When Couches Are Outlawed …

In what some consider an assault on Southern tradition, this city has outlawed upholstered furniture on porches, along with such front yard eyesores as dead animals, refrigerators and tall weeds.

The ordinance approved by the city council Thursday night on a 4-3 vote prohibits upholstered or similar furniture intended for indoor use from being left outdoors.

Inspectors won’t patrol for offenders, so enforcement depends on neighbors’ complaints. Inspectors will have to use their judgment to differentiate between couches that belong at the dump and appropriate porch furniture, councilmen said.

Jerry Williams, a councilman who opposed the ordinance, said he didn’t like a law that depended on interpretation and whether neighbors were friendly.

“You’re not going to see much change, because it doesn’t have much teeth in it,” Williams added.

The original ordinance would have outlawed razor-edged concertina wire. That restriction was eliminated, as was parking vehicles or boats in a front yard.