IS IT TRUE December 2, 2013

1. The Franklin Street Sign Fiasco should be a lesson to all Area Plan Commission members, all City Council Members, all County Commissioners, and yes John Friend and Al Lindsey too.

   Typically, APC staff writes the sign codes in house with assistance from selected representatives of special interests groups. The code revisions then are sent to APC board members in their info packets a few days before the meeting in which APC will vote to recommend the code changes. But sometimes the updated code language is plopped down on the APC desks, in chamber, immediately before the meeting. In either case, the APC board members generally do not carefully read and fully digest the code language before voting on it.

   To make matters worse, whenever there are sign code changes, the big boys of the billboard and electronic sign industry flood the phone lines and monopolize the APC meetings with loud, vocal remonstrances against anything that might infringe upon their freedom of unrestricted advertising. The result is that the little details of the code language, such as those that regulate sandwich boards on sidewalks and small banners in restaurants windows, are totally overlooked.

   The same scenario is repeated at the City Council and County Commissioners meetings where the codes are officially adopted. The big boys are made happy. The small restauranteurs suffer the consequences.

   It is encouraging in the case of the Franklin Street Fiasco that both the Mayor and members of Council are willing to correct the situation.

   • +100 on this

     Very well written and ABSOLUTELY true!

     Your comments about “the big boys of the billboard and electronic sign industry” tells me you have been to some of the various hearings on changes to the local sign ordinance.

     Your entire post is correct, and your comments on this are particularly deadly accurate!

   • Well said. There’s going to be an article on here talking about the wide array of signs that make this next to impossible to enforce. When it comes to miniscule things like a sign I say forget about and focus on fighting the blight

2. Was at my favorite store Saturday evening. Two daily special storyboards out front. I guess the sign enforcement police do not make it to the East side………….

   • It is my understanding that the signs are allowed. You have to pay a yearly fee to do it. I would imagine that all of the businesses who were following the rules were glad to see that the Franklin St businesses were told they needed to do the same.
     If the answer is to get rid of the fees all together, that is great. But when the people who were not playing by the rules were simply told what they needed to do, everyone lost their minds.
     There were no fines issued, only a letter letting them know they were in violation. Kind of like a warning when the cops pull you over for speeding. Except people don’t too upset about those kinds of warnings.
     The funny thing about this is that when the issue of comp time came up, this site repeatedly said it is up to people to know the rules. When the sign issue came up, they gave the business owners a pass. The owners who did not know or follow the rules were tunred into heroes. The owners who knew the rules and followed them, like the CCO says we all should, were left out of the conversation.
     Now Al Linzy wants to hang his hat on the sign issue, but he kept his mouth shut about comp time story. Could that be becasue he was one of the city workers who was over the limit?

     • The annual fee for a sidewalk sign is apparently $400. That is usury to say the least. That said it should be enforced equally and in Evansville that never seems to happen. How about a nominal fee of $100 or less instead of more than a professional business license cost to be a contractor in Evansville. $400 to put up a small sign is ridiculous.

       • It is ridiculous to ask a business to pay a license of $33/month for signs. How will they ever be able to keep the doors open?

       • I never said it was a good thing. I just think it is funny how many people acted like the west side was under attack when it was really just them being told to play by the rules. The same rules many other businesses were already playing by. Even after all this time, people still think that it is illegal to have a sign at all.
         When people are quick to buy into the conspiracy theory, websites like this thrive.

       • Why ask businesses to pay any fee at all for signage? Where is the justification in that, other than propping up another unnecessary government department that leeches off productive businesses and attacks them to justify their flimsy jobs?

         No business has an incentive to piss people off or pose a danger to the public with their signage. The enforcement of signage rules is built into the mechanisms of business itself. Successful businesses are sympathetic to their areas of operation and sell products people want. No need for overblown, garish, or dangerous signs, just like there is no need for signage codes or an enforcement Gestapo.

         If we really wish to be pro business, lets question the need for such regulations in the first place.

         • Concur to a certain extent. It would be interesting to delve into the history of this regulation and see WHY it was created. I suspect it had to do with a business owner being a bad actor, and a ham-fisted requlation was created to deal with a very specific problem.

           Problematic business owners generally bring regulations on themselves by their bad behavior. Unfortunately, the good guys are always hit with collateral damage.

         • You have no idea how high some of the zoning, land development, and signage fees have become in the past 10 or so years. It’s especially a hard bite taken out of developers and home builders in the down market times since 2009.

     • Are you saying that there’s a double standard with CCO and their loyal followers? I’ve never sensed anything like that on these pages. (Tongue planted firmly in cheek) I could understand if one person held such double standards, but it speaks to the brain-dead mob mentality of the followers of this page that they do not recognize it. They follow the leader blindly regardless of how many about-faces that he leads them on.

       • I find your rants to be very entertaining. I’m glad you decided to continue to be a CCO Contributor.

         • Thank you and you’re welcome.

         • P.S. I’m not sure if my posts meet the sentence minimum to be considered rants. One of the criteria of a rant is that it needs to be of a certain length. Again, I thank you for the compliment. I strive to entertain all. My mom used to punish me for being the class clown. If she were still alive to see how you appreciate it.

       • Kiss it please

         • Classy.

       • You are an insulting individual, Phyllip. Your tongue wasn’t the only thing planted firmly in your cheek there. Your foot was shoved in there too, although you’re too egotistical and self-congratulatory to realize it. Incidentally, how you manage to get your foot in your mouth while your head is so far up your ass stands as a marvel of gymnastics and flexibility.

         • I find it funny that anytime we are in the same room, you come up to me and shake my hand or give me a friendly look of recognition, yet when you’re at home behind a key board you talk crap. More hypocrisy courtesy of Linzy.

         • I’m calling it as i see it, Phyllip. I’ll tell you in person as well while shaking your hand and looking you in the eye. A handshake is not a signifier of friendship, its a signifier of honesty and honor. A wave is a common courtesy that usually accompanies personal recognition. In this instance, to be perfectly honest, you are way off base and you are under serving of my respect.

           While on the subject of hypocrisy, let’s talk about why you denigrate the CCO as a pointless “tabloid”, its readership as a “brain-dead mob”, while you visit it and comment ceaselessly. I think you owe the Editor, the Publisher, and the readers an apology.

       • Hi pot I’m kettle. Nice to meet you!

         • Pot? Kettle? Where are my inconsistencies? Show me my double standards. There is not anyone that I blindly follow except Jesus.

         • Phyllip it’s not that your inconsistent, in fact it’s your constant slamming of the CCO and the posters that is puzzling, you rarely have a positive point in your posts and you are very quick to point out what you perceive as inconsistencies either in the CCO’s stance or any given poster.

           What you fail to realize is that none of us are all knowing and we grow and learn from each topic, in a lot of cases posted info or updates to stories change opinions or points of view, it may make some of us look wishywashy but it’s called being flexible and open minded to other points of view or info which is something you could benefit from, or a small dose of humility take your choice, both are character builders, both show a sign of intelligence and willingness to learn not only from your mistakes but from the experiences of others around you.

           You know the first step in solving any problem is admitting that there is a problem, most folk are a lot smarter than you may give them credit for and it would be a very boring world if we all thought the same or had the same opinion on any given topic, in a world were we are constantly bombarded with the word “diversity” and “tolerance to diverse groups” the popular concept of the liberals seems to have pasted you over, but then like all of us you are entitled to your opinion…correct?

           JMHO

           • Phyllip is a diamond in the rough. He thinks things through and forms opinions sometime, but other time he can be a tool for someone whom he admires like he was for Winnecke on the $37.5 Million hotel give away. He seems to have a generous soul but a narcissistic need to let everyone know when he has done a good deed. These are the follies of youth. Phyllip may well become an effective leader in Evansville or a be a lifetime tool. If he learns to bury his ego and think everything through we will know which.

3. The only place that makes any real sense for the IU Med School is on the campus of USI. That is where the current IU medical classes are being held.

   I am glad the decision is in the hands of IU instead of some cabal of local businessmen and their political conduits.

   __

   • Real bad sense ! The only logical location is the Warrick County site (Oh the HORROR!) out the Lloyd Expressway by Gateway.

   • I am sorry to say it, but, other than being a traffic disaster? USI would be the most sensible place-put the dorms downtown, like UIPUI in Indy.

4. I think we can all “debate” where it should go till the cows come home, but, I imagine it will be sited at the location of whomever brings the most money/freebies/green stuff to the negotiating table. Nothing more, nothing less. Let the auction commence.

   • That would truly be the worst case scenario. No combination of local businessmen and local politicians can provide a site with the permanence of the campus at USI.

     The South Bend IU Med School is located on the campus of Notre Dame:

     http://medicine.iu.edu/southbend/

     and Evansville’s IU Med School should be located on the campus of The University of Southern Indiana.

     __

     • Is Notre Dame’s campus in the middle of South Bend or is it out in the county or is a few miles outside of the city’s boundary? I don’t understand how so many people complain about the traffic on the east side and the growing congestion on the west side, but advocate for sites that will exacerbate the problem. I’m not sure but was South Bend’s school a partnership between four different educational entities? For autonomy of the project and the independent identity of the school, it should be on a site that is not part of one of the partners.

5. First of all, you will not find a more fiscally and socially conservative person than I am. I am not an idealogue that lacks the ability to understand that the world is not black and white. There are a lot of gray areas and that’s where progress lives. I have seen people on this site that consider theirself to be a hardline “fill-in-the-blank”, yet either waffle depending on their opinion of the parties involved or remain so rigid that they are willing to sink the ship to get their way. I am not an egotistical person. I know perception is a person’s reality, but to be insulted by people on this site that throw insults as a hobby does not bother me. Most of my posts are posted out of mockery and humor. If we can’t laugh at ourselves… I don’t talk about things that I do to brag. I hope that someone will read it and say that if someone as screwed up as Phyllip Davis used to be can do good deeds to help people in the community, then so can I. I’m here by the grace of God. All glory for any good deed that I do goes to Him.

   • A fiscal conservative would not have been in favor of the $37.5M and possibly not even the $20M. Maybe you could start by admitting that the $37.5M figure came about via laziness (at best) or cronyism (at worst). Also you could say that the opposition group did a good job in pushing for the reduction in public funds that resulted in saving $17.5M.

     • A fiscal conservative can understand that the ROI of $385-421 million in new spending and $121 million plus is new wages is a wise investment. Responsible spending will lead to progress, no spending will lead to our demise.

       • I call your statistics B.S. Can you provide any proof to backup these claims? I suppose you also believe the Mayor’s claim that the hotel will bring 250-ish full-time equivalent jobs?

     • Your statement represents the “sink the ship” mentality that I spoke of earlier.

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