Tweet
A local “businessperson” came in to visit with me today. To rant at me, really. She’s the owner of “Dick’s Headshop” which now also has a sign outside that says “Big Dick’s Bait Shop.” It seems the city sent letters to some of the local businesses (our bank didn’t get one) about signage. The city wants to change the local law so that any business that wants to add, remove, change, or maintain a sign needs to get a permit for a city. Even though it was obvious that the “add” part was specifically targeting her business, she focused more on the “maintain” part in her rant.
“What if a piece of your sign falls off? This says you’ll have to get a permit to fix it! If ‘Tom’ [the schmuck down the street whose business has been closed since early in the pandemic] needs to wash his awning and it falls apart, he’s going to need to get a permit before he can fix it!”
Meanwhile, I was giving noncommittal nods and “mhmms.” I tried not to agree with her, but also tried not to extend the rant so she would leave my office.
She flipped over the letter and showed me three signatures on the back. “All these people agree with me! We’re going to the next city council meeting because this isn’t right! This language needs to be changed!”
Mhmm. She’s just mad because nobody on the city council and practically none of the local business owners want signs saying “DICK’s HEADShop” and “Big Dicks’s Bait Shop” right on the corner on the main thoroughfare through town.
This is also the woman who bought a cooler and started selling milk so that she could stay open when only essential businesses were supposed to be open during the pandemic. I assume she’s using that cooler to store bait now.
She was trying to convince me that I should attend the meeting, too, to join her rant about signage. I think the bank will be fine even if we have to get a permit to change or add signs outside the bank. Eventually, she left, but I saw her later standing on the sidewalk on her phone, presumably trying to convince someone else that this legislation is a bad thing for local businesses.
“What if a piece of your sign falls off? This says you’ll have to get a permit to fix it! If ‘Tom’ [the schmuck down the street whose business has been closed since early in the pandemic] needs to wash his awning and it falls apart, he’s going to need to get a permit before he can fix it!”
Meanwhile, I was giving noncommittal nods and “mhmms.” I tried not to agree with her, but also tried not to extend the rant so she would leave my office.
She flipped over the letter and showed me three signatures on the back. “All these people agree with me! We’re going to the next city council meeting because this isn’t right! This language needs to be changed!”
Mhmm. She’s just mad because nobody on the city council and practically none of the local business owners want signs saying “DICK’s HEADShop” and “Big Dicks’s Bait Shop” right on the corner on the main thoroughfare through town.
This is also the woman who bought a cooler and started selling milk so that she could stay open when only essential businesses were supposed to be open during the pandemic. I assume she’s using that cooler to store bait now.
She was trying to convince me that I should attend the meeting, too, to join her rant about signage. I think the bank will be fine even if we have to get a permit to change or add signs outside the bank. Eventually, she left, but I saw her later standing on the sidewalk on her phone, presumably trying to convince someone else that this legislation is a bad thing for local businesses.
Comment