Monday, April 8, 2002

Petition for the revision or repeal of Chapel Hill Ordinance Sec. 16-3. (Placing notices, signs on utility poles, trees, prohibited; exception.)

Statement to Chapel Hill Town Council, April 8, 2002

Good evening, Mayor Foy and members of the Council.

My name is Erik Ose, and I’d like to respectfully request that the Town Council examine an existing city ordinance, Sec. 16.3 of the Code of Ordinances, in order to revise or repeal it.

I've been a resident of Chapel Hill for the past twelve years, and owned a business in town for the past five. During that time, I've always been one of those people you see around town hanging flyers and posters up for one cause or another. I've probably hung tens of thousands of flyers in Chapel Hill while I've lived here, so flyering is something I know a little about.

Last Thursday I was hanging posters on Franklin Street for a Banquet for Global Peace and Justice that was being held that night at the New Century Center in Carrboro. This event was sponsored by three local groups, the UNC Campaign to End The Cycle of Violence, the Triangle Free Press, and the Internationalist Books and Community Center. It drew over 150 local peace and social justice activists together for a night proclaiming that another world is truly possible if we dare to dream. Celebrating the idea of a world free from violence, hatred, and injustice. This banquet raised over $2500 towards those goals.

I was in front of the Franklin Street post office, and had just finished stapling two posters for the event onto a telephone pole there at the corner. A visible spot, where the poster was likely to be seen be many people walking or driving by. It's irrelevant, really, what the poster I was hanging said. It could have been raising awareness about any number of other causes, or it could have been a poster for my own business, or for one of the several other small, locally owned businesses that I occasionally hang signs for, as a gesture of support for other small stores like my own. The fact that it was a political message I was distributing and not a commercial one just makes what happened next even more disturbing.

I was questioned, detained, and eventually cited by a Chapel Hill police officer and sergeant for the simple act of having stapled this poster up to a telephone pole, and refusing to tear the poster down when told to by the officer. The officers were very polite and courteous to me, and explained to me that they really didn't want to write me up, they were just doing their jobs and enforcing Chapel Hill city ordinance Section 16.3, which prohibits the placing of signs or notices on utility poles. I didn't feel threatened or intimidated by them at any time during our encounter. But the fact remains that I was detained, cited, and threatened with arrest and being hauled before a magistrate if I was seen putting any more flyers on telephone poles that day.

Both officers said they were surprised by my willingness to waste my time and money by being written up and having to go to court over this issue, when I could have simply done what everyone else they've ever caught in the act of postering on telephone poles does, namely, torn my own posters down, apologize, and go on to the next corner to put up more posters once the officers backs were turned.

But you know, who's fooling who here. Why should a citizen have to play cat and mouse games with the police when they're simply trying to publicize a worthy cause, or advertise their business, or speak out about an issue they care about by making a sign and posting it somewhere where their neighbors might actually see it?

This is a city ordinance that doesn't make sense. Anyone who thinks about it a minute should realize it's ill conceived, and needs revision or outright repeal.

Why does this ordinance exist in the first place? Was it drafted for aesthetic purposes? Is it designed to improve the town’s appearance by keeping utility poles bare? If so, it’s accomplishing exactly the opposite of what it was intended to do. Take a look at any one of the utility poles downtown located at major intersections. What looks better, a cold, barren pole littered with jagged, torn scraps of paper, or one covered with colorful, exciting posters representing the free exchange of ideas that’s so central to the very idea of what Chapel Hill is about?

Was it drafted to protect the utility poles from the ravages of staples and thumbtacks? Are the poles somehow in danger of falling down once a critical mass of staples accumulate on them? If so, the ordinance isn’t working. Look at the poles. They’re covered with staples. Citizens put flyers up on utility poles every day, and they’re going to keep doing it, unless there’s a cop on every corner ready to arrest them.

The question is, it is a sensible allocation of the town’s limited public resources to have the public works department relentlessly tearing down any posters that pop up on utility poles every few days? I don’t know how many public works employees are assigned to this task, or how frequently they carry out this duty, but they must be working pretty hard. Flyers get taken down from utility poles in the downtown area almost as soon as they’re posted. There’s a utility pole that sits right outside my store on Rosemary Street. Every day I post a flyer for my store on that pole, and lately, every next day, I come to work to find that flyer torn down. Now isn’t that a little ridiculous?

As a small business owner, I’m upset. Is Chapel Hill serious about maintaining the quality of life here by fostering a climate of support for small, locally owned businesses over huge, faceless, national chains? If so, this ordinance needs changing. An important real world effect of this ordinance is to make it harder for small businesses who can’t afford expensive newspaper and radio advertising campaigns to stay in business in Chapel Hill. Grassroots advertising by small, locally owned businesses in town is something we should be encouraging, not discouraging.

As a taxpayer, I’m upset. There’s got to be a better way for the town to keep the appearance of utility poles regulated, one that uses a little less of town employees time and energy. Maybe if the town cleared the poles once a month, or once a week, like they do the kiosks.

With respect to the kiosks, some people might say that by virtue of the town maintaining two kiosks in the downtown area where flyers can legally be posted, the town has every right to declare utility poles off limits to public posting. Let’s leave aside the fact that I can remember when there were no less than five kiosks downtown devoted to this very purpose.

I think the Council needs to take a hard look at whether speech is truly free if it’s restricted to one or two little areas in town. On any given day in Chapel Hill, people are on the move, going about their daily lives, and not necessarily stopping by the town-owned poster kiosks for their daily appointment with free speech. Bottom line, that’s why people put flyers on utility poles, because it’s where their messages have a realistic chance of being seen and heard.

That’s why I think the Council needs to revise or repeal this ordinance, because any time you restrict free speech, we would all hope it’s being done because of other considerations that are very important to the public welfare. And in this case, I can’t see the reasoning behind maintaining this ordinance as it’s now written, or how it helps makes Chapel Hill a better town to live in.

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