almost (and not enough, by most people’s calculations) the city mows these lots for the vacant property owning creeps who have abandoned their holdings without as much as a “fare thee well” for their neighborhoods.

Then the city sends a bill to the creeps, who refuse to pay said bill and, of course, the things that are green quickly reappear which then encourages somewhat flustered city neighborhood employees to repeat, repeat, repeat this unhappy cycle.

How about this: Instead of perpetuating the obsession for the perfectly manicured, green suburban lawn, let’s encourage the reforestation of these unattended properties.

For just a few dollars per linear foot, our lost lots could be safely, and economically, surrounded by eight-foot-tall deer fencing. Drop in a little signage about Kansas City’s re-forestation project and consult with the Parks Department’s deliciously-named forester, Forrest Decker (who, we trust, will help get things off on the right foot) and then, in ten, fifteen or twenty years time you’re on your way to a canopy of trees and native plants that will pretty much take care of itself, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process and, all the while, improving our community’s environment.

You want things to be green and sustainable? Then let them grow.

Your grandfather would’ve figured this out already.