Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Buying grass

An interesting thematic connection has found its way to us. Yesterday, we talked about someone trying to buy munchies with grass. Today, we find that the city of Roseville, CA, is offering to buy grass from residents. Of course, in one story "grass" was used as a slang term, where in the other, the word stands as the proper noun, but we find a connection either way.

See, in Roseville, like in many other communities across the United States, there is a bit of a drought going on. And the city council, like many other city councils, has tried to ask people to stop watering their lawns as frequently. Unfortunately, in America, people are so obsessed with the notion of keeping their grass exceptionally green, even going so far as to water their lawn the night after a rainstorm, that the pleas to conserve water have been met with the sound of a sprinkler system.

That is, until the city struck upon the notion of buying square footage off of residents. Well, not really buying the land itself, but instead they're looking to offer residents cash for every square foot of sod they turn into some other landscaping (and less water-intensive) aesthetic. We can practically smell the investment in artificial turf and rocks. We also practically guarantee that a few residents will end up building in ponds, complete with running waterfalls and fountains, perhaps not understanding the concept of water conservation.

One other thing we're willing to put money on? What are the odds that, a few months to a year from the start of this initiative, the fee for water usage will have to rise, because the city wasn't collecting enough from the bills? We're thinking it's running slightly better than 50/50 for those odds.

Who knows? Maybe next year, the city will have to sell the grass back.

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