Congratulations to your friend for standing up to the city. What they were demanding was robbing him of his right to do with his stewardship as he saw fit to do. It will be interesting to see what his neighbours will now do. My brother ran into something just as strange a few years ago. He put up a clothesline in his backyard to dry his clothes. But the way the neighbours reacted you would have thought that he was doing something really horrible, perhaps drying fish? And what were they doing gaping into his backyard? He did much like your friend and he still has his clothesline!