I go away for ten days, and upon returning, see that almost nothing has changed, except this.
Stay tuned for more. I'm seeing lots of illegally placed pro-referendum signs around town. Shouldn't they have to take a class, or something?
Showing posts with label Yes yard signs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yes yard signs. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Your ASK THE BORED follow-up: The disappearing school recruitment banner atop the levee.
I go away for ten days, and upon returning, see that almost nothing has changed, except this.
Stay tuned for more. I'm seeing lots of illegally placed pro-referendum signs around town. Shouldn't they have to take a class, or something?
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
ASK THE BORED: Can we all have a banner atop the levee, or just the school corporation?
I've had several reader questions about the NAFC schools banner currently hanging on degraded remains of the structure atop the levee by the amphitheater.
Because I'll be out of town, I cannot attend this week's BOW meeting and ask them. Perhaps someone else will.
Strictly speaking, the marketing campaign in question is about student recruitment, and in theory, the banner does not reference the referendum.
However, it's been a thinly veiled sidestep all along, with "YES" in big letters and "enroll" written very small. Rightly or wrongly, there's no doubt in the minds of many in the city that the secondary intent of these and other variously sized "yes" signs is to encourage a "yes" referendum vote.
But this isn't my point.
Does every organization have equality of opportunity to use this elevated space for ads?
Is there a Board of Works procedure for such?
NA Confidential would love to have the exposure. Where do I register? Can someone point me to the Board of Works minutes indicating discussion and approval of the school corporation banner as currently placed?
Or, is it first-come, first-served?
By the way, here's the list of school board filings for the fall election, and here's a link to a previous letter exploring our school corporation's marketing strategies, because ...
As enrollment declines, L.A. public schools borrow a tactic from the charters: marketing, by Anna M. Phillips (Los Angeles Times)
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Shake, Prattle and Troll, Part 3: "Sign o’ the rabid times" newspaper column (2009).
From the Tribune guest column archives on July 30, 2009, comes an examination of the pathology of "no" as compared with "yes," not just when erecting signs, but all of the time in New Albany, where we're all here because we're not all there.
Shake, Prattle and Troll, Part 1
Shake, Prattle and Troll, Part 2
---
BAYLOR: Sign o’ the rabid times
This is the year my family reunion came to town. Annual hosting privileges rotate between the cousins, who are the sons and daughters of my mother and her seven brothers and sisters, five of whom now have passed on. With my oldest cousin nearing 70 and only a handful younger than me, it appears that a passing of the torch is imminent. Until then, we soldier on.
Roughly 40 people turned out for Saturday’s picnic-style finale at our house along East Spring in New Albany. Visitors came from as far away as Boston, El Paso, Texas, and South Florida. A half dozen massive pizzas were trucked in, group photos were taken on the porch and then we held the annual family meeting, catching up on events of the past year and previewing the reunion to come in 2010.
When the formal program ended, a few attendees indicated interest in checking out the Bank Street Brewhouse, which is only nine short blocks west of the house. It was between afternoon rain storms, and with skies sunny, we decided to go by foot.
I asked them to meet me on the sidewalk, and we set off down Spring. After about four blocks, it occurred to me to look back and see who else had decided to come, and to my shock, I saw that the small group had grown to more than 20. Only the teetotalers stayed behind. My hunch is they weren’t very happy about it, but then again, teetotalers never are.
Feeling variously like the Pied Piper of beer and the helpful fellow on the Verizon Wireless commercials, I duly escorted this huge group of family members of all ages to the corner of Spring and Bank, made the northern turn, and presently we were examining the shiny new brewing equipment and indulging in scientific sampling. The pitchers were lined up on the counter, sweaty and beckoning, and everyone had a beer in hand.
I have to admit that it made me proud.
Only a handful of those attending the reunion live in Floyd County, and throughout the brewhouse visit there were many questions about life and times in New Albany: What’s that building, and why’s the roof gone? Where’s the Greenway? Is your city council as loopy as ours? Why doesn’t someone make them clean that mess up?
And, perhaps my favorite: Isn’t there a rule against those tacky signs?
•••
They’re not exactly yellow ribbons tied ‘round the old oak tree, those white yard signs scattered around town with the big red “NO” in screaming caps. I see them, and I shrug.
To me, they’re the plaintive wail of the inarticulate and congenitally disaffected, those unable to describe what they’re “for” in the sense of a positive contribution to the community, only to squawk about what they’re “against” as a negation of unity.
What they’re really against is the whole of modernity, although they express it in terms of money. I find that unspeakably sad.
Since the overwhelming percentage of temporary signage posted hereabouts falls into categories of plainly illegal or trespassing, with handwritten day-care touts duct-taped to city-owned traffic signal stanchions, absentee slum lord solicitations stapled to wooden utility poles and political signs never removed after last year’s fall election, I tend to regard them as little more than obtrusive garbage.
Not only do I believe they should be removed, I’m perfectly willing to remove them myself and will continue to do so whenever the mood strikes me. Nationwide, this blizzard of ugliness is known as “street spam,” and those who volunteer to remove it are “street spam sharks.”
But in the case of the raggedy, pestilential, malice-laden “NO” placards, most of them seem to be located quite properly in the yards of obstructionists. These are safe havens, perfectly legal, and the signs should be permitted to stand where they are as an indicator of bile within.
Several of us in the progressive bloc have concluded that matching “YES” placards should be created, although we’re mindful that describing what you’re “for” is sometimes more difficult than just screaming “NO” and holding your breath until you’re properly purple.
Among the “YES” suggestions that were made last week at the NA Confidential blog were these, in no particular order:
• Rule of Law
• Education
• Fairness
• Affordable health care
• Sustainability
• Code enforcement
• Preservation
• Green buildings
• Friendly streets
• Neighborhood schools
• Craft beer
• Bicycles
• Gay Bars
• Neighborhoods
• Craftsmanship
• Human-centered design
• Communitas
• Democracy here, now
• Downtown
• Native hardwoods
• Participation
• Redistricting
• Two-way streets
• Locally owned businesses
“YES” signs currently are being printed and will mimic the design of the “NO” ones, except that green is used instead of red. Some will have items we’re “for” already printed in the spaces, while others will be left blank to encourage public participation. If you’d like to have one and support the notion of positive participation in the community, let me know.
•••
Two hours after the group left to walk to the brewhouse, we ambled back home, and the reunion began winding down just before the rainfall at 8 p.m. I smoked a cigar to celebrate a successful conclusion to a familial obligation that I’ll not be revisiting until some time around 2017, when I’ll be ... a bit older than I am now. Who’ll be coming then, and who will not?
There’s no way to know, and that’s why we play the game, same as with life in downtown New Albany.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
REWIND: Sign o’ the rabid times (2009).
From the Tribune guest column archives on July 30, 2009, an examination of the pathology of "no" as compared with "yes," not just when erecting signs, but all of the time.
---
BEER MONEY: Sign o’ the rabid times. By ROGER BAYLOR Local Columnist
This is the year my family reunion came to town.
Annual hosting privileges rotate between the cousins, who are the sons and daughters of my mother and her seven brothers and sisters, five of whom now have passed on. With my oldest cousin nearing seventy, and only a handful younger than me, it appears that a passing of the torch is imminent. Until then, we soldier on.
Roughly 40 people turned out for Saturday’s picnic-style finale at our house on East Spring in New Albany. Visitors came from as far away as Boston, El Paso and South Florida. A half dozen massive pizzas were trucked in, group photos were taken on the porch, and then we held the annual family meeting, catching up on events of the past year and previewing the reunion to come in 2010.
When the formal program ended, a few attendees indicated interest in checking out the Bank Street Brewhouse, which is only nine short blocks west of the house. It was between afternoon rain storms, and with skies sunny, we decided to go by foot. I asked them to meet me on the sidewalk, and we set off down Spring. After about four blocks, it occurred to me to look back and see who else had decided to come, and to my shock I saw that the small group had grown to more than twenty. Only the teetotalers stayed behind. My hunch is they weren’t very happy about it, but then again, teetotalers never are.
Feeling variously like the Pied Piper of beer and the helpful fellow on the Verizon Wireless commercials, I duly escorted this huge group of family members of all ages to the corner of Spring and Bank, made the northern turn, and presently we were examining the shiny new brewing equipment and indulging in scientific sampling. The pitchers were lined up on the counter, sweaty and beckoning, and everyone had a beer in hand. I have to admit that it made me proud.
Only a handful of those attending the reunion live in Floyd County, and throughout the brewhouse visit there were many questions about life and times in New Albany: What’s that building, and why’s the roof gone? Where’s the Greenway? Is your city council as loopy as ours? Why doesn’t someone make them clean that mess up?
And, perhaps my favorite: Isn’t there a rule against those tacky signs?
---
They’re not exactly yellow ribbons tied ‘round the old oak tree, those white yard signs scattered around town with the big red “NO” in screaming caps. I see them, and I shrug. To me, they’re the plaintive wail of the inarticulate and congenitally disaffected, those unable to describe what they’re “for” in the sense of a positive contribution to the community, only to squawk about what they’re “against” as a negation of unity.
What they’re really against is the whole of modernity, although they express it in terms of money. I find that unspeakably sad.
Since the overwhelming percentage of temporary signage posted hereabouts falls into categories of plainly illegal or trespassing, with handwritten day-care touts duct-taped to city-owned traffic signal stanchions, absentee slum lord solicitations stapled to wooden utility poles and political signs never removed after last year’s fall election, I tend to regard them as little more than obtrusive garbage.
Not only do I believe they should be removed; I’m perfectly willing to remove them myself, and will continue to do so whenever the mood strikes me. Nationwide, this blizzard of ugliness is known as “street spam,” and those who volunteer to remove it are “street spam sharks.”
But In the case of the raggedy, pestilential, malice-laden “NO” placards, most of them seem to be located quite properly in the yards of obstructionists. These are safe havens, perfectly legal, and the signs should be permitted to stand where they are as an indicator of bile within.
Several of us in the progressive bloc have concluded that matching “YES” placards should be created, although we’re mindful that describing what you’re “for” is sometimes more difficult than just screaming “NO” and holding your breath until you’re properly purple.
Among the “YES” suggestions that were made last week at the NA Confidential blog were these, in no particular order:
Rule of Law
Education
Fairness
Affordable health care
Sustainability
Code enforcement
Preservation
Green buildings
Friendly streets
Neighborhood schools
Craft beer
Bicycles
Gay Bars
Neighborhoods
Craftsmanship
Human-centered design
Communitas
Democracy here, now
Downtown
Native hardwoods
Participation
Redistricting
Two way streets
Locally owned businesses
“YES” signs currently are being printed and will mimic the design of the “NO” ones, except that green is used instead of red. Some will have items we’re “for” already printed in the spaces, while others will be left blank to encourage public participation. If you’d like to have one, and support the notion of positive participation in the community, let me know.
---
Two hours after the group left to walk to the brewhouse, we ambled back home, and the reunion began winding down just before the rainfall at 8:00 p.m. I smoked a cigar to celebrate a successful conclusion to a familial obligation that I'll not be revisiting until some time around 2017, when I'll be ... a bit older than I am now. Who'll be coming then, and who will not?
There's no way to know, and that's why we play the game, same as with life in downtown New Albany.
---
BEER MONEY: Sign o’ the rabid times. By ROGER BAYLOR Local Columnist
This is the year my family reunion came to town.
Annual hosting privileges rotate between the cousins, who are the sons and daughters of my mother and her seven brothers and sisters, five of whom now have passed on. With my oldest cousin nearing seventy, and only a handful younger than me, it appears that a passing of the torch is imminent. Until then, we soldier on.
Roughly 40 people turned out for Saturday’s picnic-style finale at our house on East Spring in New Albany. Visitors came from as far away as Boston, El Paso and South Florida. A half dozen massive pizzas were trucked in, group photos were taken on the porch, and then we held the annual family meeting, catching up on events of the past year and previewing the reunion to come in 2010.
When the formal program ended, a few attendees indicated interest in checking out the Bank Street Brewhouse, which is only nine short blocks west of the house. It was between afternoon rain storms, and with skies sunny, we decided to go by foot. I asked them to meet me on the sidewalk, and we set off down Spring. After about four blocks, it occurred to me to look back and see who else had decided to come, and to my shock I saw that the small group had grown to more than twenty. Only the teetotalers stayed behind. My hunch is they weren’t very happy about it, but then again, teetotalers never are.
Feeling variously like the Pied Piper of beer and the helpful fellow on the Verizon Wireless commercials, I duly escorted this huge group of family members of all ages to the corner of Spring and Bank, made the northern turn, and presently we were examining the shiny new brewing equipment and indulging in scientific sampling. The pitchers were lined up on the counter, sweaty and beckoning, and everyone had a beer in hand. I have to admit that it made me proud.
Only a handful of those attending the reunion live in Floyd County, and throughout the brewhouse visit there were many questions about life and times in New Albany: What’s that building, and why’s the roof gone? Where’s the Greenway? Is your city council as loopy as ours? Why doesn’t someone make them clean that mess up?
And, perhaps my favorite: Isn’t there a rule against those tacky signs?
---
They’re not exactly yellow ribbons tied ‘round the old oak tree, those white yard signs scattered around town with the big red “NO” in screaming caps. I see them, and I shrug. To me, they’re the plaintive wail of the inarticulate and congenitally disaffected, those unable to describe what they’re “for” in the sense of a positive contribution to the community, only to squawk about what they’re “against” as a negation of unity.
What they’re really against is the whole of modernity, although they express it in terms of money. I find that unspeakably sad.
Since the overwhelming percentage of temporary signage posted hereabouts falls into categories of plainly illegal or trespassing, with handwritten day-care touts duct-taped to city-owned traffic signal stanchions, absentee slum lord solicitations stapled to wooden utility poles and political signs never removed after last year’s fall election, I tend to regard them as little more than obtrusive garbage.
Not only do I believe they should be removed; I’m perfectly willing to remove them myself, and will continue to do so whenever the mood strikes me. Nationwide, this blizzard of ugliness is known as “street spam,” and those who volunteer to remove it are “street spam sharks.”
But In the case of the raggedy, pestilential, malice-laden “NO” placards, most of them seem to be located quite properly in the yards of obstructionists. These are safe havens, perfectly legal, and the signs should be permitted to stand where they are as an indicator of bile within.
Several of us in the progressive bloc have concluded that matching “YES” placards should be created, although we’re mindful that describing what you’re “for” is sometimes more difficult than just screaming “NO” and holding your breath until you’re properly purple.
Among the “YES” suggestions that were made last week at the NA Confidential blog were these, in no particular order:
Rule of Law
Education
Fairness
Affordable health care
Sustainability
Code enforcement
Preservation
Green buildings
Friendly streets
Neighborhood schools
Craft beer
Bicycles
Gay Bars
Neighborhoods
Craftsmanship
Human-centered design
Communitas
Democracy here, now
Downtown
Native hardwoods
Participation
Redistricting
Two way streets
Locally owned businesses
“YES” signs currently are being printed and will mimic the design of the “NO” ones, except that green is used instead of red. Some will have items we’re “for” already printed in the spaces, while others will be left blank to encourage public participation. If you’d like to have one, and support the notion of positive participation in the community, let me know.
---
Two hours after the group left to walk to the brewhouse, we ambled back home, and the reunion began winding down just before the rainfall at 8:00 p.m. I smoked a cigar to celebrate a successful conclusion to a familial obligation that I'll not be revisiting until some time around 2017, when I'll be ... a bit older than I am now. Who'll be coming then, and who will not?
There's no way to know, and that's why we play the game, same as with life in downtown New Albany.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
YES yard signs are finished, and here's how you can get one.
Thanks to our generous donors and the diligent efforts of Pete Lyons at Digital Resource Center, we have YES yard signs ready to award to those blog readers who have something positive to advocate.
You decide what to write. YES signage is non-partisan and non-denominational, so get a Sharpie or fat Magic Marker and tell us what you’re “for” here in New Albany. Be sure to write your choices in large letters so the words can be read from the street.
Are there NO signs in your neighborhood? Consider a YES sign in your yard as counterweight to the negativity.
But before we go any further, please be aware of proper sign placement!
Yard signs are just that: Signs for a yard, not a public right-of-way (including the grass strip between the sidewalk and street), utility poles, street signage and the like. Erect yard signs on your property, not someone else’s – not the state’s the city’s or the utility’s properties.
Business owners are very much encouraged to take part in the YES effort, especially (but not exclusively) downtowners. Consider placing your YES sign in a window, and explain to your customers that we’re advocating a message of what we’re for, not against.
YES yard signs will be available for pickup from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, at DRC:
Digital Resource Center
302-B Pearl Street
New Albany, IN 47150
* One sign per household, please
* No charge, BUT if you haven’t already done so, please consider donating a few dollars to go toward paying for the next round. Pete will have a coffee can or something like it, so drop a fiver in it.
There also will be a limited number of YES yard signs at Bank Street Brewhouse on Saturday and Sunday for the convenience of after-hours YES men and women. There’ll be a coffee can there, too.
My first choice is for distribution to proceed on the basis of an honor system, so please: Don’t abuse it.
Thanks for your creativity! It’s time to go green.
You decide what to write. YES signage is non-partisan and non-denominational, so get a Sharpie or fat Magic Marker and tell us what you’re “for” here in New Albany. Be sure to write your choices in large letters so the words can be read from the street.
Are there NO signs in your neighborhood? Consider a YES sign in your yard as counterweight to the negativity.
But before we go any further, please be aware of proper sign placement!
Yard signs are just that: Signs for a yard, not a public right-of-way (including the grass strip between the sidewalk and street), utility poles, street signage and the like. Erect yard signs on your property, not someone else’s – not the state’s the city’s or the utility’s properties.
Business owners are very much encouraged to take part in the YES effort, especially (but not exclusively) downtowners. Consider placing your YES sign in a window, and explain to your customers that we’re advocating a message of what we’re for, not against.
YES yard signs will be available for pickup from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, at DRC:
Digital Resource Center
302-B Pearl Street
New Albany, IN 47150
* One sign per household, please
* No charge, BUT if you haven’t already done so, please consider donating a few dollars to go toward paying for the next round. Pete will have a coffee can or something like it, so drop a fiver in it.
There also will be a limited number of YES yard signs at Bank Street Brewhouse on Saturday and Sunday for the convenience of after-hours YES men and women. There’ll be a coffee can there, too.
My first choice is for distribution to proceed on the basis of an honor system, so please: Don’t abuse it.
Thanks for your creativity! It’s time to go green.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
YES, but not at tomorrow's city council meeting.
At least not from Jethro.
I'm told that the new batch of YES yard signs will not be finished until Monday, which means we'll have to postpone the presentation until September.
Paging Matt Nash: What's the status of your side of the plan?
Meanwhile, is City Hall climbing down from its garbage rate fee hike? Which council member will claim to know the most about flood prevention? Will Pat read the paving list this time, or trust the word of the fifth caller?
Only the open air museum's spinning wheel of serendipity knows for sure, but if you're a masochist, read the council's agenda and ask:
Will we get out of there in enough time for a relaxed beer?
I'll be blogging live from the council's vapid chamber, assuming the president doesn't block my wireless signal. After my column in the Tribune tomorrow, he just might.
I'm told that the new batch of YES yard signs will not be finished until Monday, which means we'll have to postpone the presentation until September.
Paging Matt Nash: What's the status of your side of the plan?
Meanwhile, is City Hall climbing down from its garbage rate fee hike? Which council member will claim to know the most about flood prevention? Will Pat read the paving list this time, or trust the word of the fifth caller?
Only the open air museum's spinning wheel of serendipity knows for sure, but if you're a masochist, read the council's agenda and ask:
Will we get out of there in enough time for a relaxed beer?
I'll be blogging live from the council's vapid chamber, assuming the president doesn't block my wireless signal. After my column in the Tribune tomorrow, he just might.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Yes: Signs being printed.
Last Friday I finally made time to drop in on Pete at DRC and make my modest monetary contribution to the Yes signage.A bunch of them are being printed in the "fill in the blank" format, i.e., you can use your own markers or paint to finish the sign with four concepts or causes that you are "for," as opposed to "against" as with the red signs currently littering the municipality.
The point? Yes, not no. Be for something, not perpetually against. Show the outside world that we support ideas here, not rage at the moon and stars in impotent, populist despair. That we are constructive and capable, not frustrated and angry. We can do, accomplish, and succeed. The exact words written on these signs is far less important than the big word: Yes.
If the Yes signs are ready by Thursday, August 20, I'll take a stack with me to the city council meeting and give one to each of our elected representatives.
Anyone else in on this fun piece of performance art?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
