[Durham INC] SUPPORT THE BILLBOARD BAN!

[Tom Miller]

Dear Neighborhood Advocates:

 

Fairway, the dominant billboard company in Durham wants to return to the old
days when Durham's streets and highways were cluttered with their ugly
signs.  They have asked the city and county to change the billboard
ordinance to allow them to relocate their old billboards on steel masts
along major corridors like I-85, 15-501, Chapel Hill Boulevard, Hwy 70, and
the Durham freeway.  And, what's more, they want some of their new
billboards to be the digital variety that flash a new electronic message
every eight seconds - all day long and all night long!

 

The time to act is now!  The City Council will decide this issue at its
meeting on Monday night, August 2!  The Board of County Commissioners will
vote the following Monday, August 9!

 

Over the past ten years, we in Durham have worked pretty hard to build a new
a new city with a different image.  A city with a revitalized city center
and vibrant neighborhoods.  A beautiful city, rich with cultural amenities,
friendly to pedestrians with green spaces and trails - a city looking ahead
to the decades to come and not back to the days of ugly strip malls and a
clutter of flashing signs and billboards.  Fairway and its competitors are
not blind.  They see that Durham is an up and coming city and they, like the
little foxes in Solomon's time, want to eat the grapes and spoil the
vineyard.  Well, it's up to us to stop them.

The billboard industry employs no workers in Durham.  They pay next to no
taxes (Fairway pays less than $4,000 annually for all of its 40 or so
billboards in town).  Their revenue flows out of Durham.  They cut trees to
improve the sightline to their ugly signs.  The want to be able to
concentrate their signs every 1000 ft. along the targeted roadways.  They
want to be able to put their giant billboards as close as 200 ft. to a
residence.  In my neighborhood,Watts-Hillandale, that's usually no more than
four lots away!

 

Don't you think it's odd that they want 1000 separation between billboards,
but only 200 ft. distance between their monster signs and the poor homeowner
unfortunate enough to live near the target zone?  Well, that's because if
the signs were closer together than 1000 feet, the first one would obscure
the second one and so on.  A single family house doesn't cause that problem.

 

This is a matter of community self-respect.  Write a short, unequivocal
letter to our elected officials opposing any changes to the billboard ban.

 

Send your letter addressed to "Mayor Bill Bell and Durham City Council:" at
101 City Hall Plaza, Durham, NC 27701.  Put 7 copies in the envelope.  Send
your letter to the County Commissioners addressed to "Chairman Page and
Board of County Commissioners:"  That address is 200 East Main Street, Old
Courthouse, 2nd floor, Durham, NC 27701.  Put 5 copies in this envelope.

But Tom, I sent them all an e-mail two months ago.  Why do I have to write
again?  Because memories are short and the billboard industry's lobbyists
have been relentless with their pressure on our elected officials and lavish
with campaign contributions.  To curry favor with nonprofit groups, they
have been giving away free advertising space in exchange for political
support.  Your letter is one way we fight back.  Send another e-mail if you
want - that's a good idea, but be sure to send a letter!

 

Thanks!  My letters will go out in Tuesday's mail.  They will be short and
sweet, but no one will guess at where I stand.

Tom Miller

President, Durham INC

 

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