[Durham INC] too many compelling reasons to oppose billboard industry's p...

[TheOcean1 at aol.com]

I appreciate this thoughtful dialogue!
 
Dialogue that never needed to take place in Burlington, a clear advantage  
for Durham. That advantage nets Durham some negotiation room, while it maintains 
 our right to say no thanks. Not a bad position to be in, and it still hasn't 
 resulted in an exact proposal from the billboard industry.
 
While there has been a pretty sizable opposition, without a solid proposal,  
we still don't know what we're opposing. I don't think we should expect it, 
but  since Fairway owns more than half the billboards in Durham, what if they 
offered  to take them all down in exchange for one electronic board?
 
My point is that we shouldn't say yes or no until we know what the offer  is.
 
As to the Cree employee's letter in today's paper, I think we all want this  
and every other Durham company to do well. It's wonderful that Cree hasn't  
required lay offs as it produces LEDs for this billboard company.
But that business is being generated across a wide area, and any single  
city, including Durham, won't have a significant effect on Cree's bottom  line.
 
It might be ironic if parts of these billboards are produced in one of the  
few cities that won't allow them, but that wouldn't likely create sudden lay  
offs at Cree. So in my opinion, the economic effect is too small to  measure.
 
A much larger effect that should be considered is our local restaurants.  
Picture yourself a hungry I-85 traveler, you're about to spend money that will  
support a local economy either in Alamance, Durham or Wake counties. You see a  
general Durham boosting message like, "Voted #1 for foodies, pull off now and 
 see why!"
Would you exit? And if so, would you pull into McDonald's or look  for one of 
our Indian restaurants?
 
That kind of business might be the difference between a restaurant staying  
open or closing, and be enough to help Durham keep it's status as #1 for  
foodies, and maintain it's position as a great place to ride out a  recession.
 
To my way of thinking, that would have a greater effect on Durham's economy  
than Cree's output. That's just one of the reasons why I'm still reserving my  
opinion, until all the cards are on the table. 
 
Bill Anderson
 
In a message dated 1/19/2009 1:02:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
bwatu at yahoo.com writes:

As  expected, after several weeks of letters from across the community 
opposing  electronic billboards near our homes, schools, parks and places of worship 
--  we finally see one saying we should just ignore all the compelling 
reasons to  oppose industry's push to overturn Durham's ban on electronic  
billboards.

Just because some of the parts may be made in Durham,  doesn't mean we should 
overturn our current ban on electronic billboards. This  argument is a red 
herring meant to distract people -- just as digital  billboards are designed to 
distract drivers. 

Let's break it  down...

* Cree is a good local company. We've already bought plenty of  LED products 
in Durham, including traffic signal lights. 

There are  other public/civic initiatives that we could support -- putting 
all LED lights  in schools and public buildings, tax incentives for LED lighting 
in new  construction, exploring LED lights for outdoor lighting, etc. These 
ideas  would benefit the Durham community, support Cree, help keep Cree 
employees  working and spending locally, and put money back into the Durham economy.  

* By contrast, Fairway is based in Georgia. So profits generated here  in 
Durham would go to Georgia.

* Overturning Durham's ban on digital  billboards wouldn't overcome the risk 
to Durham and Durham taxpayers. Federal  law states that if Durham ever 
decided to remove billboards, Durham would have  to reimburse the billboard company 
for the cost of the billboards -- and any  FUTURE revenue the billboards would 
generate. That's a huge risk to impose on  local government and Durham 
taxpayers.

* Overturning the ban on digital  billboards would allow large screens that 
blink/flash new pictures every 7-8  seconds. Designed to distract, the new 
billboards would endanger public  safety. 

Imagine driving around a curve on a local highway -- in a  rainstorm. Your 
view is dominated by big bright billboards -- all blinking new  ads, reflecting 
off your windshield and the wet pavement in front of  you.  

* Cree makes a number of products that can make our lives  better -- solid 
state lighting for homes and commercial uses, video lighting,  traffic signals, 
etc. 

But Durham should not subsidize the one product  that makes our lives worse, 
while consuming enormous amounts of energy,  raising safety issues for 
drivers, and putting Durham taxpayers at  risk.

There are too many compelling reasons to oppose the billboard  industry's 
push to overturn Durham ban on electronic  billboards.

best,
John

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