Or how to trash the community you want to serve even BEFORE you get elected!
Used to be, you could count on a Democrat – as a candidate – to stand for certain things, including care for the environment and reasonable control of man’s infringement upon it in the pursuit of worldly treasures.
Not so much though for the two Democrats campaigning to become Montgomery County (PA) Commissioners!
Was driving my son home from Temple University Friday evening when I happened to take Cheltenham Avenue out to Rt. 309 in an attempt to beat rush hour traffic. Didn’t get to see much of 309, but what I saw of Cheltenham Avenue from Broad Street (Rt. 611) all the way out to Ogontz Avenue (Rt. 309) was disturbing and infuriating, especially if you despise trashiness and man-made contributions to urban blight.
Contrary to those environmental concerns that so many Democrats seem to cherish, the Shapiro-Richards campaign decided to blanket Cheltenham Avenue with enough Shapiro-Richards plastic to shrink-wrap the Norristown Courthouse.
From what I saw, the signs are already adding clutter and blight to the sights along that stretch of highway. Many of the signs are coming loose or have been displaced and uprooted. They lay on the sidewalks and street. It’s not too hard to imagine what Cheltenham Avenue is going to look like in two weeks time with all the Shapiro-Richards plastic littering the ground there.
Is it too much to expect a reasonable use of signage?? Maybe a bit of common sense in how many you need to plant or the spacing that might lessen the visual assault???
One wonders exactly how many plastic lawn signs the Shapiro-Richards campaign estimates they will place throughout Montgomery County in the pursuit of nothing more than election-day name recognition?!? Apparently, it’s quite a bit more than what you see on Cheltenham Avenue!
Today, Carol and I decided to drive up to the Philadelphia Outlets in Limerick. As we usually do, we exited the Turnpike at King of Prussia and headed west on Rt. 422. And guess what we saw?
Yep … Long lines of Shapiro-Richards plastic lining both sides of 422 for as far as the eye could see. No, it won’t be too long at all before 422 resembles – at least on one level – Cheltenham Avenue!
At this time of year you expect to see campaign lawn signs throughout your community. It is – unfortunately – what is to be expected. But you would hope that common sense and – above all – consideration for the aesthetic impact of too many signs in too high a concentration in your neighborhood and on the roads you travel might cross a politician’s – or campaign worker’s – mind.
Apparently not so this year from the Shapiro-Richards Plastic Campaign!
Remember that when you consider who you want to run Montgomery County and to protect green spaces and the local environment for the next four years!
Cranky Man's Lawn 
The fascinating thing is how few of those signs are on actual private property. Outside a few areas, there are hardly any Democratic signs in any private areas. The only signs you see in private areas seem to be Castor-Brown.
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Obviously a campaign has to have permission of the property owner before posting any signs on private property. Of course certain areas of MontCo will show more Brown-Castor signs posted outside homes and businesses. Along Rt 422 Shapiro-Richards almost has to post signs – on public property – because few homes/businesses in those areas would be so openly supporting them over Brown-Castor. All the S-R signs I see on private property are concentrated in east and southeast MontCo (no surprise). I imagine Norristown has quite a few as well.
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An interesting observation … I remember reading about the so-called Shapiro-Richards fund raising advantage; and it’s odd that – aside from the signs – you see nothing coming out from that campaign. If the rumors are true and the polling looks bad for S-R, perhaps they (Shapiro) decided to hold on to that cash and put it towards Shapiro’s political future (assuming that’s legal). He was considering a U.S. Senate run before Specter turned coat for the Dems. I had thought it strange at the time that the Dems put their “rising star” up for MontCo Commissioner.
P.S. Thanks for the link share!
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I love the name of your blog “crankymanslawn” That is awesome!
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Can we bill them to clean them up?
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I’m not sure what the charge or penalty is for not cleaning up one’s campaign mess. Supposedly there are penalties if not cleaned up so many days after an election.
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I would hope that whoever was paid to place them will go back and retrieve them. I doubt that will happen we will be stareing at these signs until well into spring.
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There are laws requiring that campaigns clean up their clutter after the election. Most election groups do just that. The point here though is the gross quantity of signs, many many of them placed mere yards apart. Any reasonable person would consider the need to place signs so close together that in some places they are a continuous, solid line of plastic – and eventual street trash until reclaimed – all for two candidates!! If you haven’t seen Cheltenham Avenue, it’s an absolute mess; and all the signs I saw this past weekend were for Shapiro-Richards!
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It really toasted my onions to see the obscene number of political signage placed on Cheltenham Avenue. What I saw today on 422 was just the tipping point.
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