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No digital billboards in Durham

This is it. The billboard industry has submitted their proposal requesting to change Durham’s current billboard ordinance. Most significantly, the proposal would allow up to 25% of existing billboard space to be converted to those annoying, distracting digital billboards.

Fairway Outdoor Advertising (now Fairway Media Magic, per a recent merger) has some gall to propose this change now. It’s obvious that they waited until after the election to bring this up, so as to avoid making billboards an election issue. But more importantly, the Durham Convention and Visitors’ Bureau recently released data from a poll conducted over the summer that demonstrates clearly how Durham residents feel about the prospect of digital billboards: 72% of those polled rejected it.

Read more about their proposal at Bull City Rising and the Herald Sun.

Visit the following website to refresh your memory as to why the billboard ban exists, to see examples of digital billboards in other communities, and to learn the concerns about their energy footprint, safety record, and the aesthetic impact digital billboards could have on Durham.

http://supportdurhambillboardban.com/

Please email links to this posting or to  http://supportdurhambillboardban.com/ to your neighborhood listserv, post it to Facebook, etc. Spread the word; stop the billboards.

The new Contact page on the site has been updated with the following suggestion…

Someday, my child, all this will be yours

Durham bike patrol officer trained as a bike mechanic

Who knows, “protect and serve” might mean changing your tire the next time you flat.

h/t to Dale McKeel who pointed this out on the durhambikeandped listserv.

Durham Freeway bridge set to be replaced, finally

It’s about f*ckin’ time. Known as “The Ugly Green Thing” on Waymarking’s website, the pedestrian bridge over the Durham Freeway is not the most attractive entrance to the Bull City. Yet, if you’re traveling up 147 from either Research Triangle Park or from I-40 (as most people coming to Durham from Raleigh would), then this behemoth is what greets you.

By the end of May, that may all change.

From today’s Herald Sun…

Bridge replacement set to begin
The Herald-Sun
May 19, 2009

DURHAM — Demolition and replacement of the pedestrian bridge at Alston Avenue will begin later this month, resulting in overnight traffic detours on N.C. 147.

Beginning May 26 and lasting approximately two weeks, traffic on the Durham Freeway will be rerouted using Briggs and Alston avenues as detours from 11 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. as crews complete the demolition of the old pedestrian bridge.

After demolition is complete and the new bridge span arrives, crews will again close N.C. 147 during the same hours and using the same detour routes until the new bridge span is in place. The second closure will be announced once this date is set.

Read the rest at the Herald Sun’s website.

I wrote a column about the 147 bridge in May 2006, at which time the story was that the bridge was set to be demolished in the fall of 2006 and that the new bridge might possibly be open by the fall of 2007. When delays in fulfilling promises take this long, what should be celebrated as good news turns into bittersweet resentment.

new Durham Freeway (Hwy 147) bridge design, ca. 2006

new Durham Freeway bridge design, ca. 2006

American Tobacco Trail bridge supporters take note. As I pointed out in October 2007, for most of the time I have lived in Durham construction dates for the American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40 and the new pedestrian bridge over 147 are indexical: no matter when you ask, the answer is always “they should be completed in about 2 years.”

So, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Design images courtesy of Stewart Design

Foster’s Market needs more quality control

A “vegan” sandwich from Foster’s has swiss cheese. How’s that again?