Election season open thread

My first post! :)

Did anyone go to the Women's League Forum for Chapel Hill Town Council candidates tonight? I had to miss and would love a recap.

This morning I deviated from my usual morning bike route and biked up Rogers to Eubanks. I was surprised to see not a single campaign sign anywhere along Rogers -- quite different from what I'm seeing near and in the residential neighborhoods in town both in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

What's up with that? Seems odd to me.

Well, I've got a nice set of matching green signs on my lawn. As for the shooting, I agree, WTF. The DTH did a nice job informing the student body about ONE-STOP NO EXCUSES.

Eric, When my signs go up, they'll be distributed around the district as the campaign volunteers can do. Of course, we can always use more volunteers. Mike

I haven't seen a peep about the Carrboro LoWV forum on here unless I missed it, was it recorded too? I couldn't locate a transcript or video on the local chapter's website.

Great...can someone post the links to the forum when they are up?

The N&O rather pointedly blames the apartment complex's structural design (above ground) for letting the fire spread so quickly. It crossed my mind while reading the paper that Carrboro's Land Use Ordinance might need some tweaking. The report doesn't say when (on whose watch) the complex was built.

As for the shootings on Rosemary Street, I wish that building could be condemned. A fire inspector could have a field day in there. The entrance is cooped and dangerous, the walls and floor are painted black, it's lit with black lights, yuck. Kevin Foy said something about shutting the club down, but the place invites trouble even under new management. Who owns it?

I just have to say that I miss the dollar theater. We have so few cool theaters left, and the last thing we needed was another icky club.

I think I'm in the mood to review the current crop of campaign signs, as always with an eye on graphics, clarity, message, aesthetic and artistic appeal, structural integrity, etc. I'll start work soon.

I think I may like to carve out a niche for myself as "campaign sign critic," in the non-pejorative sense.

d

Duncan, go for it! Yard signage = art.

I'm over here in Egypt wishing it were a bit easier to get an absentee ballot. It's not THAT hard, but I wish it were easy. So I'm feeling a wee bit disenfranchised.

I have 11 teams of people putting up signs around the school district but I am encouraging them to take their time because the ground is rock hard. Folks are getting creative with their methods including slamming the stakes with five-pound weights. Anyone else used or heard of creative methods to get this job done?

A cordless drill with an old auger or paddle bit.

I've used Mark's technique, and it works like a charm, especially for the metal, two-footed signs with the narrow gauge. For the wooden stakes, using the drill works also, but you've got to drill a few holes right next to each other to loosen up a big enough hole. Also, don't use a hammer or mallet or anything else directly on the sign, whether it's metal-framed or wood-staked. Have a small scrap piece of 2x4 or a scrap piece of plywood to use between hammer and sign. You'll break far fewer signs.

Mia,

I used a ten-lb sledge hammer (shortening up the grip so I was using it almost like a regular hammer) for the STROM signs I put up. This technique would not be for everyone but I got 49/50 signs in without breaking the wooden stake. And they were all in far enough to withstand a pretty good tug from all directions.

And remember not to staple your signs to the stakes before you nail them in. The jarring of the hammer will loosen the staples and, if it ever rains again, the signs will then fall off the stakes. Hammer the stake in and then staple the signs on.

You can buy a 1" paddle bit that will work for bigger holes for wooden stakes.

Another way to solve the problem is not to have signs. Having signs has been such conventional wisdom that we really have no proof that they do any good anyway.

I think not having signs is a great idea. I'd like to see mailers go as well. Not a very good allocation of resources if you ask me, and for all the people with green signs, claiming to be green, that sure is a lot of paper.

But if there aren't any signs, then Duncan won't have anything to do!

It looks this year like most candidates are using wooden stakes. They're a bitch to pound in, compared with the metal h-frames. The metal frames are less green, made to insert into plastic signs which are a lot less green, but gosh it's a much easier proposition.

PS: I would be fine with a sign-free election season. The campaign industry has probably studied their value.

I like Mr. Jensen idea of no sign pact.

I always used paper and wooden stakes because these were renewable products and would decay if they didn't get picked up after the election.

Steel is recyclable (scrap prices have never been higher) and the paper signs that go on them are the same as the ones that go on the wood stakes.........

I recycled my steel frames by passing them along to another candidate. It pleases me to see them planted all over Carrboro again.

I agree with Tom Jensen. A sign has never changed my view on a candidate. They are more of an eyesore, become pollution after the election, and in 2007, money can be more environmentally and visually less offensively spent on protraying the candidate in progressive ways.
If I had 11 teams of people putting up signs, I'd use them to meet the voters and express their passion about issues and change. I retain more from a friendly face, than from a floppy sign in the highway right of way.

back in the 70s they was an informal understanding in Chapel Hill -- no yard signs. I never had one in any of my 4 campaigns, nor do I remember seeing one.

Oh yeah, 1970s ...the sign revolt..."Sign, sign everywhere a sign, blocking up the scenery, breakin my mind. Do this, don't do that can't you read the sign?"

Great, now this'll be running thru my head all night...why are we talking about signs?

Let's face it. If one candidate chooses not to put signs, that candidate will lose. The cardinal rule of campaigning is to do what everybody else does. This means putting signs, printing brochures, sending letters, and showing up in public.

sunflower seed, money plant good. Run for the legislature, do not give out meat.

http://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_... (last amended in 1801)

Once, again. Your sign will not get you elected.
Your personality and endorsements will.

A few years ago I proposed a modest "public financing" proposal.

There is plenty of wood going into the landfill that can be ripped into sign stakes. A town employee could take a day, rip hundreds of stakes, and make them available for pick-up by registered candidates.

Last night the Carrboro BOA agreed to contact Chapel Hill about approaching OWASA for tightening their drought restrictions. Since OWASA still has to generate revenue, their relatively lax irrigation policies do serve a purpose--the organization has to meet its payroll and maintain infrastructure. Are there ways for the towns to help OWASA meet those budget expenses while protecting our water resources (lakes were 54% full as of yesterday and the state climatologist is predicting a drier than normal winter)?

Is drought one of the first impacts of global warming that elected officials need to begin addressing now, instead of waiting until its even more of an emergency? If so, what are some good questions to pose to Carrboro candidates at next weeks Chamber of Commerce forum and the Orange County Dems forum?

An open note to Matt Czajkowski:

Lumina
620 Market Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Regal Timberlyne 6
120 Banks Drive
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Chelsea Theater
Timberlyne Shopping Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Varsity Theatre
123 E. Franklin St
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

I would suggest that you get to know Chapel Hill, instead of deserting us for The Streets at South Point. Come to Southern Village, park in one of the many lots or garages, have dinner, walk to a movie, then stroll up the block for a gelato and coffee afterwards. Spend your tax dollars here.

Excellent suggestion Robert - thanks for pointing this out to the challenger in question.

The block rates that took effect on Monday will help revenue stabilization. Higher water users will pay more.

Basically, we need to take the long view. Water rates will rise with decreased useage. But they will not rise as much as they will with increased useage. In other words, the cost of water is going up and conservation is the strategy to minimize the increases. New water supplies are the most expensive option of all.

The good news - we have great opportunities to reduce our water useage in this community.

OK, now I guess I need to actually write something about signs again. I need a little help, because I think it would work best as a web slideshow. I was up in Chapel Hill inspecting this year's crop of signs, but I forgot my camera, and now that I'm back at my desk some of the signs are already fading from memory. (That should tell me something.)

Anyway, if candidates, volunteers, and/or nice random people with digital cameras were to send me photos of the signs in Orange County, I'd really appreciate it. Please send them to letters@rattlejar.com . Once I get a bunch of photos, I'll know which ones I still need to get, and then I can go out with my camera and hunt them down.

And for the record, I'd be in favor of some sort of mutual disarmament on signs. Campaign signs interest me, for one thing, because so many of them are ineffective. Good ones are gold, though.

(I'm also interested because my parents used to take me down to the National Museum of American History in DC, where I loved the section on elections with the huge collection of buttons and signs -- "I Like Ike", etc., which also included recordings of campaign jingles. THAT'S something I'd like to hear more -- campaign jingles. A good campaign jingle can be a very sophisticated and fun way to get your name very securely planted in a voter's brain.)

Does anyone other than me think that it is time to add a discussion about the number of new residences the area's water supply can handle ? Why are we limiting the use of current customers while putting no limit on the new faucets ?

30,000 gallons a month per meter. I've never had any customer in the OWASA area ever use that much, even without restrictions. Even with damaged pipes.
I did the calculations on several IRRIGATION systems that I manage and the average use per house per IRRIGATION cycle is about 550 gallons.
With current water restrictions, that comes to about 2700 gallons per month. Far under the 30,000 gallon IRRIGATION assumption.