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NO to electronic billboards in Durham

At its meeting tonight (7 pm, March 24, in the Herald Sun Community room), the InterNeighborhood Council (INC) will debate and vote on two resolutions concerning the billboard industry’s request to be able to upgrade billboards, to move them to new locations along I-85, 15-501, 501, 147, and Hwy 70, and to turn as many as 25 into the digital display variety that can show a different ad every eight seconds.

One resolution, put forward by the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood, asks INC to support Durham’s current billboard policy, which has served the City well since the 1980s.

The other resolution, ostensibly put forward by the Rockwood Falconbridge neighborhood, supports an effort led by Fairway Outdoor Advertising to overturn Durham’s current policy and open the door for electronic billboards in Durham. Of note is the fact that Rockwood’s resolution is being put forward by a resident who is also an attorney with K&L Gates — a firm representing, you guessed it, Fairway Outdoor Advertising.

UPDATE: According to an email from Tom Miller and Josh Allen of Watts-Hillandale, the second resolution “was put forward by the delegate from the Falconbridge neighborhood and was supported by Patrick Byker, the delegate from the Rockwood neighborhood.”

So, is that what INC is for? Is the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham just a shill for corporate entities who find local stand-ins to help manipulate community politics? Does the Rockwood neighborhood really support overturning Durham’s ban on new billboards?

Below is an opinion column from today’s Herald Sun. Penned by Durham residents John Schelp and Larry Holt, the column introduces a new website, which I am happy to host, and explains why new billboards in Durham is a bad idea.

Visit this site to learn more about why Durham has as few billboards as it does, and how you can help keep it that way.

The billboard industry is campaigning hard to overturn Durham’s existing ban on billboards. To counter the misinformation coming from industry, folks in the community are launching a new website today at http://SupportDurhamBillboardBan.com/.

On this site, you can see photos of billboards over homes in East Durham, video clips of blinking electronic billboards in action, and a thoughtful presentation supporting Durham’s current ban on billboards.

Overturning Durham’s ban on electronic billboards would open the door to big, bright, blinking billboards on I-85, 147, 15-501 and 70. Do we want large billboards at the top of tall metal poles — flashing ads every eight seconds — near homes, schools, parks and places of worship?

The site outlines many reasons to oppose the billboard industry’s attempt to overturn our ordinance.

Billboard taxes and the local economy: Billboards are not taxed on the amount of revenue they generate. So, billboards contribute an extremely small amount to Durham’s tax revenues.

Fairway Advertising paid just $2,605.60 in taxes last year. Just $2600 for the 46 billboards Fairway owns in Durham. Many single family residences in Durham pay a lot more than that.

Replacing standard billboards with electronic ones would generate 10 times more revenues for billboard owners — from $2,000 to $14,000/month (Inc. magazine). And yet, tax revenues would remain tiny.

Adding insult to injury, if local officials wanted to remove an electronic billboard for any reason in the future, Durham taxpayers would have to compensate the owners for lost revenues.

Jobs: Durham would see few economic benefits from new jobs, since billboard companies employ very few people (mostly managers and sales personnel), and Fairway’s offices are in Georgia and Raleigh. Fairway’s impact on Durham’s economy is negligible.

Public Service Ads: A common industry tactic for undermining public opposition to electronic billboards is to offer free billboard space to non-profit organizations. The industry has employed this tactic in Durham, asking City Council members to name their favorite local non-profits then approaching the groups and offering them free billboard space. This explains why you’re suddenly seeing non-profit billboards around town.

The often unnoticed irony in this tactic is that the ads on electronic billboards change about 10,800 times/day. So, we can see PSAs for anti-drinking programs followed by ads for Bud Lite and Seagram’s Vodka.

Billboards and the environment: Electronic billboards have a big carbon footprint — equivalent to that of about 13 houses. At the same time citizens are being urged to use florescent light bulbs to reduce our individual carbon footprints, we’re being urged to embrace billboards and their energy consumption?

Public safety: Anything that distracts a driver’s eyes from the road for more than two seconds significantly increases the chances of a wreck. Electronic billboards are designed to attract drivers’ attention and are an intrinsic safety hazard. Do we really want drivers on our increasingly congested thoroughfares intentionally distracted by attention-grabbing electronic billboards?

Aesthetics: Durham citizens, neighborhood groups, and local officials worked hard to reduce billboard blight along our highways and in our city. There have been a many, many letters to the editor from Durham citizens who oppose electronic billboards and a only a few supporting the billboard industry, with most of those coming from the Friends of Durham/Chamber of Commerce camp. Some of these letter writers have blamed local government for the deterioration of billboards in Durham. The fact is that current ordinances allow billboard companies to make annual improvements in order to maintain their billboards, but the industry has allowed its billboards to deteriorate anyway. These billboards may be ugly, but don’t blame current ordinances or local government.

The Chamber’s efforts on behalf of the billboard industry to overturn the current ban on electronic billboards, despite citizen outcry, begs the question: Why are the City and County giving the Chamber $128,000 in taxpayer subsidies/year so the Chamber can turn around and lobby local officials on behalf of outside interests that contribute little to our local economy or quality of life?

And it’s inexcusable that billboard industry lawyers target a Planning staffer because the facts she presents don’t support their client’s attempt to overturn Durham’s ban on electronic billboards (Officials’ objectivity questioned, Herald-Sun, 3/08/09). Surely, the billboard industry isn’t suggesting that relevant facts should be kept from the public?

As a recent article points out, there are plenty of compelling reasons not to overturn Durham’s ordinance (Planner: Proceed with caution on billboard issue, Durham News, 2/07/09)…

• Fairway’s billboards now produce about $2,600 in county tax revenue; switching some to digital “would still not generate significant revenue”
• Local government cannot require the signs to carry public-service messages
• Digital billboards could be found to violate the federal Highway Beautification Act
• Allowing digital billboards while safety studies are pending could expose Durham to liability for accidents
• Full sunlight reaches about 6,500 “nits;” a digital billboard can reach 10,000 nits.

Please visit our new website. Electronic billboards are a bad idea for Durham. Together, we can stop the billboard industry.

new bike lanes now on Durham Bike Map

Approximately 6 miles of new bike lanes have been added to Durham streets since the 2006 Bicycle Plan was completed by Greenways, Inc. I’ve added those bike lanes to the Durham Bike Map.

New bike lanes are on…

• Chapel Hill Road from Pickett Road to Anderson Street (0.4 miles)
• Downing Creek Parkway from NC 54 to Barbee Chapel Rd (0.9 miles)
• Elizabeth St from Main St. to Carlton St. (0.4 miles)
• Erwin Road from Anderson St. to Pettigrew St. (0.5 miles)
• Leon St from Duke to Haverford (0.6 miles)
• Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. from Hope Valley Rd. to University Dr (1.6 miles)
• Nichols Farm Road from Holloway Street to Holder Road (1.2 miles)
• Sedwick Rd from Dedmon Ct. to Verna St. (0.5 miles)
• Lawson Street from Bacon St. to Briggs Ave. (0.5 miles)

Which brings the total length of striped bike lanes in Durham to approximately 20.4 miles. Thanks to Dale McKeel for the update.

View Larger Map

Coffee with Council

Durham City Council periodically hosts these open-house style events. Each would be a great opportunity to share your thoughts on pot holes, bike lanes, tree pruning, digital billboards, and other potential obstacles to Council’s re-election, er, opportunities to enhance our quality of life in Durham.

Monday, March 9, 2009, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Durham Public School Resource Center, 2107 Hillandale Road.

Thursday, March 12, 2009, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Council Committee Room, Second Floor of City Hall, 101 City Hall Plaza.

Saturday, March 14, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park, 1309 Halley St.

From an announcement:

Durham City Council is hosting a series of Coffee with Council meetings where residents can have an opportunity to provide input to council members on the upcoming 2009-2010 fiscal year budget.

In addition, for the first time this year will be a Citizen Engagement Workshop on the budget. The workshop is set for Monday, February 23, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park, 1309 Halley St. The workshop is intended to engage citizens in conversation about City government’s budget priorities during these tight fiscal times.

This workshop is in addition to the Coffees with Council and will be more interactive. Space will be limited to the first 100 residents and reservations are required. Reserve a spot by contacting Mildred Rogers at mildred.rogers@durhamnc.gov or call (919) 560-4111, ext. 284.

Tree City USA

Maybe we should rethink our commitment to urban forestry. I’m not exactly feeling the full benefits.

More here and here.

Edit: By request, here’s the poster image in pdf to download, print, and/or share with your favorite City Council members.

New passenger rail welcome in North Carolina

With Durham’s new Amtrak station set to be on line this summer* and its new bus station opening next week, timing couldn’t be better for local governments to engage in a little self-reflection focused on our urban transit systems.

PBS takes a look at the politics and success of Charlotte’s new light rail line (see below). Through self-puffery, McCrory comes off sounding like he doesn’t think other cities can do something as successful as Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line, but the fact of the matter is there is a lot of money designated for mass transit in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The video includes an interview with one of my favorite NC transportation “experts,” David Hartgen.

This may be North Carolina’s — and the Triange’s — best chance in years to move out of the fossil age and into the 21st century. Hopefully the Southeast High Speed Rail corridor, the Macon-Atlanta-Greenville-Charlotte Rail Corridor, and the Western North Carolina Rail project, as well as municipal/interlocal light rail systems will all get a boost from the stimulus package.

This is not a time to think small, and in the coming year we’ll see just how broad thinking our local leadership really is.

*Note: Durham once had a great train station; let’s see if we can keep this one.

Bike/ped opportunities in the economic stimulus bill

Make sure Transportation Enhancement funding is in the final bill.

This week there will be a conference committee where several members of the House and several members of the Senate will work together to reconcile the two bills. Conferees need to hear that Transportation Enhancements are important to stimulating the economy, creating green jobs, and moving us towards a sustainable future.

Make three calls or send three emails today:

1. Senator Kay Hagan
(202) 224-6342 (Washington, DC office)
(919) 856-4630 (Raleigh office)
Senator_Hagan@hagan.senate.gov

2. Senator Richard Burr
(202) 224-3154 (Washington, DC office)
(800) 685-8916 (Winston-Salem office)
(252) 977-9522 (Rocky Mount office)
(828) 350-2437 (Asheville office)
(704) 833-0854 (Gastonia office)
(888) 848-1833 (Wilmington office)
Write to Senator Burr using this link: http://burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

3. Call your representative
Find your representative here – http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#nc

…and ask each of them to tell the Conferees to support Transportation Enhancements in the Economic Recovery bill.

Tell them:

• Bicycle and pedestrian projects create jobs at the same or better rate than highway projects.
• These smaller projects can move quickly to hire local businesses and help local economies.
• Providing safe and convenient bicycle and pedestrian access gives families healthier and cheaper transportation options.
• Improving sidewalks and bike lanes can make a downtown a destination, further helping the local economy.
• Better biking and walking options also help ensure greater energy independence, less pollution, and a healthier United States!

Please share this alert with all bicyclists (and pedestrians) you can, and encourage them to join you in supporting biking and walking today!

Adapted for from email action alerts published by MassBike and Durham for Obama.

Tesla test drive

The Washington Post has an autoreview/video for the new Tesla.  I saw a Tesla dealership on Santa Monica Blvd while I was out in LA this summer, and these cars really do look as sexy, sleek, and stylish in person as they do in photos.

President Obama’s announcement today that the EPA should review its previous denial of California’s request to impose stricter auto emission standards will hopefully loosen the federal restrictions against progressive states. And, if California and other states do impose stricter emissions standards, then we are likely to see more innovation along the lines of the Tesla’s all electric powertrain. I do realize that the Tesla is more a proof-of-concept, an all electric car with Ferrari-like torque, than affordable family car. Nonetheless, by proving that an all-electric car doesn’t have to look like a 1980’s vision of the future, Tesla opens the door for designers to rethink the electric car.

But as I have said before, if only some designers — at the level of auto manufacturing or road engineering — would use more of the advanced technology available today to create cars that are safer and more comfortable for the world outside the steel cage and not just inside. I mean, 43,000 deaths annually would be an epidemic (or at least a public health crisis) if those deaths were caused by anything other than the can’t-live-without automobile.

Triangle J wants your input

and is willing to pay for it. Randomly.

The Triangle J Council of Governments is conducting a travel survey, which you can complete online.

Want a chance to earn extra cash?  All respondents who submit completed surveys will be automatically entered to win 1 of 4 $100 Visa gift cards!

If you think Triangle J (and its nickname, TJ-COG) is a weird name, you’re not alone.

bike lane advocates = terrorists?

Sunday’s Washington Post has an article on the long arm of the law…

The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored — and labeled as terrorists — activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.

The sidebar to the printed article (photo clipping at left) indicates that Critical Mass was targeted as security threat for “asserting the cyclists right [sic] to the road and not denying the rights of others.” Thanks to Jym Dyer for sharing the photo.

Who knew that advocating for cleaner transportation alternatives and more humane urban development was a threat to national security…

Dave Wofford: Bull City Bikers

When Dave Wofford (37) tires of preventing forest fires, he designs graphics and presses letters at Durham’s finest fine-art letterpress, the Horse and Buggy Press. Originally a champion of Raleigh’s art community, Wofford has come to see the aesthetic benefits of living, biking, and now blogging in the Bull City. His Critical Mass posters (featured in the far right column) have become an icon within Durham’s two-wheeled community. A decidedly old school and opinionated fellow, he has been known to let loose on City Council as ferociously as Draplin lets loose on Blippo Bold. But perhaps because he knows that communications with elected officials are public record, Wofford is less colorful – though no less serious – in his quest to fix the potholes in and around downtown Durham.

He is, therefore, the next Bull City Biker.

Bikes you own and ride regularly
I have one bike currently. “Moose” is my Trek 720 hybrid I bought used for $200 at the North Rd Bicycle Shop in Raleigh in 1996. (I lived in Raleigh til 2003).  Got a Tubus rear rack, some saddlebags, and drop bars from Gilbert and Susan as well a year after. A couple months ago I switched from toe clips to eggbeaters which I picked up off craigslist for $30. Sometime in 2009 this beast will become the guest bike as I am going to finally upgrade… to a custom lugged steel bike. Perhaps Circle A. We’ll see.

What’s your primary flavor of riding? City road rides.

What’s the length and frequency of your average ride?
I live in Old West Durham, I work downtown. very short commute, less than three miles. Didn’t commute much this year because we got a dog and I’ve been driving in so I can take Bella to work with me. We just bought “walky dog” though and have been training.

One more training ride then we’ll start riding in together. So far Bella is taking well to it, and I give walky dog a thumbs up.

Tuesday nights I hit the trail with friends for an out and back (20 miles or so), Thursdays sometimes make a meander around Durham, occasionally Saturdays make a three hour or so spin into what we have in these parts that might pass for countryish roads. In the summer a few rides zigging the zag to the Mapleview country store for an ice cream sundae at sunset (usually have the wife meet me out there with the car and a bucket of fried chicken and I take the soft way home). In a good year I’ll get in a couple rides to Carter Finley to take in some Wolfpack football. Once in a blue moon I work in a half day ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway or backroads of Mitchell and Yancey counties where my Penland friends reside. Once every few years I ride out to the beach for a two day ride that kicks off a one week vacation of body surfing, not wearing shoes, drinking Guiness at noon under the sun. Why I don’t do this every year I’m really not sure.

Why did you start riding and why do you still ride?
Freedom as a kid to go out and explore, check out which basketball courts are running the best pickup games, cruise the cart paths on the golf course, ride trails in the woods. Feel the breeze, smell the smells. Be outside and be moving.

Freedom as a college student to get around in a fun and efficient manner. 20 minute walk each way to the dining hall really cut into my studio time until I started biking.

I hate waiting/standing still. Being in a car at red lights is like chinese water torture for me.

I like the journey to and from an event (music show, ADF performance, author reading, artist lecture, art show, beers or diner with friends, etc) to actually become part of or a continuation of the event. Riding home from events and bars prevents the buzzkill of getting in a car and prematurely ending the aesthetic experience of the event. I like the potential of spontaneity at every moment. You see and smell and hear a lot more on the bike ride than the car ride. I like the physics of it all. It runs through your body, memories and feelings and thinking are triggered, that kind of thing. Beer tastes better after a ride. Plus I feel like I earned the beer(s).

I smile more after I get off the bike than when I get out of the car.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve seen while out for a ride?
The Boston crew riding their bikes naked while “competing” in the 1998 Bike Courier World Championships in DC.

How would your world be different if you wake up tomorrow and there are no more cars?
Probably meet new friends and have a lot more conversations on the bike ride in to work.

video by thomas nickles

What’s one thing Durham could do to become more bike friendly?
Put a new road construction moratorium in effect until every currently existing road has a paved shoulder or bike lane; the city has caught up with the backlog of resurfacing the streets; and all the lights have been retimed to favor crosstown traffic and so the N/S cul de sac car commuters hit all the reds. Turn every one way road into bi-directional travel (i.e. Duke, Gregson, Roxboro, Mangum).

I mean seriously, when the hell is someone gonna run for mayor on this platform? Tell me they wouldn’t win in a landslide!

Between limited engagements dancing in downtown storefronts, you can read his retro grouch ramblings at http://horseandbuggypress.wordpress.com/

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