Sign code bans spinning barber poles

[The Straight Story]

Sign code bans spinning barber poles


Bozeman City Commissioner Eric Bryson was getting his hair cut at The Buckaroo when he learned about a strange local law: the city doesn’t allow barber’s iconic red, white and blue poles to spin.


“They can have a pole and the light can be on, but the minute they turn on the swirliness of the barber pole, that violates the city’s sign ordinance,” Bryson said.

The city prohibits all moving signs, said Assistant Planning Director Chris Saunders. It’s a rule that’s been in place since at least 1990, when the City Commission adopted the sign code, although some older signs in town have been grandfathered in.

At The Buckaroo, a barber pole hangs outside the shop’s door just off North Seventh Avenue. But it’s never on. The shop tried to turn it on a few years ago, barber Ryan Alsup said, but the city forced him to turn it off.

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2010/01/02/news/100poles.txt

[BlueJazz]

1. Sounds like a good law. Spinning signs detracts law-enforcement from ....

...catching those pesky Terrorists.

Good Grief! :)

[Better Today]

2. Though the poles are seemingly ridiculous, the whole moving sign

prohibition isn't, imo. It's amazing how many wrecks we have around two electronically lit billboards where the ad changes every few mintues and flashes and scrolls its messages. Very distracting, imo.