If you own a home – and have any expectation that it will have any real estate value – then allowing cars to drive over your shrubbery is probably not something you want to be understanding about.

The Holstead’s, by the way, are not saying the road block is a bad thing for the street, per se, only that they wish the city would put up signs on the opposite end of the street announcing “no thru-way” on the street, so cars wouldn’t come up expecting to get through.

It’s also a rather sad testament to the current state of Springfield that such barriers are necessary in order to keep the peace in formerly well-kept and historic neighborhoods.