cberquist
06-19-2004, 10:56 PM
I feel kind of stupid writing this, but I need closure.
Thursday night on my way home, I noticed that somebody had taken all of the Swamper stickers off of the parking meters, light poles and sign backs on Elliott Avenue. I immediately put more up in each of these places. The next morning, I went to meet Tiff for breakfast and noticed that they had already been removed. I immediately put more up, except this time I decided to forgo my strategy of 1 or 2 per location and put 10-15 in each location. By the time I was back from breakfast, they were already down. This time, I put about 20 in each location and went up to my apartment to get ready for the day. About 30 minutes later I decided to go down and check on the stickers. When the elevator opened, I saw my apartment manager waiting to get in it with a handful of Swamper stickers that she had just removed. My apartment manager is a real old biddy who chews up maintenance men at an alarming rate. They have told me in the past that she routinely denies their requests to leave early the day before Christmas and the day before Thanksgiving to travel to meet their families. We have had a couple run-ins in the past.
I calmly asked her if she was the one who had been removing the stickers and she said, “YOU BET I AM!”. I told her that she needed to stop doing that. She told me that it was “Slap Graffitti”, it was “Illegal” and that I better “stop putting them up”. I informed her that I was well within my legal right and again told her that she needed to stop taking the signs down. She told me that the whole street in front of the building was “Off-Limits”. I replied by angrily telling her to “stop trying to fuck with my business”.
I came back upstairs and printed off the RCW www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/posteringrules.htm (http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/posteringrules.htm) and a few other articles on the ruling and gave them to her on my way out the door and began putting up more signs. She followed me out and yelled at me about the area in front of the building being off-limits. I told her that she was going to have to call the cops if she wanted me to stop.
I went back upstairs and printed off another copy of the RCW. As I was posting it on a telephone pole downstairs, I saw two police cars pulling up. I kept putting up more stickers nearby as the police officers talked to Aldine. I heard one of them say, “So he isn’t posting them on your private property?”. She said something that I wasn’t able to hear and one of the officers said, “Well these are city property”. I walked up so I could discuss it with them. Aldine said, “They are a real eyesore and they fade after awhile and then look even worse.”
The female officer said, “You can’t put these up on city property”. I asked her to show me the law that said that. She got a book out of the car and started to thumb through it. I then suggested that we take a look at the copy of the RCW that I had posted on the telephone pole nearby. Aldine followed us over and said, “These don’t have an end date on them as clearly stated in the law”. I asked her if she would be happy and stop pressing this if I put an end date on them. She replied by saying “No. I need to go back to work now”.
The female officer told me that I would need to take the signs down until I had them with a date. I replied by telling her that I would take them down, put dates on them and then plaster every square inch of that part of Elliott Avenue. She started to chide me for wasting so much time on my “little project”. I replied that I had spent over 60 THOUSAND Dollars on this “little project” and that this was a very valuable high traffic area for me because of the nearby Art Institute and Cruise ship Terminal. She suggested that I should have left a little more money available in my budget for more ‘traditional’ advertising. I then asked her what made her qualified to give me advice on promoting an independent feature film. The male officer chuckled and surprisingly, she started to lighten up a little.
The female officer (Officer Beemster) then told me that she was going to call in her supervisor because I had told her that I planned to put up more stickers. I said no problem, went upstairs to get a video camera, made calls to my afternoon appointments to let them know that I was now behind schedule and came back down to wait for the Sergeant to come. She told me that I was not being detained, but that I should wait to see what her supervisor had to say. In the meantime, Officer Beemster said that she wasn’t there to take sides, simply act as a mediator. She said it seemed silly to have 20 stickers on every post and asked if there wasn’t a possible solution. I agreed and said that to me it seemed reasonable to have one or two stickers on the posts and the fact that there were two officers sitting there because it was such a problem was one of the biggest wastes of resources I had ever heard of.
The sergeant eventually came up and was initially on the defense because I had my camera out and was filming his walk up. He went to talk to officer Beermer in private and came back to talk to me. He then told me he didn’t want to be filmed. I put the camera to my side. He started to yell at me about being able to see the red light. I opened the LCD, showed him that it was paused and explained that it was the power light.
“You are going to take these down?”, the sergeant asked. I said that I would, but that I was also planning to add a premier date to the stickers and put up many more stickers. He agreed that nobody could do anything about it but suggested that it was a waste of time. I explained that the fact that I had wasted the past four hours dealing with such petty things was the biggest waste of time and that I needed to get some sort of return on it. He asked me for a copy of the RCW, which I provided, and asked me how many of those stickers I had. “10,000. And I see about 5000 of those going right into this 1 block now” I replied. He chuckled and said that she would probably have to deal with it, but that in a perfect world, he wouldn’t like to see them around. I said that “in a perfect world, I would have a million dollars to spend on TV, Radio and Print ads, but thank God for the first amendment.” He closed by saying that if I had a million dollars he would be asking me for a loan.
OK.. I feel better now.
Thursday night on my way home, I noticed that somebody had taken all of the Swamper stickers off of the parking meters, light poles and sign backs on Elliott Avenue. I immediately put more up in each of these places. The next morning, I went to meet Tiff for breakfast and noticed that they had already been removed. I immediately put more up, except this time I decided to forgo my strategy of 1 or 2 per location and put 10-15 in each location. By the time I was back from breakfast, they were already down. This time, I put about 20 in each location and went up to my apartment to get ready for the day. About 30 minutes later I decided to go down and check on the stickers. When the elevator opened, I saw my apartment manager waiting to get in it with a handful of Swamper stickers that she had just removed. My apartment manager is a real old biddy who chews up maintenance men at an alarming rate. They have told me in the past that she routinely denies their requests to leave early the day before Christmas and the day before Thanksgiving to travel to meet their families. We have had a couple run-ins in the past.
I calmly asked her if she was the one who had been removing the stickers and she said, “YOU BET I AM!”. I told her that she needed to stop doing that. She told me that it was “Slap Graffitti”, it was “Illegal” and that I better “stop putting them up”. I informed her that I was well within my legal right and again told her that she needed to stop taking the signs down. She told me that the whole street in front of the building was “Off-Limits”. I replied by angrily telling her to “stop trying to fuck with my business”.
I came back upstairs and printed off the RCW www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/posteringrules.htm (http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/posteringrules.htm) and a few other articles on the ruling and gave them to her on my way out the door and began putting up more signs. She followed me out and yelled at me about the area in front of the building being off-limits. I told her that she was going to have to call the cops if she wanted me to stop.
I went back upstairs and printed off another copy of the RCW. As I was posting it on a telephone pole downstairs, I saw two police cars pulling up. I kept putting up more stickers nearby as the police officers talked to Aldine. I heard one of them say, “So he isn’t posting them on your private property?”. She said something that I wasn’t able to hear and one of the officers said, “Well these are city property”. I walked up so I could discuss it with them. Aldine said, “They are a real eyesore and they fade after awhile and then look even worse.”
The female officer said, “You can’t put these up on city property”. I asked her to show me the law that said that. She got a book out of the car and started to thumb through it. I then suggested that we take a look at the copy of the RCW that I had posted on the telephone pole nearby. Aldine followed us over and said, “These don’t have an end date on them as clearly stated in the law”. I asked her if she would be happy and stop pressing this if I put an end date on them. She replied by saying “No. I need to go back to work now”.
The female officer told me that I would need to take the signs down until I had them with a date. I replied by telling her that I would take them down, put dates on them and then plaster every square inch of that part of Elliott Avenue. She started to chide me for wasting so much time on my “little project”. I replied that I had spent over 60 THOUSAND Dollars on this “little project” and that this was a very valuable high traffic area for me because of the nearby Art Institute and Cruise ship Terminal. She suggested that I should have left a little more money available in my budget for more ‘traditional’ advertising. I then asked her what made her qualified to give me advice on promoting an independent feature film. The male officer chuckled and surprisingly, she started to lighten up a little.
The female officer (Officer Beemster) then told me that she was going to call in her supervisor because I had told her that I planned to put up more stickers. I said no problem, went upstairs to get a video camera, made calls to my afternoon appointments to let them know that I was now behind schedule and came back down to wait for the Sergeant to come. She told me that I was not being detained, but that I should wait to see what her supervisor had to say. In the meantime, Officer Beemster said that she wasn’t there to take sides, simply act as a mediator. She said it seemed silly to have 20 stickers on every post and asked if there wasn’t a possible solution. I agreed and said that to me it seemed reasonable to have one or two stickers on the posts and the fact that there were two officers sitting there because it was such a problem was one of the biggest wastes of resources I had ever heard of.
The sergeant eventually came up and was initially on the defense because I had my camera out and was filming his walk up. He went to talk to officer Beermer in private and came back to talk to me. He then told me he didn’t want to be filmed. I put the camera to my side. He started to yell at me about being able to see the red light. I opened the LCD, showed him that it was paused and explained that it was the power light.
“You are going to take these down?”, the sergeant asked. I said that I would, but that I was also planning to add a premier date to the stickers and put up many more stickers. He agreed that nobody could do anything about it but suggested that it was a waste of time. I explained that the fact that I had wasted the past four hours dealing with such petty things was the biggest waste of time and that I needed to get some sort of return on it. He asked me for a copy of the RCW, which I provided, and asked me how many of those stickers I had. “10,000. And I see about 5000 of those going right into this 1 block now” I replied. He chuckled and said that she would probably have to deal with it, but that in a perfect world, he wouldn’t like to see them around. I said that “in a perfect world, I would have a million dollars to spend on TV, Radio and Print ads, but thank God for the first amendment.” He closed by saying that if I had a million dollars he would be asking me for a loan.
OK.. I feel better now.