Man Gives Local Government Creative Finger Over Boat Fence Mandate – Twitchy

May 10, 2024

Etienne Constable lives in Seaside, California. Near Monterey, the city lives up to its name with breathtaking views of the Pacific. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone — least of all local government — that people would have boats. And that they need a place to store those boats.

Constable kept his boat in his yard.

And then local government officials told him he had to hide the boat from view with a fence. Constable, being a good citizen complied.

But he also gave the city a proverbial finger in doing so.

Man who kept his boat besides his house was ordered from the city to put up a fence to hide the boat from view. So he built the fence and hired someone to paint it. pic.twitter.com/wrkQh6RjXn

— Doug Aoki (@Nantanreikan) May 9, 2024

More from The Washington Post:

When the city of Seaside, Calif., ordered resident Etienne Constable to build a fence to cover the boat parked in his driveway, he complied. But the puckish way he did it — hiring his artist neighbor to paint a realistic mural of the same exact boat on his fence — has brought him viral attention.

“We kind of hit the sweet spot between following the rules and making an elegant statement to the contrary,” says Constable.

Constable, who works in business development, has lived in the same house in Seaside for 29 years. For most of that time, his boat trailer — often with a boat attached — has sat in his driveway without issue. But in July 2023, he received a letter from the city, asserting that the municipal code requires that boats and trailers be “screened on the side and front by a six-foot-high fence,” and threatening him with a citation and a $100 fine if he failed to comply. (The Washington Post has reviewed the letter.)