🎉 Happy fair day! Don't step on a Barksdale cookie.

🌧️ Weather: Showers and thunderstorms, with a high of 83 and a low of 69.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Dylan Lyons and Heather Ann Roe!

Today's newsletter is 1,070 words — a 4-minute read.

A Des Moines woman is fighting a city order to remove vegetable beds near her street as advocates push officials to reconsider a ban on edible plants in public rights-of-way.

Why it matters: Des Moines’ crackdown is pushing city leaders to reconsider whether residents can use public strips to grow food as the city weighs safety against its own food-access goals.

Driving the news: Drake neighborhood resident Allison Stuart is appealing a recent citation involving three vegetable beds with tomatoes, broccoli, onions and herbs between the sidewalk and street near her home.

• The case has an administrative hearing scheduled for next week, at which she is asking that the spaces be allowed through at least this growing season.
• Stuart has launched an online petition urging DSM to change the rules.

Catch up quick: Confusion about city ordinance has percolated for years, Stuart says.

• The city’s 2021 Food Security Task Force had recommended allowing fruit and vegetable crops in rights-of-way, and the City Council in August 2024 unanimously imposed a moratorium on enforcing right-of-way gardening restrictions.

Yes, but: Edible plants have never been allowed, and that was made clearer when the city approved an updated ordinance in June 2025 that added “or edible plants” to its existing prohibition on right-of-way landscaping, city engineer Steve Naber tells Axios.

The latest: Kathy Byrnes, founder and director of the nonprofit Birds & Bees Urban Farm, told the council earlier this month that the three-word addition went largely unnoticed and was adopted without any discussion of its impact on food production.

• The council referred the issue to the Food Sustainability Advisory Committee for review.

State of play: Residents may grow grass, some flowers, and certain groundcover in the rights-of-way, provided they don’t exceed 36 inches in height.

• Taller plants create potential visibility, pest and utility-access problems, Naber says.

Context: The city agreed in March to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging oversized vegetation and a blocked sign along Fleur Drive contributed to a 2021 motorcycle crash.

What's next: Stuart’s court date is scheduled for Aug. 19.

• For now, the city’s order does not include a fine but requires the gardens’ removal.
• Continued noncompliance could result in city abatement costs and, if pursued as a municipal infraction, a civil penalty of up to $750.

Read more

More Iowans could get access to solar energy if the state Legislature expands access to community solar — a concept that allows people to buy a share of a solar panel project.

Why it matters: Community solar could give renters and apartment dwellers who can't install rooftop panels another way to benefit from solar energy.

Catch up quick: Community solar program proposals at the Iowa Legislature have faced criticism from utility companies, who say rates could rise for customers who didn't participate.

• Solar customers could receive bill credits worth more than the savings their systems provide to the electric grid system, leaving the utility with a gap that other customers would have to cover.
• Last year, a community solar proposal faced opposition from MidAmerican Energy and Alliant Energy and ultimately died.

Friction point: A June report prepared for Iowa Business for Clean Energy argues third-party community solar could save participating Iowans money without raising costs for other utility customers.

• The report notes that adding batteries to the solar panels stores power, which can be released later, in the evenings, when electricity demand is higher, making it more valuable to the utility.
• That extra value could cover the cost of credits given to solar customers, per the report.

How it works: Instead of putting panels on their own roofs, customers pay to be a part of a larger solar panel project.

• The solar panels send electricity to the grid. Meanwhile, those solar customers' local utility companies give them bill credits based on how much electricity their share produces.

Zoom out: 24 states have passed laws allowing community solar programs, including neighboring Minnesota, which also offers a low- and moderate-income program.

What we're watching: If a new proposal for community solar comes in the next legislative session.

Go deeper: The other side

The Iowa State Fair starts today with a new, free shuttle replacing DART's former park-and-ride service at Southeast Polk High School.

Why it matters: Moving a major shuttle hub from the eastern metro to the south side could change travel patterns for thousands of fairgoers — and affect traffic and parking near the fair.

Catch up quick: Pleasant Hill's recent withdrawal from DART ended its regular bus service, including the Southeast Polk shuttle, because it was treated as an extension of the city's service.

• To make up for the loss, the fair hired CIT, a private charter company, to start a new free shuttle from Southridge Mall.

Meanwhile, DART will continue to run its $3 round-trip park-and-ride service from the Capitol and Center Street garage.

The intrigue: DART counts fair shuttles in its annual reporting.

• The Southeast Polk site provided 83,981 rides last year — equivalent to about 2.2% of DART's 3.75 million FY2025 rides.

What we're watching: Whether fairgoers embrace Southridge.

🔪 Flock cameras have been vandalized across the state, including in Pleasant Hill, Altoona, Johnston and Ankeny. (Des Moines Register)

🌊 "Surfing engineers" rode the waves of the Des Moines River just east of the Scott Avenue bridge. (dsm Magazine)

🚫 Swimming is not recommended at Lake Red Rock due to high levels of bacteria. (KCCI)

📧 You know what to do, and you've got until 4pm to do it.

• Our winner gets two tickets to "Come From Away," a 9/11-era musical about kindness, strangers and an unexpectedly generous town at the DSM Playhouse, starting Sept. 11.
• A story about this location will be in tomorrow's newsletter.

Tomorrow morning is the big pumpkin weigh-off at the Iowa State Fair.

• Hope #1 and Hope #2 tragically won't be there after they struggled with some high heat, but Linh will still be enjoying the big gourds, so come say hi!
• 9am in front of the ag building.

🐠 Book it now: Finding Nemo Jr. debuts tonight at the DSM Playhouse, with just four performances through Sunday.

This newsletter was edited by Chloe Gonzales.