I am morally opposed to city codes which limit the height of grass, but morally appalled by city regulations which require people to mow or shovel city property in front of their property.
I've been trying to figure out why I feel differently about this than about taxes or city codes. I'm somewhat skeptical of taxes (especially given all the wasteful shit government spends them on) and highly skeptical of city codes, but I'm not opposed to either in principle. If Arizona ever wanted to ban lawns, I'd be fully on board with that, and I accept the necessity of some taxes and am even not usually bothered by what other libertarians would call "double taxation," the main exception being the taxation of money which already went to taxes for another jurisdiction.
I can articulate several differences from both taxation and property regulations. When it comes to property regulations, of course, the difference is that you don''t own the property and can't do what you want with it. I can avoid regulations on lawn height by pulling up all the grass and planting low-maintenance native plants, except in jurisdictions which prohibit that (and I'm morally opposed to those prohibitions as well), but I can't do that on government property. Also, when it comes to grass height, it's purely an aesthetic issue, and I'm generally much more suspect of the government regulating aesthetics. And when it comes to shoveling, an actual safety issue, I think that if it's that important to governments, they should hire professionals to do it.
When it comes to taxes, obviously you're dictating the action to be performed and a timetable to perform it, but a property owner could hire someone, but would be paying retail, vs wholesale for a tax to pay for the government to maintain the sidewalks and grassy strips. I think what ultimately bothers me is that it's an imposition on a few for the good of the many, and the choice of who to impose it on is based not on equity, but convenience.
But then, I wonder: is there actually any good reason for me feeling this way? Is it just the resemblance to corvee labor I find upsetting? Or inversely: is there any good reason for me not feeling the same sense of outrage over frivolous regulations of private property and wasteful taxes?