As we find ourselves even deeper in this horrible economic climate, the City of Albany is striving to help us, it’s beloved citizens, by doing what? Ah yes, penalize small businesses because their signs are a “distraction”. Yeah, that makes sense.
You see, as we find companies moving out like Merck and Cooper Tire have recently done, we need our small businesses more and more. A sign ordinance like the City of Albany is currently enforcing does nothing more than target those small businesses with regulations that serve no other purpose. So much for sensible government.
The claim is that these signs “distract” drivers and therefore are a hazard to the well being of the individual. Of course, my question is why? Why can’t we just penalize drivers who have ADD to such a degree that they are distracted by the shiney, shiney signs adorning the ground in front of a private business. Instead, we penalize the lifesblood of our community…the small business.
Small businesses not only provide money for property taxes, but they are also the primary source for sales tax income for the city, and at a time when more and more businesses and people are looking northward towards Lee County for a little bit of relief from the ridiculous edicts of our local government.
Perhaps, soon, we can actually get our elected officials to prioritize properly and not worry so blasted much about what kind of sign Bo Henry has in front of Harvest Moon and just be thankful that when he left downtown, it was for Northwest Albany and not for somewhere north of Dougherty’s border instead of jumping all over him for a sign that predated his residence in the blasted building.
Oh how I long for signs of common sense in government.
Lets talk about this lack of “common sense” in government.
So Tilson buckles on his pistol (!), hops into his taxpayer funded vehicle and sallies forth to enforce codes. On his way from downtown, he undoubtedly drives past numerous rickety houses, overgrown yards and junk cars.
As a sidenote, he also passes a “non-profit” hospital with $300 million in the Cayman Islands that is draining our local economy. Insofar as our local leadership has ignored cries from the few remaining industries here that the hospital is killing them (as our focused leadership instead builds arches and aquariums), our story will ignore the hospital here as well.
Our hero is not distracted by the minor perils of rotting houses and junk cars. Rather, he has a much more threatening target: a small businessman. You see, in a week where we have had three shootings in three days in Albany, where pizza drivers now run the risk of being shot or carjacked while earning their pittance of a salary, in its genius, the Albany City Commission can pay someone like Mr. Tilson to harrass honest taxpayers. This is the sense of priorities that our leaders have.
Peronally, I wish Albany looked like Las Vegas. I like economic growth. Bright, new, shiny signs are an emblem of growth. But because our commissioners are beholden to a bunch of Doublegate fruitcakes called the “Clean Community Commission” (an ironic name if there ever was one, given the rampant drugs and crime here), they have chosen to work against small businesses and taxpayers to dig the economic hole deeper. Once more, our leadership has sold us out, this time to a gaggle of busybodies, Junior League anorexics and doctors’ wives (if you can’t get bought by a non-profit, this is a good second choice).
I appreciate that the caliber of people hired by Code Enforcement is low and I agree with Tom that they lack common sense, I also agree that these people would starve if they were required to get a real job, but as an optimistic person, I can see a silver lining here. Now in addition to the Oglethorpe Bridge arch that Commissioner Langstaff proudly displays to his Florida friend, he can also demonstrate the make-work program we have called “Code Enforcement.”
It’s just unfortunate that the cost of this program is so high on the rest of us and getting higher as they dig our local economy deeper into its grave.
Jack: Just some clarification. I never accused the code enforcement officers of lacking common sense. I don’t know the people and therefore I won’t insult them. I do say that the sign ordinance indicates a lack of common sense in city government. I’m like you in that I don’t care if Albany looks like Las Vegas…it’s a matter of property rights to me.
However, I never saw anything where Commissioner Langstaff “proudly displayed” the arch. In fact, he said he wasn’t a fan of it himself, but that a client liked it. Personally, I like the look of it partially (the cheap looking base sucks, but that’s it) but my issue is that it was a waste of taxpayer money.
Bo Henry is the man and I use to tell him that he was the real downtown manager when he was actually downtown or his band was grooving at Charlie Bs. He brought that college town vibe to the area and his departure for the westside was rough.
When I was an intern in the city manager’s office in Americus in the late 80s, we worked on a sign ordinance and the city council kept saying that they did not want their city to look like the strip in Panama City Beach or Slappey Blvd. in Albany. Their ordinance was based on similar sized cities and had a provision dictating that (to scale) if the front of a building was an envelop, a sign in front should not be bigger than a standard business card.
The Albany discussion should include a grandfather clause but Bo’s mention of the age of his sign in the paper today is interesting since the Harvest Moon has been in that location for a relatively short time. I remember read the “all you can eat” chicken deal on that same sign when it was Gus’s Port Pit Barbeque; we use to put a hurting on them.
Bo knows best and if it wasn’t for location, location, location he would be scouting sites in Lee County. After this post, the mountain who works as a doorman at the Moon might turn me away from hearing the Friday night acoustic set.
For sake of philosophical and economic argument, Tom, I’ll say they lack common sense. Take a moment and drive through Albany (especially the residential areas downtown) and you see buildings literally falling apart. There are balconies on older buildings hanging by a nail, clearly posing a danger. Buildings vacant, boarded up or with broken windows, several homes actually overgrown with kudzu and weeds. To think our “code enforcement” employees think they should spend their time harrassing Bo Henry in preference to dealing with these eyesores seems, to me at least, the definition of lacking common sense.
Further, Bo is actually adding something to the community with jobs and taxes. He gets more traffic than the riverquarium and he didn’t cost the taxpayer $30 million. Why give him a hard time? The answer is that the mentality of these “enforcers” is precisely that: they think it’s their responsibility to give businesspeople a hard time.
Actually, I agree with you about Bo Henry’s influence downtown. Whether anyone agrees with me or not, what improvements I saw downtown were mostly laid down at his feet, and not any government agency. Right or wrong, that was the perception among a great many people, especially have so many stalled downtown plans in the past.
As for the sign in the Herald article, I think that it is a ground sign from before moved in and something that would be costly to remove, at least as I understand it. I believe he simply paid to modify and get working a sign that was already in place, hence the grandfather clause.
Slyram: When the first variant of the sign ordinance came out in the 1980s, I remember one of its pumpers (Greg McCormack) complaining how Slappey drive looked so visually overwhelming and active. Well, Greg and his happy gang really helped solve that “activity problem.” Give us back Slappey of 30 years ago.
BTW, one of the delicious ironies of this self-inflicted wound to our local economy is that several years later Bob’s Candies (which McCormack inherited) went bust. I suppose Greg’s now enjoying not being “active” either, now.
Tom: The implication of your last post is well taken. For people to go downtown, they have to WANT to. No amount of government spending will MAKE them. When Harvest Moon was downtown, it drew more traffic than Riverquarium, the Arch, Musical Ray Charles, etc. all combined and it didn’t cost Joe Taxpayer a cent. To the contrary, it paid taxes. This comparison between public spending and private investment is something the ATI/ADICA types will never understand.
I don’t actually argue about the screwed up priorities. However, without knowing what exactly they are told and by whom, I want to avoid placing blame any anyone’s feet until I know more.
Tom, thanks for correcting Jack for me on the arch. I will do a blog or posting soon about the sign ordinance. This seems like a relatively healthy place for some logical discourse on it.
Unfortunately, I am heading to Atlanta today en route to Costa Rica with Leadership Georgia (Paying my own way, I might add. No taxpayer funding issue here.), so I cannot give the time and attention this issue deserves immediately. FYI, Georgia is heavily invested in Costa Rica, through imports and exports of goods as well as brain power. UGA and GT have satellite campuses I should be visiting. More on that maybe later.
Although I do not have all my ducks in a row on this, let me give you some points to ponder while I am away:
Las Vegas has one of the most stringent sign ordinances in the world. It is not by accident that it is the city of a billion lights. If you haven’t been recently, look at pictures on the web. The crappy stuff is relegated to areas that create the Old Vegas ambience. It is not crap by happenstance. You cannot put a new sign in the old area. I think the term is “retro.” As for the newer stuff in other areas of Vegas, well…it looks new, state of the art. I would love for Albany to look like Vegas, but Vegas has that market cornered. No one is going to succeed trying to replicate Vegas…except maybe Disney. It is INCREDIBLY expensive to do signage like Vegas codes demand. The retro signs have to have so many bulbs, of a certain type, etc. etc.
Albany’s sign ordinance is not new. It has been around a LONG time. It was recently re-codified and tweaked because it was fraught with potential constitutional problems. Every year the US Supreme Court hands down some decision which impacts sign ordinances, directly or indirectly. It is a nightmare to keep pace. Because the city failed to keep pace with changes in the law city staff did not feel comfortable attempting to enforce many of its provisions.
Why have a sign ordinance? To maintain an inviting community. To diffentiate ourselves from the stereotypical podunk Southern town that no one really wants to open a business in or live in. Without some sign ordinance I could put a 100′ tall blinking sign with a mug shot of (insert your most hated political figure here)at my home or business. Clearly, there has to be some regulation to promote quality business and quality of life. If you sincerely think you can just let people act on their good conscience in this regard, then there is no sense reading further. If necessary, I can produce pictures of “sign blight” to try to show the horrors that are possible.
If you can appreciate that SOME regulation is necessary, then the question for me becomes what is the minimum regulating you can do to reach the goal?
The minimum regulating to attain the level of aesthetics in Sea Island and Las Vegas is not going to be the same as Albany, GA. Is Albany too progressive, liberal, conservative, restrictive, or oppressive in its sign ordinance? That is impossible to answer in general terms. I think we have to look at specific provisions, like the one that is affecting Harvest Moon, and see what the goal of the provision is and whether it is the minimum regulation required to meet the goal. In doing that analysis I would like to know which cities have similar provisions. This is being researched, and I should have it when I get home.
As a general note, I would be happier if we could focus on the worse code enforcement issues like decrepit buildings and abandoned cars, etc. which directly affect crime before tackling sign blight. It might be best to address sign blight on a complaint driven basis until the worse stuff is tackled. I may offer a resolution to that effect upon my return, contingent on input from staff and the city attorney on the subject.
I know you cannot selectively enforce laws, but you can focus on certain problems and deal with others on a complaint-driven basis. With that being said, we wouldn’t want to see a thousand billboards pop up across town while we were working on dilapidated houses either.
The other issue is whether our sign blight is hurting our economic development. Pretend you are a business person looking to expand in Albany. You fly into the airport. You drive downtown to meet with Ted Clem at the EDC to see what he can do for you. You rent a car, and ride out to the mall area for lunch. You wind up driving by the old rusty Carmike sign on Gillionville. Maybe you drive by a cheap 20′ banner on Slappey that is flapping in the breeze. You find your way down Meredith Drive, and you wonder why the rest of the city looks so different.
What would strike you about the signage in the city? Do we look like we don’t care how we look? Do we look like a stereotypical south Georgia town? Do we look cluttered or uncluttered? Would upper management transferred here think they had just arrived in the armpit of Georgia, or would they feel like this could be their home forever?
Just asking you to think about it. Drive the route. Personally, I don’t think we are presenting our best face with our signage. I think we can do better, but I may be asking too much. Is it the most pressing concern? No. Does it affect economic and community development? Probably.
Thanks for the reply. However, I have to balance what you say with one of the most basic principles to me, which is property rights. Basically, the sign ordinance regulates what I can and can’t do with my property, but also how I can and can’t advertise my business. I personally fail to see how the old Carmike sign will be what turns away future investment in this community when the boarded up windows on the building are a non-issue.
Now, if in fact you’re correct and sign ordinances will attract business, then fine. However, please tell me how Harvest Moon’s sign will run off potential investors, or how streamers at used car lots will run off the next Cooper Tire or Merck? I honestly can’t see it.
Now, since you asked “If you can appreciate that SOME regulation is necessary, then the question for me becomes what is the minimum regulating you can do to reach the goal?” That’s a fair question, and frankly I’ll think a bit on it and write up a post regarding this very issue. Basically, I’d offer my own plan, so to speak, and let’s see what we’ve got. Fair enough?
If our commissioners think that sign ordinances attract businesses, then we really are doomed.
Selling points: High crime, excessive health care costs, poor schools, BUT we DO have a sign ordinance!
Some cities requires signs for out of business businesses to be removed. Broken signs the same. As for Carmike, if somebody doesn’t happen to drive past the new Wynnsong, they may think Albany can’t even support a movie theatre. That’s not good…and it’s not true. First impressions are everything.
I may be incorrect, but the Harvest Moon issue was about number of signs. I think the sign ordinance provides every business basically one ground sign. I am waiting on details about Harvest Moon, but let’s just say for sake of argument that they allegedly slightly exceeded number of ground sign limitation. If they are allowed to exceed it, then everybody MUST be allowed to exceed. That is the law. You can’t do for one and not everybody. That means that Publix, K-Mart, Target, etc. could all ADD another ground sign. I don’t think we can afford to let the existing signage in the city almost double. Picture every business in the city with an extra sign. Is there a way around this? Is there some grandfathering? I hope so. Details to follow.
Streamers at used car lots…not a major deal to me personally, but it is an intangible, almost subconscious thing that says: “Hey, we still have a lot of people here that can be wooed into buying a car based upon the length and number of streamers we have. Please ignore that, and bring us all your highest paying jobs.” That ain’t a particularly good image to present. My guess is the streamer thing is common in most sign ordinances, but I can check into how it got into our ordinance.
Fair enough about thinking up a plan…
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And why not? I would like to think new and existing businesses would come and reinvest. Signs are an emblem of prosperity.
Better to have signage double than vacancies. Make Albany business-friendly and most of our problems will solve themselves.
Keep pouring money down ratholes “because they’re there” and harrassing innovative businesses and you’ll finish the economic destruction of Dougherty County that is already well underway.
Well, the streamers were more of an attention getter for the used car lots, which otherwise look like parking lots if you don’t actually read the signs in front of the business. In this economy, I personally say to let these lots have every advantage they can get, but that’s just me.
The truth is, we’re far better off without this ordinance than with it. It should be junked along with those who voted for it.
Paying someone (a code enforcement cretin) to go into Pier One to have them take down posters hanging in the windows INSIDE THE BUILDING is asinine (yes, this actually happened).
The commissioners should go. Each and every one should be voted out. That Langstaff or anyone else can suggest or imply that idiocy like this ordinance would contribute to drawing business here is beyond scary, it’s delusional.
I am voting against each and every incumbent in both the city and county government. I plan to urge everyone I know to do the same. Clearly these people have no grasp of reality and are a continuing danger to the local economy.
The very loud signals our leaders are getting from P & G and Miller about Phoebe should be a warning. Unfortunately (and maybe I am unfairly targeting Langstaff because he is here), they seem more concerned about the “horrors” (his word) of sign blight. These people must go before they ruin us all.
Unfortunately, I have to warn against voting against the incumbent just because he’s the incumbent. I know it’s probably common sense, but what if a random commissioner’s opponent said the City hasn’t done enough to combat sign blight? What if they argue that downtown needs even more money? See the slippery slope?
What we really need are true alternatives in the races, so I suggest recruiting people to run on a pro-liberty/small government platform first so that there is a real alternative to some of these commissioners.
Good point, Tom. I’m hoping the Albany/Dougherty Taxpayers Association proposes some candidates to replace the current lot. I’ve been impressed with the energy they’ve shown.
The Pier One thing is sad, isn’t it? We are actually paying people to harrass them.
The Pier One thing is a bit of an issue for me. Personally, I don’t see where it really matters what’s on the windows.
When I was in the Navy, I spent most of my time in the Norfolk, VA area. There was this little bar I went to every so often who had painted their windows with a mural. It was awesome, and it served as a second sign. That signage helped give a place like that a lot of character. Unfortunately, something like that probably can’t happen in Albany with our sign ordinance like it is.
It’s a shame too.
How is it different for Pier One to have things on or off their windows (inside or out) from Mcdonalds or Burger King whose windows are always filled with posters?? That shows economic LIFE. We should encourage it!!
P.S. Does anyone here know how many “individuals” (I’m being nice) are employed by “Code Enforcement”? You might be shocked.
Mr. Jack Smith: I do agree aggressive enforcement of the sign ordinance is ill-advised at this time, when we have much more pressing matters in Albany. For the record I am not a Code Enforcement Officer.
Code enforcement officers should be focused on dilapidated housing and other problems that cultivate crime within our neighborhoods. I take issue with you calling the code enforcement officers “cretins” and other names. They are individuals just trying to do a job. They have been tasked by the city leaders to aggressively enforce the sign ordinance. In these tough economic times just having a job is nice and doing what you have to do to keep that job and feed your family is of utmost importance. I have no problem with you taking our city leaders to task for a stupid sign ordinance. But do not insult these officers if you do not know them personally.
Jason, I think you need to gain some familiarity with these people. First, in spite of their emblems and pistols, these people are not police officers as most people would recognize. Unfortunately, they think they are policemen and treat businesspeople as criminals. These “inspectors,” for the most part, are individuals who have failed in private industry and vent their frustrations on persons more successful than themselves. Additionally, they clearly do not understand the ordinances they claim to be enforcing (witness the swift retraction of the Bo Henry citation—”Ooops, we only wasted a day of your time on a bogus citation. Now onward to harm the next business.”)
Finally, it is my understanding that the city now employs over 20 of these people, with all the resultant costs of employment passed to the taxpayer. This is roughly three times more than just a few years ago when the economy was more active. If we assume at least one to two of these people are responsible for pursuing this kind of foolishness, one has to ask the question of whether or not the city’s priorities are right or whether it is really worth spending tens of thousands of tax dollars each year to make certain the poster in someone’s window is the right size—especially when each day’s news brings tales of more shootings, rapes and robberies.
I say again: our local government has sold itself to special interests, Junior League anorexics and busybodies while our local economy is being driven away. We hear warnings from Miller and P & G, but our leadership sits comatose.
Jack, I’m going to side with Jason on the name calling of these inspectors. I don’t know any of them, and I wasn’t at any of the citings, so let’s refrain from the names.
Now, as for what you just wrote? No problems at all. I have no problems at all with the criticism of having so many to enforce these codes when there are more serious issues at hand
Tom, I stand by what I said one hundred percent.
1) These people cannot function in a private-sector capacity and, being now relegated to government employ, use their perceived authority to harrass those more successful than themselves. We have dealt with these people and if they weren’t harming the local economy, I would feel pity for them;
2) They do not or cannot understand the ordinances they enforce (by the way–in Mr. Langstaff’s earlier posts, he appeared to voice confusion about ordinance itself, saying he needed to “get his ducks in a row,” but he was on the commission when they reviewed and voted for the last version of this monstrosity–did he read it?did he understand it then?);
3) The people hired to enforce this ordinance are wastes of money. Having the taxpayers incur thousands of dollars each year in salary, benefits, vehicles, etc to monitor something so petty as some of these purported violations is a total misallocation of resources. Further, the size of this “code enforcement” department is out of all proportion both to its functionality and its historical size.
4) As an example of this department’s degree of failure, I would challenge anyone here to start at the intersection of Washington and Residence Streets and drive West along Residence for seven or eight blocks and count the number of abandoned, overgrown or dilapidated houses. What you see is the rule, not the exception in much of downtown/South Albany. Ask yourself if Bo Henry’s sign or posters at Pier One are greater eyesores than these structures.
5) Again, the total waste of resources on this nonsense is a distraction from the long-term threats facing our economy. We all have a vested interest in Albany’s success, but our commissioners appear to be blind to the warning signals from several large employers. This issue is going ignored, but is the elephant in the room that everyone prefers to ignore.
I actually agree completely on most of your points. My issue is the names themselves. While you’re obviously free to think whatever you want, I can’t help but believe that name calling only hurts our common cause. Now, the way you phrase point one, I’m actually very OK with, since it’s based on your observations and while it could be termed as insulting, it’s not the whole name calling thing.
Keep in mind, I agree with your feelings and impression. My issue was only the name calling. We like keeping it civil here after all
Mr. Smith, I am familiar with these officers, the question is are you? Yes, they are state certified police officers with the powers of arrest. They are not individuals who failed in the private sector. They worked for other law enforcement agencies in the area before going to code enforcement. There are not 20 code enforcement officers. Check your facts again.
I still agree with your points on the sign ordinance and believe the code enforcement officers time could be better utilized.
Jason. You are misinformed. As is well known, only a few of these individuals have post certification and their own website explicitly defines their “inspectors” as “civilian”.
http://www.albany.ga.us/enforcement/enforcement_index.htm
Further, your high opinion of these persons seems puzzling to me as those of us who actually have to deal with these people almost unanimously find them dismissive of common sense and wholly unnecessary wastes of tax dollars who seem to think it is their God-given mission to harm the local economy.
As a shining example of the fine, upstanding work of this department, I attach (below) a WALB article regarding a “Code Enforcement Inspector” hard at work.
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?s=8452697
Query: Was this man’s salary a worthwhile expenditure of tax dollars? Who (other than the Sheriff’s Department) was monitoring this man? Should we have been burdened by taxes to pay for this kind of person, Jason?
As for the reference to approximately 20 employees. That is a reference to the entire dept., not just the exemplary, non-post certified individuals like Mr. Trent.