Around Sandy Springs

By ageofpaper

December 17, 2007 9:16 AM | Link to this

Once Sandy Springs sees that it has to get the bill boards Eva Galambos will install camera’s on them to catch speeders, lane changers, lawn mower speeders, j-walkers, no stop right turners, the money will be endless, its not a city, its a bank.

By Donald Kennedy

December 17, 2007 1:04 PM | Link to this

I just love when everyone hates billboards, but drive around and who are the advertisers? Johns Creek Hospital, this and that Church, Auto dealers. The same crazies that fought Cell Towers a few years back, the people who drive with a cell phone in their ear, they will complain about billboards. But guess what? They will be the first to frequent the advertisers because when they get in an accident and need a hospital and a clergyman, won’t they be happy there were billboards.

By Sandy Springs Avoider

December 18, 2007 11:09 AM | Link to this

Amen on Sandy Springs operating as a greedy, money grabbing for breathing wrong, storehouse of passerbys wealth. I don’t see any improvements so I’m guessing all that extra cash is going to the unneeded beauracrats pockets.

By itsme

December 18, 2007 11:31 AM | Link to this

There simply is no excuse for billboards anywhere. We have enough ways to advertise without them.

By EyesWideSkyward

December 18, 2007 11:41 AM | Link to this

There is a 500-ft “rule” for billboard liquor and beer advertisements. That’s the minimum distance such ads must be from schools and churches; possibly day-care centers, too. If you spot such an advertisment, report it to the city manager’s office.

By BILLC

December 18, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this

WHAT A WONDERFULL LIFE JIM MUST HAVE SITTING BACK IN SANDY SPRINGS AND SEEING WHAT HE CAN START TROUBLE IN ALL PARTS OF GEORGIA BET SANDY SPRINGS MAKING A KILLING FROM THE TAXES HE BETTER WATCH OUT HOME OFFICES ARE NEXT JIM JUST SIT BACK AND MIND YOUR OWN LITTLE BACK YARD

By BILLC

December 18, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this

WHAT A WONDERFULL LIFE JIM MUST HAVE SITTING BACK IN SANDY SPRINGS AND SEEING WHAT HE CAN START TROUBLE IN ALL PARTS OF GEORGIA BET SANDY SPRINGS MAKING A KILLING FROM THE TAXES HE BETTER WATCH OUT HOME OFFICES ARE NEXT JIM JUST SIT BACK AND MIND YOUR OWN LITTLE BACK YARD

By BILLC

December 18, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this

WHAT A WONDERFULL LIFE JIM MUST HAVE SITTING BACK IN SANDY SPRINGS AND SEEING WHAT HE CAN START TROUBLE IN ALL PARTS OF GEORGIA BET SANDY SPRINGS MAKING A KILLING FROM THE TAXES HE BETTER WATCH OUT HOME OFFICES ARE NEXT JIM JUST SIT BACK AND MIND YOUR OWN LITTLE BACK YARD

By Ted Turner

December 18, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this

Early to bed, early to rise. Work like Hell and advertise!

By Brad

December 18, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this

I grew up in Vermont, where they outlawed billboards in the 1960’s. Well, actually, the State compensated the existing billboard owners and outlawed any new signs.
The only advertising on the highways is on State-owned signs, which are very small. This made a dramatic improvement in the landscape. The hills and valleys look unspoiled. Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. Although the number of signs in Georgia would make this prohibitive, it would certainly make life more enjoyable.

By SC

December 18, 2007 12:38 PM | Link to this

More power to you, Jim. Don’t you just love all these critics who would choose billboards over a classier city. Trolls and billboard company executives.

Perhaps the metro municipalities should band together to enact one set of laws which raise taxes on the businesses which typically advertise on billboards. Another set of laws could be enacted to provide rebates for those which refrain from advertising on billboards. Starve them out.

By andyk

December 18, 2007 1:12 PM | Link to this

another exampkle of georgia destroying itself in its effort to pave every ounce of greenspace.

By BillW

December 18, 2007 1:29 PM | Link to this

Billboards are a cancer. I can’t deal with them. Maybe I need to retire to Vermont.

By patrick

December 18, 2007 1:30 PM | Link to this

This is not good. Just last week I waas driving down 85 and thought of the laws in canada. No billboards. Why do we need them? I’d rather see trees, landscapes with out being distroyed by billboards. I say start a partition to get rid of all billboards in the state of Georgia! I’ll be the first to sign.

Patrick

By patrick

December 18, 2007 1:30 PM | Link to this

This is not good. Just last week I waas driving down 85 and thought of the laws in canada. No billboards. Why do we need them? I’d rather see trees, landscapes with out being distroyed by billboards. I say start a partition to get rid of all billboards in the state of Georgia! I’ll be the first to sign.

Patrick

By Chuck

December 18, 2007 2:06 PM | Link to this

How do you get rid of billboards?

Simply contact the business that is advertising and say you do not support their use of billboards. It may take a minute or two from your day, but imagine if thousands of people keep calling Delta, AirTran, Wachovia, and all the other advertisers to protest. Threaten not to give them your business and they will listen.

Businesses use outdoor advertising because it creates exposure and no one lets them know they don’t like it. There are so many other ways to advertise, outdoor billboards are simply unnecessary, obnoxious, and ugly.

If you don’t like billboards, call them, ask for their President or chief decision maker and tell them to stop billboard advertising.

By Daniel

December 18, 2007 2:14 PM | Link to this

I have never heard a comment from a newspaper or magazine writer that talks about the clutter from mass producing sheets of paper from trees and then the dumping of that waste into landfills. And please don’t tell me that everyone recycles, so the impact is not significant. That simply isn’t true. The author is right, billboards don’t hurt the environment, his employer and those like them impact the earth negatively to a much greater degree.

Here’s an interesting fact for the author…your employer uses a significant amount of outdoor advertising (e.g., BILLBOARDS!!!)

By Erin

December 18, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this

It’s funny you say there was never a billboard you remembered as being clever or witty. Several stand out in my mind. The JESUS Billboard on 316 heading towards Athens. Right around 20. It stands out because it’s exactly what I’m thinking when I’m stuck in traffic that has no end in sight. Probably not what they were going for, but it always makes me smile. And on my way to Rome, GA a few years ago Toyota had a set of billboards that drove me crazy for months. In fact, we ended up studying it in my advertising class not long after the advertisments ended. They started with “Your Mom Knows.” and every few weeks another would pop up reading “Your neighbor knows.” or “Your wife knows.” For weeks I tried to figure out what they knew. Finally they revealed it…”Everyone Knows That Toyotas are cheaper in Rome!” Effective advertising no matter how much it bothered people. While billboards might be everything you say they are, studies have shown that they are an effective marketing tool(not to mention money-maker) so they’ll continue to pop up whether or not you can appreciate them.

By Nash Fan

December 18, 2007 2:54 PM | Link to this

I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall I’ll never see a tree at all. — Ogden Nash

By Gordon Gecko

December 18, 2007 3:05 PM | Link to this

Ya know, there is actually a free market solution to the “problem”, Mr. Osterman. How about taking your own money, buying them, and tearing them down. Take up a collection from other meddlesome fruitcakes and y’all can have a field day.

Spending my tax dollars to promote your personal vision of an uncluttered horizon is armed robbery at the point of a government gun. Get a life and you may not even notice the billboards…they certainly won’t bother you.

Cordially.

By Gordon Gecko

December 18, 2007 3:06 PM | Link to this

Ya know, there is actually a free market solution to the “problem”, Mr. Osterman. How about taking your own money, buying them, and tearing them down. Take up a collection from other meddlesome fruitcakes and y’all can have a field day.

Spending my tax dollars to promote your personal vision of an uncluttered horizon is armed robbery at the point of a government gun. Get a life and you may not even notice the billboards…they certainly won’t bother you.

Cordially.

By adawgfan

December 18, 2007 3:22 PM | Link to this

My husband and I live in north Georgia. He owns a few billboards (two front & back signs) on his own property. These help to put food on our table. Everyone has to make a living somehow.

By adawgfan

December 18, 2007 3:24 PM | Link to this

I certainly look at billboards on the interstate when I am traveling. It is nice to know if I am getting close to a gas station or a restaurant. I don’t look at them when I am riding around town, though.

By ad guy

December 19, 2007 8:33 AM | Link to this

I have worked in advertising for many years and I can tell you that the outdoor advertising DOES NOT increase consumer awareness. It is very rare that a consumer is moved to act by this sort of advertising. Granted… the outdoor industry will tell you otherwise, but most boards are part of larger, overall advertising campaigns and provide little more than a blip on the “awareness radar.” It is time to let outdoor advertising die on the vine.

By Just Nasty and Mean

December 20, 2007 5:11 PM | Link to this

The way to kill billboards is to call the companies advertising on them and tell them you will not frequent their business because of the sign. Over time, they’ll just die.

By Greg

December 21, 2007 3:21 PM | Link to this

As a resident of Johns Creek the thought of 31 billboards popping up and blighting our city literally gives me a pit in my stomach. Residents should be outraged at the thought of that.

Think about it this way for a moment. Imagine you buy a house and a year later the previous owner comes by and tells you he approved a large sign to be placed in your yard advertising a fast food restaurant. What would you do? Would you allow it? Of course you wouldn’t! It’s your house now. He doesn’t have the authority to approve anything to be done to your house. You would do anything and everything to stop that from happening! Fulton County does not have the authority to approve signs in the new cities.

The idea of going to the past in some sort of magic time machine and make approvals retroactively is brilliant! Why stop at backdating just a few months? Why not backdate years or decades??? We could do that for our new schools we are considering without all those pesky EPA and environmental impact requirements! Imagine the money the county can save simply by backdating any request to the date before any restrictions were in place. I’m sure they will hold up in court. As much as we would love to do that, it is fantasy. Do you think if I went to a gas station and write them a check for gas and backdate the check to 1975, will they sell me gas at 35 cents a gallon? No way. I need to pay the current price, just as Fulton County needs to abide by the current city laws.

Individual homeowner associations impose restrictions on what homeowners can and cannot do with their property, even though the HOA does not own the property. I don’t have a ‘right’ to put a cell tower in my yard. Clearly there is a need to draw the line base on what the community wants. That is similar to the city laws against billboards. Billboard companies don’t have a ‘right’ to destroy the look of a community. Residents do not want billboards and should be able to pass laws restricting them.

Fulton County had control of the unincorporated areas for years and years and did not resolve the issue. They had their chance to do the right thing and fight this by writing or changing the laws to meet legal requirements. I am not a lawyer but I know when something is not right. It may be legal but it is clearly not right. The commissioners need to do the right thing and fight the billboards even if it means changing the law vs. being rolled over by it. Leaders lead by doing the right thing, not be settling.

Finally, the signs are not even installed. To sit back now and say it is inevitable is wrong. I urge anyone who feels the same way I do to and let the four commissioners who did make this questionable agreement know how they feel. That would be Commissioners Eaves, Boxill, Edwards and Lowe.

By Mark

December 21, 2007 4:29 PM | Link to this

Jim - the permits have not actually been granted. A judge will have to approve of the settlement via consent order and that is why the cities of North Fulton have intervened in the lawsuits to bring to the various judges’ attention that the permits are illegal and should not be allowed. However, Commissioner Lowe in particular should be particularly taken to task for not listening to the facts and approving the alleged and illegal settlement on the backs of the citizens of North Fulton’s cities. If nothing else, this is just more reason why we need to re-create Milton County.

By Sheri

December 23, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this

North Springs Comment….

Well, yes, that is pretty much what the rules already are for a principal in Sandy Springs. You can look up the salary of a principal at www.fultonschools.org and go under salary schedule. They don’t make what they deserve to make. There is NO WAY I would EVER want that job. However, I can respond to your qualifications as a potential employee. Here is what you can expect to walk into your first day on the job…We do have a dress code, a pretty strict one at that. They do charge a set fee for parking. The fee is 1% of a $5,000 car. It would impossible to charge 1% of the value of a car because doing that would take up too much time and create controversy. I assure you it is time a principal doesn’t have. It would be great if we had a parent volunteer come in and assist to help with things like this. Anyone can be a cheerleader or participate in any sport. There is no discrimination to any student who wants to participate in any sport; however, we can’t control what the students say to each other. Good luck breaking that contract that Coke has with the schools vending machines. They won’t let us take out the machines out now due to contract agreements made by previous principals. We currently collect cell phones by what seem like the thousands. We have found that it is easier and more harsh to keep the phones for a 24 hour time period and make their parents pick them up, as most of them don’t show up for detentions. (and when they don’t show up for detentions, they become Saturday school, and when they don’t show up for that they become out of school detentions, and then we end up with hundreds of kids out of school and only increasing the failure rates). And let’s see, the last thing about dropping out at 16. We do all we can to keep them, but if we can’t, it is their choice to legally go at 16. Handing them a fast food application isn’t going to help many of them. In fact, many of the students who drop out do so because they are already working more than one job and have to drop out to further take care of their families. They do have dreams, but many have to sacrifice their dreams for survival and in some case, they can’t legally further educate themselves past high school. So why stay for the additional two years? They already know they are stuck doing labor jobs anyway. Oh, and prepare for the parent complaints. You obviously have NO IDEA what parents are capable of. If you try to quiz each parent, you might end up quizzing the family lawyer because believe it or not…they go that far. Good luck!