Riddled with hearts and an American flag, Gregory Neville said he enjoys seeing this sign that reads: love your neighbors, every time he bikes down this neighborhood in Encinitas.
“I actually feel loved,” Neville said.
“Thank you my friend, that’s why the sign is there, yeah it’s for love.”
“I put love your neighbors in my back fence and I haven’t had a bit of peace and quite since,” Moring sang in a song he created talking about the issue.
JT Moring is the one who put up the sign.
Using left over pieces of a picket fence, he built it in September hoping to spread love and to uplift his community after learning about the ICE raids that happened nearby.
“I try to think of a message that was not offensive to anyone, but still be positive so I think the inspiration out of the good book updated with more modern language love your neighbors, I thought. That’s probably something people won’t complain about,” Morning said.
But last Wednesday City of Encinitas Code Enforcement officials stopped by and told him the sign had to come down, because it violates the code.
“I asked him, could I get an extension on that, he said no,” Moring said.
Then, later that week, Moring received a PDF document of the citation along with a paper copy in the mail notifying him he had until Tuesday to take it down.
Otherwise, he would have to pay fines for the violation.
“I was not trying to offend anyone,” Moring said.
He said this was the response from the community, an outpouring of more love and support.
Mayor of Encinitas Bruce Ehlers said the City’s code enforcement is likely a response to a complaint from a neighbor in the community.
“I support people’s ability to have protected speech and or art on their fences or wherever they put them so, I don’t know where it will go for sure, but we will certainly get to the correct legal answer,” Ehlers said.
Despite the city’s citation, some residents have showered the gesture with an outpouring of more love and support.
“Somebody wants to censor him and fine him? That is totally against the constitution of the United States of America,” Neville who is a veteran said.
“To think that someone would take that kind of a constitutional right away from another human being from another sign that talks of love, it’s absurd,” Neville said.
“It breaks my heart. I took an oath to the constitution and for me it was very emotional it was very real and when I see things like this happening I’m kind of empathic and it shakes me up big time to think I took that oath, I was willing to give up my life for this country and there are people right now that will ruin this country for kicks.”
“I hope we can get a resolution that makes everybody happy. Makes the community happy that they’ve got a positive message and me happy that I can share something and the city happy that they don’t have a criminal living in their neighborhood,” Moring said.
“I was just trying to share some love,” Moring sang.
Starting Tuesday, he could be fined if the sign has not been removed.
The fines start at one hundred dollars and could go up as high as one thousand dollars.