Postcard from Mound City/Dan Martin

Some years ago, when the city of Clayton banned the use of plastic chairs and tables at outside restaurants (the mayor said they were “scraggly”) we thought city officials were being a tad snooty.

But now comes word that the Clayton Board of Aldermen is considering cracking down on backyard chicken coops. What to think?

Chickens, in case you haven’t listened to NPR or read The New York Times (“raising chickens has become an emblem of extreme foodie street cred”) are hot, and we don’t mean like at Hodak’s.

A growing number of Claytonians, to the distress of some of their neighbors, have begun keeping hens. The eggs are better and the food is fresh, which as Martha Stewart, a chicken-keeper herself, might say, is a “good thing.”

It’s not cheap — chicken feed is not chicken feed — and there are sanitation issues and noise issues (some cities have banned roosters), not to mention the fundamental scraggliness issue.

Claytonians are civic-minded and forward thinking as a rule, so we’re sure they’ll come to a solution that reeks of sensitivity.

Our vote, if we had one, would be to keep the chickens. Just don’t eat the eggs at plastic tables on plastic chairs.