Oscar the Grouch is gonna be mad!

You'd think San Francisco wouldn't be plagued by the anti-people tyranny that beleaguers so many other American locales these days, but now it has a new policy that's actually worse than most cities.

The city has begun fining people $100 if their garbage cans or recycling bins aren't completely invisible from the street. I don't mean simply removed from the sidewalk after the trash collectors come by. I mean out of sight totally. In other words, if you put your trash can in the back yard, but it can still be seen from the street, you get fined. At least 189 people have been mailed a ticket so far.

People have been ticketed for placing their garbage cans tucked snugly against their houses, 20 feet from the curb - simply because the can was still visible.

If there was to be an ordinance like this in a big city, I would have guessed it would have been one of Rudy Giuliani's hypocritical "quality of life" crusades in New York in the '90s. Honestly, who cares if a trash can is visible? This law isn't quite as bad as that town in upstate New York requiring people to use clear trash bags so officials could snoop at their garbage, but it's mighty silly, especially because there's no room for most houses in a big city to put trash cans behind the house where they're completely out of sight.

When Oscar the Grouch finds out about this, he's gonna be grouchier than ever!

If I received a ticket for this, I guarantee you my visible trash can would get a little fuller.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/28/BAC010C2PM.DTL)