Middlesex Marquee (again)

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

I just sent the following to the Middlesex Bank. I also e-mailed Rebekah about it. Does anyone else ever notice this trend on the marquee but me? It's annoying and depressing.


Hello-

I sent a comment on June 27, 2006 about the scrolling marquee outside your bank. I have not yet heard a response.

This is what I sent you then:

"I live in the Davis Square area and wanted to express my unhappiness with the new scrolling marquee above your bank. This weekend I was sitting in the square with some friends, and within five minutes we saw the words "death" and "kill" repeated several times. This does not seem appropriate at all for large, bright broadcasting in the middle of Davis Square.

I realize that the marquee was just scrolling news headlines, but I don't believe that news headlines - particularly those types of headlines - are really that important to building a truly informed public and in fact contribute to a destructive social atmosphere. If the marquee must be there (which I don't think it great, but I understand you've probably put a lot of money into it), I'd prefer it just to scroll the time, temperature, and maybe sports scores. And please nothing about death, killing, children being bombed, and so forth. We can get enough of that everywhere else."

Today, August 3, I was eating lunch in the square at around 1 pm, and one right after the other, I saw the following headlines scroll across, multiple times:

Iranian Woman Awaits Death By Stoning
New Surgical Procedure for Incontinence
Woman Afraid of Height Dies in Plane Crash
Israeli Bombing Kills 7
Welcome to Davis Square

There was another headline after the stoning that had something to do with death, but I don't exactly remember what it said.

This hardly seems appropriate to be displayed in large orange letters in the middle of Davis Square. Death, destruction, ridiculousness, and hey! Welcome to Davis!

I went into the bank to ask who to talk to about my issues with the sign, and the tellers told me Mr. Smoliss (?) was in charge. I asked if I could talk to him, and they said, “Well, his office is upstairs.” I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to just walk up and there and knock on the door, so I am writing via the official channel on your website.

At the recent Davis Square Task Force meeting, it was noted that the sign is only allowed, by law, to display the time, temperature, and public service announcements. The president also said he wanted the sign to promote community events and activities.

(for notes, see http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/565301.html)

It hardly seems that what I saw today is in line with any of this. In addition, after all these useless, dramatic headlines were several about mergers and business acquisitions, also not of local community interest.

I would appreciate a response from you about this problem.

Comments

[ron_newman]

The bank is a local business and wants to be a good corporate citizen. If they get enough negative feedback, whether via the website or by people walking in to complain, they may decide that the sign is not a net benefit to the bank.

Since the sign was permitted by zoning at the time it was erected, any later change in the zoning law would not affect it; it would be 'grandfathered'.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

what about a home rule petition?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I am completely befuddled by your question. As I understand it, home rule petitions allow towns to do things that would otherwise run afoul of state law, by special permission of the legislature. But zoning regulations are already decided at the town level (note that the zoning ordinance elsewhere in this thread is city of Somerville, not Massachusetts). A home rule petition wouldn't give the town any powers it doesn't already have.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I am not up on all of that fancy legal stuff, It sounded like Ron was saying that there is no way to legally get them to turn the sign off. I just threw this out there because Ron normally would have clarified as well.

I am sure that the Bank will agree with the majority or community; but, out of curiosity, is there is no way legally to get them to turn the sign off?

[ron_newman]

I honestly don't know. Normally you cannot change the zoning law to prohibit an existing use that was previously permitted.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

At this point you're well beyond my ken. But the point was made elsewhere (possibly by Ron) that if the bank realizes it's bad business to keep it on because it makes customers hate them, they'll turn it off. Why start flinging around government hammers if you don't have to?

[ron_newman]

One reason is to prevent any more such signs from being erected. Imagine if all seven of Davis Square's banks decided to put one up.