[Durham INC] Pls send short email by Wed (industry sprinkling around $100 checks; replacing gun show billboards with PSAs for stray pets)

[John Schelp]

folks,

Bumped into a couple of friends yesterday who said they sent emails last year and can't believe the billboard industry is back at it. They asked if they needed to send another?

Yes! Industry is counting on citizens to get tired and disengaged. Kindly send a short, positive note asking officials to "please not tinker with our successful sign ordinance."

You can send email (before March 3) to Council at DurhamNC.Gov, commissioners at durhamcountync.gov, DurhamPlanningCommission at durhamnc.gov

Seeing the recent poll showing 9:1 support in all segments of the community for Durham's successful billboard ban, industry has been sprinkling $100 checks on incumbents and quickly replacing its billboards in East Durham -- for gun shows in Raleigh -- with cute PSAs for stray pets.

--> See letter in today's Herald-Sun (below).

On Wednesday, March 3, the Joint City-County Planning Committee is meeting to decide if we even need to start messing around with Durham's sign ordinance in the first place. Our current sign ordinance is a strong and effective measure that doesn't need to be changed to accommodate a billboard company in Georgia.

We don't need to start messing with an ordinance that's worked so well over the years -- especially since it'll be very difficult to start changing things without inviting litigation.

Please don't let the billboard industry overturn Durham's successful billboard ban -- to allow big, bright billboards on tall metal monopoles, blinking more than 10,000 ads/day -- on roadways near our homes, playgrounds, schools and parks.

with many thanks,
John

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Letter: Keep billboard ban
Herald-Sun, 28 Feb 2010

In pressuring elected officials to overturn Durham's successful ban on billboards, industry is offering free billboard ads to local non-profits (a common tactic industry uses in other communities).

For weeks, a billboard near NC-147 and Alston Avenue advertised a gun show in Raleigh. The billboard stood less than a mile from two recent homicides, including one that was a block away.

Just in time for elected officials to decide about overturning Durham's billboard ban, the gun show ad has suddenly been replaced by a PSA showing cute little stray dogs and cats.

Showing excellent journalism, The Herald-Sun reported that lawyers from the K&L Gates law firm, along with others tied to the billboard industry, "gave heavily toward the end of the race" for City Council.

Several candidates received $100 checks from different attorneys and associates at K&L Gates.

Employees of the Georgia billboard company, trying to overturn Durham's successful billboard ban, contributed $550 to the incumbents. The company's manager in Raleigh, gave $250 to City Council incumbents. Two of his subordinates, a sales manager and an art director, wrote $100 checks to Council members. Steve Toler, a local consultant working with the billboard industry, also sent a $100 check.

Let's not start messing with our successful sign ordinance just so a Georgia company can stick big, bright, blinking electronic billboards on our roadways -- near our homes, schools and parks.

To see video clips of electronic billboards and letters of support from folks in the Durham community, visit supportdurhambillboardban.com

John Schelp
Durham

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Letter: Support billboard ban
Durham News, 02 December 2009

I support Durham's current ban on new billboards, and I'm writing to urge you to resist the billboard industry's attempt to overturn our ordinance. Please support the current ban in upcoming votes.

The last thing we need is big, bright, blinking billboards on I-85, 147, 15-501 and 70. These would look trashy, waste energy, and might very possibly cause safety problems. Most outrageous of all, if Durham wanted to remove an electronic billboard for any reason in the future, Durham taxpayers would have to compensate the owners for lost revenues.

When it banned new billboards in 1984, Durham made a statement about community pride and self-determination. The very small amount of money these billboards would add to our tax revenues would be vastly outweighed by the negative message they would send about our community--that we are a bunch of dumb yokels willing to give up important community values, such as aesthetics, for next to nothing.

Mike Morris
Durham

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Letter: Dangerous billboards
Herald-Sun, 16 Nov 2009

Allowing digital billboards can cost lives. Already, drivers speed along major corridors using cell phones, texting and even using computers. It is natural for colorful, moving lights to draw the eye. That is exactly what an advertiser wants. During this moment of inattention, a lethal crash may occur.

Fairway Outdoor Advertising wants more of these attractions along corridors including U.S. 15-501, I-85 and the Durham Freeway. Here, traffic ignores the speed limit, and is ripe for accidents. In addition to ads, advertisers will display public service announcements, again distracting drivers.

As a much-much older, but used-to-be-teenaged driver, I know the dangers of distraction on high-speed or even low-speed roads. Georgia's Fairway Outdoor Advertising should not profit by cluttering and threatening our area.

Burdette Connell
Durham

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Letter: Keep billboard ban for better Durham
Herald-Sun, 31 Dec 2009

The day after the InterNeighborhood Council voted to support Durham's current ban on billboards, Fairway Advertising's local rep told a Herald-Sun reporter there wasn't widespread opposition to electronic billboards.

He was wrong. In a Durham Convention & Visitor's Bureau poll, support for Durham's existing billboard ordinance was nearly 9 to 1 overall (see results at supportdurhambillboardban.com). It should come as no surprise someone in advertising is trying to sell us a bill of goods.

Support for our successful billboard ban is widespread and strong across the community. Seeing all this support, industry is trying to pick off local nonprofits with free PSAs (a common industry tactic). Does anyone really think it's a good idea to get drivers to take their eyes off the road so they can be distracted by ads for cigarette outlets in Burlington -- and PSAs about teenage smoking?

If local officials ever wanted to remove an electronic billboard for any reason, Durham taxpayers would have to compensate billboard companies for all future lost revenues. For a digital billboard, flashing more than 10,000 ads/day, that's a lot of money taxpayers would have to send to a company in another state.

As we head into 2010, one certainly hopes no local official would take such an irresponsible risk with taxpayer money.

Keep in mind that the billboard industry lawyers are the same lawyers suing the county on another matter. If industry lawyers are this sue-happy now, think what will happen once they overturn Durham's ban on billboards.

John Schelp
Durham

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Letter: Tacky billboards
Herald-Sun, 20 Nov 2009

My husband and I recently spent a week in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., which is highly commercialized.

The main street through the town is lined with stores, restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues. There is a constant stream of signs and billboards, but the things that stood out above all else were the electronic billboards, which were so bright that I felt as if my eyes had been assaulted.

I was struck by how tacky they looked.

I would suggest that before our county officials seriously consider approving digital signs in our area, that they take a good look at the real things and consider how garish and distracting they really are. I am enthusiastic about most new technology, but this is something we are better off without!

Ann Rogers
Durham

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Letter: Keep electronic billboards out
Durham News (N&O), 31 Oct 2009

Having just driven back from Watauga County on Sunday evening, specifically picturesque Blowing Rock, I witnessed one of three electronic billboards. How unsightly and distracting it was.

There on the side of the road, in front of large gray boulders covered with moss, and surrounded by rhododendrons, was a flashing sign advertising the stores located at Boone Mall. I've always been disappointed having to look at the traditional billboards on the side of the road while driving up 321 from Boone to Blowing Rock. The electronic billboard reminded me of why I spent the weekend in Ashe County, adjacent to Watagua, an area not full of homogenous housing developments and overgrown with strip malls.

Let's keep electronic billboards off of Durham's highways. Durham has too much charm and character to be undermined by these distractions.

Myers Sugg
Durham

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--> See many more letters of support from the community here... http://supportdurhambillboardban.com/letters.html

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