City Notifies Elderly Woman In St. Paul To Destroy Her Yard Decor Following Decades Of Work

The 70-year-old woman has put nearly three decades of work into the mosaic in her front yard. Now the city may force her to clear it out.

After a city inspection Iris Logan, a 70-year-old woman in St. Paul, MN, has been given notice that her decades-old mosaic of rocks and art in her yard must be destroyed.

According to The Associated Press, Logan has been notified to clear out any of the “planters, wood, metal cans, large rocks and miscellaneous debris” she has used to decorate the yard, after a city inspector deemed Logan’s project as an inconvenience to the community. The former Mississippi cotton sharecropper initially started her project when she was experiencing difficulty growing grass in her front yard. Logan claimed her mosaic was a solution to the fault of yard workers who dug too deep in the ground and exposed the roots of one of her trees.

Logan got going on creating her mosaic in an attempt to cover the space. Logan used stones, statues, bricks, dirt, and planted flowers to beautify the space and she continued to add decorative art throughout the years.

According to a written notice, a city inspector proposed that City Council give her a deadline of Dec. 22 to clean up her project.

The woman, who said she “never had a complaint” about her yard installation, appealed the order and addressed the concerns of the inspector. She clarified that her stones don’t extend beyond her yard or interrupt traffic flow.

“I just want to make a stand for the next person,” Logan said.

Justin Lewandowski, a community organizer who lives near Logan, said a petition in support of the woman garnered 150 signatures within a few hours. The neighbors’ support is “a clear signal of how much this art means to our community,” Lewandowski said.

“Generally boulevards should be clear of installations or obstructions (benches, large rocks, etc.) that would impede access to buried utility lines. This also keeps the tree roots clear and provides a place to shovel snow in the winter,” Casey Rodriguez, a spokesman for the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections told the Pioneer Press via email.

The City Council will address the matter on Dec. 6. Over a dozen other properties in the community have also been notified to remove obstructions that may violate city code.