PRESIDENTIAL VETO

[Q3JR4]

Landlord Prohibits Anti-Bush Poster, Tenant Takes It To the Streets

A month ago, Brodie Kelly stuck a poster in his apartment window, above Columbia City's Lottie Motts Coffee Shop. The sign--photocopied on an 11- by 17-inch sheet of paper--had a concise message stamped over a high-contrast black-and-white outline of President George W. Bush's head: "Wrong for America."

"I noticed it," says Lottie Motts' Kate Gill. "But people often put up anti-Bush stuff." The poster wasn't a big deal--Columbia City, like Seattle, is mostly left-leaning, after all. But then Kelly's landlord saw it. The eight-unit building is owned by Columbia City-based SouthEast Effective Development (SEED), a nonprofit development company that builds low-income housing with the help of city, state, and federal funding. The old building is managed by a nice husband-and-wife team, Kelly says, who called him and politely asked him to take down the political art. "I'm calling you in reference to the poster that you have hanging in your window. SEED company does not involve itself in any politics, and because it's part of the building, I need to ask you to please remove it," one of the managers told Kelly in a phone message, which he transcribed onto his website. When Kelly finally talked to the managers, he pointed out that nothing in his lease prohibited signs in the windows--he just wasn't allowed to attach things like fences to the building.

<snip>

Instead of fighting his landlord, though, Kelly acquiesced and took down Bush this past weekend. "Seems a little stupid to jeopardize my choice location, cheap digs, and decent relationship with the husband-wife rental management tag team." Then he did what any good lefty with a pressing political message would do: solicited a few friends, made a hundred copies of the anti-Bush posters (including other designs, like one of Bush's face over the word "dimwit"), and plastered the neighborhood. If he couldn't put propaganda in his window, he'd put it on every utility pole.

<snip>

Monday morning, when Gill arrived at Lottie Motts, nearly every pole in the neighborhood was coated in anti-Bush signs. She loved it, and so did her customers. "Columbia City has never looked better," she says.

See the rest at http://www.thestranger.com/current/city.html

*************************************************************

That's thinking outside the box.

[kimchi]

1. Perfect!

Way to use the old noodle!