Balloons - a mainstay of birthday parties and cookie-and-punch celebrations the world over - aren't so innocent after all.
At least not in Lawrence.
City inspectors recently sent letters to all six of Lawrence's new car dealers, informing them they violate a long-standing provision in the sign code when they attach balloons to the antennas of parked cars.
City Manager Mike Wildgen said the provision in the city code was not new, but inspectors recently began to notice more balloons.
"The reason it is in the code is because (balloons) have the potential to create a distraction and draw attention away from motorists," Wildgen said. "And that is exactly what they are trying to do. They're trying to get people to notice their cars."
Car dealers tonight will ask city commissioners at their weekly meeting to consider changes to the code that would allow balloons to once again fly.
"If you drive by a car lot and we just have cars out there, it is just a car lot," said Loris Brubeck Jr., owner of Jim Clark Motors. "But if you drive by a car lot with balloons, people say there is something going on there. We need something to make people realize it's not just a parking lot."
Balloons highlight a car inside the Laird Noller Mitsubishi dealership on Iowa Street. City inspectors recently sent letters to all six of Lawrence's new car dealers informing them that they were in violation of the city's sign code when they attached balloons to the antennas of cars parked outside.
Dale Willey, president of Dale Willey Automotive, said he's not convinced the balloons are causing safety problems. He said the large banners and pennants used by Realtors to advertise open houses pose more of a traffic risk. Real estate agents were given an exemption from the city code to advertise open houses.
"I don't think we're asking for something that is unfair, especially when you consider the amount of tax dollars we contribute to the local economy," Willey said.
The auto dealers put together numbers showing that their six businesses pay approximately $9 million in sales taxes and generate $13.6 million in wages annually.
The dealers likely will face a commission that is split on the subject. City Commissioner David Schauner said he could see some justification for the city's ordinance.
"I'm a little hesitant to add more visual distractions along our arteries," Schauner said. "The last thing Iowa Street needs is more stuff to look at other than the car in front of you."
But City Commissioner Mike Amyx said this seemed like an opportunity to help businesses by making a simple change.
"I think in the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty small deal," said Amyx, who owns a downtown barbershop. "I think right now we need to be doing what we can to help our businesses in this town. And we're not talking about billboards here."
The car dealers have said they would agree to limits on how they use the balloons. In particular, they would agree to prohibiting balloons that fly more than 15 feet high or are more than 24 inches in diameter.
The city's code now allows car dealers to use balloons, if they first receive a temporary sign permit. The temporary sign permit, though, would allow the car dealers to use the balloons only a couple of times per year.
Dealers also are asking for a change in the portion of the sign code that regulates the signs that are sometimes placed in front of cars advertising specials. Dealers are asking to pay a special $25 fee that would allow them to use the signs once every three months.
Commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. tonight at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.
Comments
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lunacydetector (anonymous) says…
has the city caught up with all our building inspections?
have we served all the search warrants we can serve already?
oh, nobody is filing building permits?
i tell you clarence, go through the codes book and see if there is anything we could enforce so the boys and girl have something to do today.
oh, these car dealers are using baloons illegally?
what, are they filling them up with water and tossing them at cars driving by?
no?
they're TYING them to their antenni??????
sinners! i want to see satisfaction enforcing this ordinance! these businesses are NOT supposed to make money! this is lawrence, kansas for chr*st's sake!
this is just the thing to make our commissioners REAL happy,....really, really.
lawrence, kansas
business UNfriendly
Shardwurm (anonymous) says…
Good Lord the City of Lawrence is out of control.
Lunacydetector is right.
How much are we paying you guys again?
You want to solve a traffic distraction? How about enforcing sound ordinances or perhaps making people use their freaking turn signals?
merrill (anonymous) says…
Better yet how about spending more with builders and making sure they are sticking to site plans, are not cutting corners on new housing construction,are insulating new homes properly or do they even know what they are doing?
cowboy (anonymous) says…
These are the same knuckleheads who pay a guy on Saturdays to go out and steal garage sale signs. City purchasing needs to have a consultant to figure out how to order a semi truck ful of some common sense !
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
A balloon ban...un-f-ing-believeable!
NorthLawrenceDude (anonymous) says…
Balloon BAN, I love it! (Only in Lawrence) However I take issue with Dale Willey saying realtors get away with putting banners and signs up for open houses. hello dale, i don't think there are any open houses on south iowa street. Open houses are in residential neighborhoods.
But yes, I agree with everyone....this freak'n nazi city is out of control!
sharron5rs (anonymous) says…
give me a brake!!!!! With everything else going on in Lawrence, and they are worrying about balloons. Like I said give us all a brake!
bendaddy (anonymous) says…
Looks like Lawrence has another entry into the "odd news" category on Reuters. . .
grubesteak (anonymous) says…
This us nuts.
neopolss (anonymous) says…
NorthLawrenceDude, 27th street is a very commonly used residentual street. It may not be on Iowa, but a lot of traffic passes there and through Louisiana. It may as well be a main throughway with as much traffic as it sees. I see houses along there quite often with large signs AND balloons.
There's definately balloon discrimination going on here.
born1980 (anonymous) says…
Oh my god, throw this onto the growing list of distractions the city is using to take the focus off real issues and attempt to shift blame away from how bad they are really doing. Thank god for people like Schauner. Without them we might actually have to take responsibility for our actions and think for ourselves. How ironic that these "progressives" fight tooth and nail against the Patriot Act but warm to the idea of banning everything but weed. These idiots want all the benefits of a college town without anything that comes with it.
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
Here's an idea, why doesn't our newspaper, the LJW, do an OTS question, what do you think about all these bans lately? Unless they get all dirty smelly people I'm pretty sure it will be "why did we elect these morons to be city commissioners?"
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
May I inject a little reality here?
The only thing that happened here was the sending out of a few letters informing the car dealers that they were violating an existing ordinance-- an ordinance that probably predates most if not all the tenures of current city commissioners.
I seriously doubt that any city commissioners were involved in this action, and it probably took no more than an hour of staff's time and $3 worth of stamps and stationery to seek to enforce the existing law, which is their job.
Should this be repealed? Maybe, but does anyone seriously believe that putting balloons on cars will help sell any more cars? Does anyone driving down Iowa street who sees the balloons slam on the brakes and make an impulse 5-figure purchase?
OK, resume your overreactions.
born1980 (anonymous) says…
The point is let the market determine if balloons move more cars. A very small percentage of open houses lead to a sale, but market forces determine that, not the city.
kessman (anonymous) says…
little russia at its best.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
People go to car lots because they are interested in the cars that they have for sale, not because of the 3-cent balloons flying on them. With the $billions auto companies spend on advertising and marketing, the notion that balloons play any role in the "market" is just absurd.
Houses are not movable-- they can't be collected on lots where everyone looking for one can go pick one out. Balloons on houses for sale can help distinguish them from the many more that are not for sale. That said, they probably play a very, very small role in the sales of houses.
And to repeat, this city commission almost certainly didn't pass this ordinance, and had nothing to do with the staff choosing to enforce this law at this time.
OK, go back to wetting yourselves.
mightyquin (anonymous) says…
I was driving down Iowa the other day talking on my cell phone when a ballon caught my eye and almost made me have a wreck. But if they put a roundabout in front of the auto plaza I bet everything would be alright.
born1980 (anonymous) says…
Just another...we should create a marketing standards board and you can decide what is deemed appropriate for advertising. Balloons on real estate signs are acceptable but putting them on cars is not? It is totally a free market issue. You just hate seeing business thrive.
mightyquin (anonymous) says…
Bozo - I agree that this commission didnt have anything to do with passing this ordinance and that it didnt cost much time or money to send the notices and that the ballons probably dont make a lot of difference in the amount of sales a dealer makes, but I want to know, why bring up this stupid little ordinance now? Have they nothing better to do than look up archaic laws and ordinances just so they can issue citations and look like they are accomplishing something? Arent there more important things to worry about than some ballons.
smitty (anonymous) says…
It's amazing to see the prolific response to this topic. Small tatters at best. But does a re-look at the ordinance mean that people can park in Checker's parking lot with a for sale sign without Jim getting a $500 fine? And not one of those cars had a balloon flying.
It was a dealer that complained about the signage on the parked cars, wasn't it? Karma ran over the car dealers dogma?
Shardwurm (anonymous) says…
Bozo the point of this whol list of diatribes is that it seems to show that the city spends more time worrying about car washes and balloons than it does attempting to resolve bigger issues.
Whether you think a balloon sells a car or not doesn't matter. The point is that there are much better things the city could be doing with its time. If it took one hour and $3.00 in stamps that was one hour and $3.00 in stamps too much.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
Sign ordinances exist to limit the size and scale of advertising displays. It makes sure that all businesses are on a level playing field, and that a cycle of one-upsmanship doesn't make every business area in this town look like the Las Vegas strip.
It's hard to know why the staff chose this time to enforce the law. Likely it's because it was drawn to their attention for some reason or other, or they just now got around to it.
One thing is quite likely-- more energy and attention has been paid to this on this board than was likely spent by the staff in this enforcement action.
Would it be better if the car dealers just cut baloons from their advertising budget than to take up city commission time on an item that probably adds nothing to the dealers' bottom line?
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
I think it's discrimination to not be able to have balloons. What if the car dealer's advertising budget only allows them to be able to purchase balloons instead of getting on TV or radio? That is indirectly discriminating against poor people and more than likely it would probably be a minority or a woman owned car dealer since, unfortunately, there seem to be more poor minorities. I think our city commissioners are racist!
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
Wait wait wait, I said "our" but I'm in KC now....Lawrence city commissioners are racist, my bad.
quimby (anonymous) says…
In response to most of the comments listed above, the ordinance related to banning attention-attracting devices is not unique to Lawrence! In fact, most every progessive and not-so-progressive city/town in the country has such an ordinance in order to reduce unsightly clutter and debris. I don't buy the argument that people aren't smart enough to notice a car dealership without balloons.
NorthLawrenceDude (anonymous) says…
No more balloons period. None at schools, none at birthdays, none at flower shops. In fact, City of Lawrence...send an inspector over to Hobby Lobby right now and chain the doors. Balloons will kill us all!!!
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
I don't think there's much doubt that over the years, editorial policy at the JW has been greatly influenced by advertising dollars it wished to collect (especially in the saturday columns, on which we are not allowed to comment.)
NorthLawrenceDude (anonymous) says…
ban newspapers!
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
But we can have spotlights? Come on quimby, what is more of a distraction, a balloon in the day when you can glance to the side and see it or a spotlight at night, when it's already harder to see, that you have to crane your neck to look around to try and determine where it's coming from? Which by the way is McDonald's signature now. Guess we're about to ban McDonalds.
quimby (anonymous) says…
Spotlights are regulated in the same manner as balloons are now, but that could all change tonight. Lawrence is not the city I once thought it was. Do the cities you love in America clutter their streets with stuff like balloons, penants and the like?
quimby (anonymous) says…
By my previous comment, I meant to say that spotlights and balloons are now allowed by means of a temporary use permit. McDonald's can't put up a spotlight anytime it wants... It has to get a permit, and can only do so a few times a year.
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Maybe we should rename Lawrence? How about "Stepford" where all of the quimby's could have their little utopia.
Gootsie (anonymous) says…
This is so ridiculous, I'm not even going to post anything about it.
born1980 (anonymous) says…
Except the women in Stepford were better looking.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
Thanks for all the great posts, LOL!
the point is to diminish street clutter? clutter like roundabouts, oopps I guess not.
so, the worry is that driver is driving and sees the balloons and they pose a driving distraction? that driver is obviously not up to roundabout driver standards I guess.
the Car dealer said that without balloons, his car lot just looks like a parking lot, he's right. also, for how many decades have american car dealers been putting up balloons, pennants, flags, dancing bears, etc. I actually oppose even the proposed restrictions in this article; the car dealers wouldn't just throw money away on these visual attractants if they did not get some return!
remove all restrictions and "permitting" proposed here.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
p.s. I think our city commission should rather put up a ban on car dealer's irritating radio and tv ads. now, there's an enforceable ban, he?
KsTwister (anonymous) says…
The sign ordinance helped to keep businesses out of Lawrence(CrackerBarrel and Red Lobster)but Tanger Mall sign is high flying---too bad the building is barely used. It is less of a driving hazard when you can see them from a distance anyway. Paid for by the I miss SpongeBob Campaign
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
Actually just because a car lot has balloons or a restaurant a sign I wouldn't consider the streets cluttered. Kansas City has restaurants that have signs outside of them which are nice to see when I drive by so I know that they're there. Since KC is cluttered with different businesses it's nice to know where different stores are w/o having to drive back up in every cluster of buildings to figure it out. So if you consider marketing cluttering up the streets, yes I do love clutter.
quimby (anonymous) says…
Not allowing attention-attracting devices is not just about limiting clutter and driver distraction. It is also about what happens when the balloons are not maintained and end up as litter in our community. All of these little allowances add up to a nasty looking city...
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
Nastier looking than 1/2 the art Buddy Bronze probably made? Come on the saw blades and basketball hoops? Pretty pathetic.
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Oh, I can see it now...for those dealers that get a permit, Boog and company will have to write a Balloon Maintenance Ordinance (BMO) so we don't have a "nasty looking city" with tattered balloons. And are we sure that escaping helium doesn't need to be regulated for environmental reasons?
CanadianPassport (anonymous) says…
If we give up balloons, can we at least get a ban on all forms of advertising for Payless furniture? ...including the dummy attached to the weather balloon hovering at 400ft. I'd say that a sign that interferes with air traffic might be a little over the top, but I don't think any other businesses need to be harassed for the public good.
stbaker (anonymous) says…
What a waste of money.
Jamesaust (anonymous) says…
This certainly does have the prospect of being linked to by every blogger in the country as another "crazy" Kansas thing.
But I think its crazy for the reason opposite the slant given in the article --
Have we grown up so little from being dazzled by colorful, moving infant mobiles hanging above our cribs? Ooohh....a shiny balloon!!!
Assuming that cardealers don't do things that actually don't work, who are these idiots who (A) see shiny balloon, (B) stop, (C) buy new $25,000 car? [Also, (D), who, despite being so stupid, have the dough to spend to begin with?]
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
Jamesaust--
I pointed that out in an earlier post, but it bears repeating. Seems too a trivial thing to take up city staff time, but it also seems that the car dealers are really stupid if they think it makes any difference in selling cars.
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Have any of you thought that this ban has the potential to benefit alot more than just the idiot driving by that cannot look away from the bright colored floaty things. Ballons are absolutly terrible for the enviroment, have you ever seen a bird flying around with a chunk of ballon hanging out of its beak? Or has your dog ever swallowed a ballon that falls out of the sky into your yard? Why do they need to tie a ballon to a car in order to sell it?
CanadianPassport (anonymous) says…
Yes, it's all trivial. So, why err on the side of infringing on an individual's right to do business? Because, people in power who think they know better are rarely content with making mere suggestions.
"The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us."
--Eric Hoffer
merrill (anonymous) says…
My best guess is that someone called in a complaint about the balloons. It is citizen complaints that activate most ordinances in Lawrence.
It is against the law to park a car on front lawns however police will do nothing unless a complaint is registered.
It is against the law to disturb the peace in Lawrence neighborhoods but police will do nothing until a complaint is registered.
Tall grass ordinance is not activated without a complaint.
Yes it is a citizen or a group of citizens that stimulate action.
glockenspiel (anonymous) says…
Distracted by balloons? People in New York seem to manage:
http://www.sca.org.au/del/pennsic30/t...
Or maybe since Taxi drivers have permits, they have special training to deal with the pressures of balloons and neon lights. Maybe we should propose that the city issue permits for those willing to brave the onslaught of balloons and drive down Iowa St! We could then require anyone that wishes to go down Iowa street take a bus or ride a licensed taxi!!!
Anyways, we should refrain from bagging on LJW too much. I don't know of many newspapers that are cool enough (or brave enough) to put message boards at the bottom of every article...
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
Every article except the Saturday Column.
Gootsie (anonymous) says…
"Helium does not harm anything. It's hard to get Helium to react to anything."
Tell that to a Munchkin.
(OK I caved in and posted. It's hard for me to laugh at anything today after the news on the fire.)
merrill (anonymous) says…
I am amazed that dealers need permits for stimulating business. The city commisioners had nothing to do with this
and I think it would behoove all to modify this ordinance or simply do away with this aspect of the sign ordinance. As one poster said before this type of activity is not new. Speculation tells me this has been going on for at least 55 years. Not only that this is car lot alley so who cares if there are banners,naked men and women, flags or balloons.
Godot (anonymous) says…
What about the Honk-for-Hemp guy with that thing that flutters from the pole on his bike? And what about the honking? That is definitely distracting and a violation of the noise ordinance. go get him!!! i demand the city staff send him a warning letter!
And does he really think drawing attention to himself and his cause will encourage anyone to consider legalizing pot? Only stupid people would be swayed by such a tactic.
Oh, yeah, they already have been. They are on the City Commission, and now Lawrence is recognized in High Times for being pot-friendly.
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Unofficial Poll -
Official song for the City of Lawrence -
"Roundabout" by Yes (suggested by someone previously)
"Don't Bogart That Joint" by Country Joe and the Fish
or now
"Beautiful Ballon" by the Fifth Dimension
lunacydetector (anonymous) says…
here's another lawrence, kansas LAW -
"All cars entering the city limits must first sound their horn to warn the horses of their arrival."
i'll have to remember this as i try to maneuver my fifth wheel trailer around that new pesky roundabout on clinton parkway.
if you don't believe me, here is the link:
http://www.gotfacts.com/crazylaws.php...
i wonder when lawrence starts enforcing THIS law?????
i think a consultant needs to be hired regarding the balloons. $30,000 should do the trick, then when we get the report, we can ban all balloons.
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Thanks wendt. I actually have the LP but it's been awhile since I listened to it! I guess I've inhaled too much helium in the meantime;)
Shardwurm (anonymous) says…
"Ballons are absolutly terrible for the enviroment, have you ever seen a bird flying around with a chunk of ballon hanging out of its beak? Or has your dog ever swallowed a ballon that falls out of the sky into your yard?"
If they are that stupid they deserve to die. Let evolution take it's course....or didn't you study that in school? :b
smartmomma (anonymous) says…
Payless furniture mart has the most distracting/accident causing lights in town, i'm curious to see if there is some type of code about these lights...hmmmm
merrill (anonymous) says…
That payless strobe light could actually cause problems for someone( seizures) however it hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Shardwurm, are you really that stupid or is that something that they did teach in your school?
lunacydetector (anonymous) says…
i think the payless strobe light is allowed because it is inside the store. if outside the store, they'd probably have troubles.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
lawrence=ban of the week club.
smoking, cell phone driving,train whistles, iballoons. what next. ban nudists, and keep up with Topeka. oh, everything's up to date in Kansas City!
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