It seems to me ever since there was data indicating that repairing broken
windows led to a decrease in crime, folks have gotten a little too gung-ho in
their zeal for pristine neighborhoods. The tone of Mr. McLaughlin's post
raises my semi-dormant anti-business hackles. He and his cronies may see
concert, dance and other cultural flyers stapled on telephone poles as
insidious blight and vandalism that undermines their efforts to enhance their
profit margin, but he and they may want to consider that many of their
potential customers might not agree. Personally, I find the incessantly
insipid advertising and promotions--including billboards and signage-- far
more of a blight on my sensibilities. People who want to shop in an
environment where there are no signs of guerrilla commercialism certainly
have their options; god knows there are enough malls out there. But when it
comes to Uptown or Lyn-Lake by where Oakfolk is located, one of the
attractions is--or at least to be--that a little bit of unpredictably urban
flavor came through. I don't want my visual landscape dictated by businesses
catering to customers who are afraid for their safety is they see a Selby
Tigers flyer on a telephone pole. And if we are going to fight against
specified areas where flyers can be posted--which was the momentum of the
thread, until Mr. McLaughlin jumped in--then I say we pass laws against
billboards, limit the size of business signage and have a REALLY nice, clean
neighborhood for everybody.
Britt Robson
Lyndale
As a consultant to multiple business associations in Minneapolis, I am
compelled to comment on this thread. Flyers, posters and other bills
adhered to telephone poles are an insidious and ever-present form of blight.
Most business owners I work with are only irritated by this form of
vandalism; they certainly do not view it terms of community-serving
information distribution - which can be accomplished in more constructive
ways.
As with graffiti and poorly maintained newspaper racks on sidewalks (as
recently discussed on this list), telephone poles and other right-of-way
objects covered with posters only serve to undermine the efforts of
neighborhood businesses in attracting and retaining customers. This visual
blight conveys an aesthetic of disinvestment and general neglect, which can
create misperceptions of safety problems in our neighborhood commercial
areas.
Several of my groups have struggled with how to deal with this problem in
recent years. The most successful approach has been working with Hennepin
County Sentence-to-Serve juvenile work crews, which have come out to rip the
posters down. In Stadium Village, we went as far as exploring the
feasibility of burying power lines along several blocks of Washington Avenue
SE. (The ballpark estimate provided by NSP was $500,000 to bury four blocks
of "feeder" lines. The effort stopped there, as the businesses would have
had to incur the brunt of the cost.)
On a personal note, as the individual that had to convince the 75% of
property owners along Hennepin Avenue to pay the assessment for the new
pedestrian-level lighting (a $1.1m project) from which CM McDonald removed
the illegal stickers, I applaud her efforts to track down the offending
record company. (Though not the method employed, if Mr. Trehus’s account is
accurate.)
Michael McLaughlin
Cedar-Isles-Dean - Ward 7
