Sign Sensitivity

Yesterday I took a short drive through two of the oldest neighborhoods in District 4, Bryant Woods and Longfellow. I was curious to see which council candidate in this hotly contested district had the most yard signs. In my Ellicott City neighborhood you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Courtney Watson sign.

What I found reminded me of the different sensibilities between EC and Columbia. In Columbia the political sign restrictions used to be more limiting than the county sign codes. Political yard signs in Columbia used to be banned until thirty days prior to an election as opposed to the ninety day ban in the county sign code. In this election cycle however, political sign durational limits in HoCo have been put on the shelf pending the outcome of a federal court case in Baltimore County.

Still, particularly in older Columbia neighborhoods, sign sensitivity still runs high among some old timers. As such, during my drive through those two neighborhoods I only saw three homes with political yard signs and they were all in Bryant Woods and they were all for Alan Klein.

I asked Mary Kay what was up with that and she explained that many of the residents in District 4 still feel that even though the thirty ban no longer exists its intent and spirit should still be respected. She has discouraged her supporters from putting out yard signs too early.

Apparently Alan Klein’s supporters do not share that sentiment.