Hey, there’s a Best Buds Sign. That place is awesome! You should stop in and play some Sonic on the Genesis that “someone I know” might have just refurbished. Seriously though, for shops like Best Buds and Moon Base, that are jammed into the back corner of MacKenzie Alley they do really help boost business. Perhaps a vertical sinage at eye level, say attached to the wall, would be a better permenant solution, but in the meantime I think they’re helping these businesses out and we definatley need to help grow nerd culture as much as possible.   

Jon,

Thanks for the invitation to play at Best Buds, the first one I have had to visit that place.  I have never played a computer game in my life and at 74, my hand eye coordination is not getting better if it was ever good at all.  That is why I made my career in jobs that did not require those skills.  So forgive me if I politely, decline.  I can relate to the beer part of the invtation for which I will gladly take up your offer at some more tranquil establilshment.

That being said and getting back to my article, my purpose was to bring to light the hazards that these sandwich boards present.  They are placed willy-nilly on Fairhaven’s sidewalks often blocking the wheel chair access ramps from the street (I had to move one several days ago at the corner of Harris and 11th Sts. that was placed directly in the path of a wheel chair ramp)  We engineer sidewalks at great expense to be safe and when they are not we take action.  Think about how many cans of day-glo orange paint is used to alert pedestrians to the slightest uneveness of the pavement.  Those with vision problems are accomodated with the rubberized bumps at many intersections to indicate that they are about to enter the roadway.  Yet we, in the name of commerce, throw most of that away by allowing the proliferation of these parkour obstacles on our commons.  Wind knocks them over where they lie so as to advertize solely to low flying aircraft while becoming less visible to pedestrians. 

So as we are asked to densify by creating urban villages like Fairhaven, enforcement of codes that make living in tight spaces more humane, the city needs to pay attention to these laws on noise, parking, obstruction of sidewalks, litter, traffic (sit on the bench next to Mr. Donovan at 11th and Harris and watch people blow through the stop signs), etc.  

Cranky cranky.  Let Fairhaven businesses thrive. If sandwich boards help, who cares? I think they look kind of cool.

Sam, 

“Cool” or not, I think the safety of the citizens wins out well over the convenience of the businesses. But then again I am just a softie for human beings.

Quick video showing The Bellingham Police cracking down on humans sitting on side walk.    (Sandwich signs are safe.)

Young women forced to get up and dance to that music.   Good work police.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9a6DD-Zga8

Thanks, Tom.  You know me for my humorlessness already.  Humorlessness in the fight against signs is no vice… and levity is no virtue.   Didn’t Barry Goldwater says someting like that?  😊

I’ll be writing (with humor) next about the central business district where signage is also an issue albeit perhaps less so. 

, Edgemoor·1d ago

My note to Scott Ward  on NextDoor:  “thanks to the association for taking some action on this.  Again today (Friday 13 April), two sandwich boards at 11th and Harris went airborne during the lunch hour, luckily hitting no one although one went into the street. “