A city near me, Appleton WI., instituted a no mow May ordinance a few years ago. Now they are considering rescinding it because the research paper it was based on turned out to be faulty. However, there is a lot of opposition to rescinding it because now the idea of no mow May is so entrenched in the local population as being “good”.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9524700/
>lots of opposition to rescinding it
Much like recycling, which just increases energy use, government operating costs, and road wear for little discernible benefit. People like the virtue signaling over what a rational analysis reveals.
Mowing lawn - or not - is effectively an externality: an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party’s (or parties’) activity.
Air pollution from motor vehicles is one example of an externality, and the whole environmental movement rests on “the need for government to regulate industry to make the air clean.”
The same can be said for mowing lawns. One man’s feast is another man’s famine, an eyesore to some and glorious to others, The pros and cons can be weighed. In the end, if you’re on the side of life and liberty, it’s nobody’s business except that of the property owner.
Sadly, I suspect many people LOVE the municipality or HOA regulations of law care, for either leftist/environmentalist or rightist/”property value” reasons.
Count me out. I’m willing to live with my neighbor’s yard being Type A or slothful if it means the municipality has NO attendant legal tentacles.