Signage: the right way and wrong way

Today I called “Tutor/Doctor’s” local franchisee, Mark Seker, to chat about the firm’s illegal signs in the right of way. I informed him that I’ve taken down more than a few of their signs.

I know Mark and, despite and even because of my criticism, it was a friendly chat.

Unlike JobDango’s obstreperous, defensive CEO Ralph King and owner Tim Baron, Mark welcomed my concern and shares it. The signs cause ill will  — although he adds that they are remarkably  inexpensive and exceedingly effective in attracting business.

He promised that his franchise would cease putting up the signs (he can’t speak for other Tutor/Doctor franchises in Portland) and said that he would raise my concern (and his) with Tutor/Doctor’s marketing people.

Apparently he and others already had been thinking about yanking the signs in the public right of way but encouraging the firm’s backers, employees and clients to put up discreet signs in their yards...on private property.

That makes some sense. Who better to tout the success of a company than its clients? And if the message were something along the lines of “My child is on the road to academic success thanks to Tutor/Doctor,” it would be an endorsement based on experience. That's hard to beat.

I even suggested that Mark and his company come up with bumper stickers for their backers to display. Bumpers are private property that happen to cruise the public right-of-way.

The same approach would work well for JobDango, if only King and Baron would listen.

“I got my job through JobDango!” is a great bottom-line message for a yard sign or a bumper sticker.

How about it Ralph and Tim?

Signbusters United to save the Commons!

Yesterday I risked life and limb to take down another of Jobdango monstrosities. Photo to the right.

Ralph King is the CEO of the employment firm and apparently has no qualms about illegally planting his company’s signs all over the public right-of-way. Firm's owner, Tim Barron, has told a fellow sign-buster that jobs are more important than keeping the public right-of-way free of clutter.

So Jobdango officials know what they are doing is illegal. The firm has even been sued in the past for promoting Jobdango by writing in chalk on downtown sidewalks.

I phoned the company once to complain and gently posit my vision of what the city would look like if every business chose this form of advertising. I was met with a verbal attack. “Sounds like you have too much time on your hands. Get a job!”

I’m not about to subject myself to further abuse. I’ll just fight back by ripping down his signs (as I've done with 40 or so). Still I confess I don’t seem to be having much effect on Ralph and Tim. They continue to hire folks to put up more, weed-like. (Update: I took down two of their signs on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway today, Feb 7)

A call to the City produced all kinds of blather about tight budgets, enforcement priorities (illegal signs are way down the list) and Catch-22 regulations. An example of the latter is that if I take down one of these signs there’s no longer a violation because there’s no evidence. The photo shown here,  I was told, doesn’t qualify as proof of a violation either. Go figure.

But I do have one hero in the city bureaucracy. That would be Marcia Dennis, who thanklessly fields complaints about graffiti and various other visual assaults on the Commons. She even hands out anti-graffiti kits stocked with rubber gloves and all kinds of solvents. Marcia has agreed to send me the names of other Portland “Sign-busters.” There must be a couple dozen of us with “time on our hands.”

It’s time to organize. A well-publicized, Michael Moore-like mass visit/sit-in at  Jobdango’s office might be in order. Or verbal complaints at a City Council session. Or a publicity campaign. Or an on-camera citizens’ arrest.

Those are all safer than tip-toeing along the edge of the Capital Highway on-ramp to Barbur while traffic whisks by just inches away.

Meanwhile, if you want the thrill of being told to get a life, give Ralph or Tim a call to complain. The number is: (503) 256-4446.

Oh, and if you actually need a job, don’t get it through Jobdango. It only encourages the company to keep blighting our city.