Is this illegal?

McAllen

The street that is connected to my neighborhood has concrete traffic dividers with trees, grass, brush inside.

I was wondering, for the first week of Spring, if it would be illegal if I hung paper lotus flowers to decorate some of these dividers and what I would do if I encountered law enforcement?

As much as I know from dictionary.com, I don't think it can be considered vandalism or graffiti, I'm not performing anything with malicious intent or going to call these "Buddhist Flowers" to avoid religious implications. It's just a damn nice flower.

This is in Texas.

Figgy

McAllen wrote: »

The street that is connected to my neighborhood has concrete traffic dividers with trees, grass, brush inside.

I was wondering, for the first week of Spring, if it would be illegal if I hung paper lotus flowers to decorate some of these dividers and what I would do if I encountered law enforcement?

As much as I know from dictionary.com, I don't think it can be considered vandalism or graffiti, I'm not performing anything with malicious intent or going to call these "Buddhist Flowers" to avoid religious implications. It's just a damn nice flower.

This is in Texas.

The worst that would happen is a neighbour complains to you or the city. Either way, you'll be told to go clean up your mess.

Why not just call the city and ask?

DekuStick

Could be considered littering.

McAllen

Figgy wrote: »

McAllen wrote: »

The street that is connected to my neighborhood has concrete traffic dividers with trees, grass, brush inside.

I was wondering, for the first week of Spring, if it would be illegal if I hung paper lotus flowers to decorate some of these dividers and what I would do if I encountered law enforcement?

As much as I know from dictionary.com, I don't think it can be considered vandalism or graffiti, I'm not performing anything with malicious intent or going to call these "Buddhist Flowers" to avoid religious implications. It's just a damn nice flower.

This is in Texas.

The worst that would happen is a neighbour complains to you or the city. Either way, you'll be told to go clean up your mess.

Why not just call the city and ask?

I didn't think of that.

The same property is used for garage sale signs, so I think it could work out. Still investigatin'

Thanks for the advice

EggyToast

Unless you live in a private association, these traffic calming devices are typically considered a part of the street, and as such are public property. Which means that typically what you can do depends on your neighbors.

In Baltimore, it's common to see a tree adorned with glittery bits, knit "sweaters," and other pieces of street art. If you put something up that can get wrecked in the rain or weather, then when that happens people are probably going to be upset and may call in and say "someone is hanging stuff in the trees here and then letting it fall in the street." If it advertises something or is permanent, people might also call.

In general, these types of things fall into stuff like littering, graffiti, or "post no bills," which means that if you were to get in trouble it would be very minor and you would need to be caught in the act. One of the biggest elements of these laws is intent (well, intent is a major part of most criminal law anyway), so even if a cop pulled up behind you while you were hanging a paper flower off of a tree in the street, he would probably say "hey, what are you doing, don't do that anymore" rather than arrest you -- because it's pretty clear you'd be just doing something you thought made the street more attractive.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, and look into using materials that are weatherproof.

MushroomStick

You're going to have to look into local ordinances. For instance - in the particular suburb I live in, if caught stapling a garage sale sign to a telephone pole by a cop I could get fined. If a cop drives by a sign already stapled to a telephone pole, they're supposed to take it down. In other suburbs in the area its a non issue.