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

[komos.livejournal.com]

Thank the gods that we left-leaning suburbanites never demand censorsh....

Oh. Never mind.

[ron_newman]

They turned it on again? I haven't seen it on since that meeting, except for an hour or two on ArtBeat Saturday. Have they reduced its brightness at all?

[ariwriter.livejournal.com]

Walking in Davis last night, I saw this marquee sign for the first time. It's definitely an odd color. I suggest the bank's marquee people take a look at Times Square to get an idea of how marquees and neon really work together to create harmony.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I don't really care what they project (given that whole First Amendment thing), but did it have to be bright fucking orange?

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

This is a rather long posting. Could you put most of it in an lj-cut, please?

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I have trouble calling his request censorship. jd_science is merely making a request which the bank can pay attention to or not. OTOH, the fact that that bank is limited in what it can put on the marquee by law, quite definitely is censorship.

[xjustquietx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I understand about not wanting to be reminded of the depressing state of the world during lunch. When I sit down to eat in my office, I only read the Sidekick for that very reason. It is a time to relax, turn off my brain, and see what Red and Rover are up to. The whole rest of the day I hear about and discuss the world around me.

However, it's my choice. The Boston Globe is still going to print the news and the newspaper is going to sit on my lunchtable. I just don't look at it. In the end, I think filtering out the news so it's only sunny and wonderful is a bad idea. You have a right to voice your opinion, but if the sign isn't changing, then you also have the right to turn your head.

There's a whole George Carlin rant about this kind of thing... someone want to paraphrase?

[brianbeck.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. It is horrible. We don't want to look at it. It serves no purpose. It is ugly. Please Middlesex Federal, turn it off.

[kglue.livejournal.com]

I would only care about what they projected if all the news headlines were slanted in one political direction or the other, or if the headlines all tried to push some agenda.

As for war, death, and killing headlines, well, unfortunately things like that happen. And I think it surely constitutes being newsy. But I guess it's all subject to personal taste. Some people may find a headline like, "Woman Afraid of Height Dies in Plane Crash" as funny or ironic, but I think it's rather frivilous and kind of mean spirited.

I do think it would be nice if it had more community events scrolling across.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Can someone please explain to me why there are people who will go around and ask people to put a posting that is entirely text and entirely safe for work behind an lj cut? Why are people fanatical about this? I don't see the big deal.

[ron_newman]

Middlesex is a local bank, so it would make sense to for their sign to stick to news about the immediate local area.

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

I was in Davis a few nights ago around 10 P.M. The marquee was scrolling stupid world news headlines as described. What a waste of money and electricity! That thing serves absolutely NO purpose!

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the lj cut police either!

[ron_newman]

So that it doesn't take up half of your Friends page, if you read it that way.

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

i fixed it. see, i can self-censor for the public aesthetic, so why can't the bank? :p

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I agree. LJ-Cuts mainly mean I'm less likely to read the content.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

What, scrolling down a screen is too hard?

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

For future reference, don't bother. :)

[kalessin.livejournal.com]

It makes you look at the bank. Marketing, ya know.

Probably the only way to convince them to shut it off (and get rid of it) is to get them to realize enough people consider it ugly and rude and would never patronize a business that would try to use such a sign to attract customers.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

I agree! After all, nothing is as important to an informed citizenry as sports scores.

Really, displaying horrible words like DEATH and KILL and BOMBING and WAR is unconscionable. How can they live with themselves, talking about such horrible, awful things? I know I never want to see those words! They damage my calm.

Besides, children sometimes walk through Davis. And children can read! I don't want to be the one explaining to some weeping innocent little angel why there are dozens of dead children in Qana. No! How am I even going to explain what Qana is? Much less what a massacre is?

It's better if our public spaces are left as peaceful, loving environments where the horrors of the world are walled out. It's much better for us to focus on the Red Sox. The only blood we should ever be thinking about in Davis Square is the blood on Schilling's ankle.

[ron_newman]

I think more so that people don't have to hit Next Page over and over again only to see just one or two posts on each page. (Which is what would happen if everyone posted long messages without lj-cuts.)

[jadelennox]

yes, it is. Many people (including me) use accessibility software, large fonts for impaired vision, or limited size displays such as blackberries or cellular phones. Putting something behind a cut is just polite, and I appreciate that the original poster responded politely to the request and was not goaded by all the people who found a polite request to be inappropriate and worthy of sarcasm. A well phrased cut tag means people who are interested in the content behind the cut can follow the link, and those who aren't don't have to see it. Since it didn't bother the original poster, I don't see why it bothers you.

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

The question is this: Why should some bank manager get to decide what the look and tenor of a good portion of the SQ is like at night? That thing is VERY large and VERY bright. It cannot be ignored easily. We as citizens should have a say in such matters. Zoning laws should come in to play here.

[ron_newman]

There are plenty of places I can get that kind of news if I want it. However, there are only a few places to get news about the local area -- the Somerville Journal, the Somerville News, this LJ community, and various bulletin boards in local businesses. If the bank wants to make a positive contribution to Davis Square, they should concentrate on local news and events.

[brianbeck.livejournal.com]

The point is not censorship. The point is simply that it is an ugly intrusion in the Square.

Go here to register a complaint:
http://www.middlesexfederal.com/contact.asp