LIGHTer Blue Lines, Two Times the Value
In a story that one of our avid readers uncovered two days before the News-Press on EdHat, David Pritchett reported on the Historic Landmarks Commission discussion on the LIGHTer Blue Line that will now last two years rather than five because of the paint being used. Google Video is available here on the KEYT story.
It's interesting to read how the HLC is acting like the HLC about this project. There will be no URL's on the medallions that are included in the project -- so no self promotion! And, the paint will have to last two years rather than five. Rather subjective opinion, it will really depend on traffic and the message will already have had a major impact.
Two things are important about this:
1) Approving the Light Blue Line project means it continues with no need for an appeal to the City Council.
2) More importantly, $12,000 worth of lighter blue lines has been spent to get at least twice as much public relations value. Irony of ironies for those that think it should have been spent somewhere else, the LIGHTer Blue Line has promoted the problem of global warming very cheaply. Council Member Helene Schneider had it right in the video linked to above. See it.
It's interesting to read how the HLC is acting like the HLC about this project. There will be no URL's on the medallions that are included in the project -- so no self promotion! And, the paint will have to last two years rather than five. Rather subjective opinion, it will really depend on traffic and the message will already have had a major impact.
Two things are important about this:
1) Approving the Light Blue Line project means it continues with no need for an appeal to the City Council.
2) More importantly, $12,000 worth of lighter blue lines has been spent to get at least twice as much public relations value. Irony of ironies for those that think it should have been spent somewhere else, the LIGHTer Blue Line has promoted the problem of global warming very cheaply. Council Member Helene Schneider had it right in the video linked to above. See it.
Labels: Blue Line, Santa Barbara City Council
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 8/11/2007 09:36:00 PM
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29 Comments:
I think the HLC caved into political pressure.
It is too bad the paint will disappear so quickly. It's odd that the effect of yourself on the planet can last for many decades after you depart but the blue line must disappates as if it never existed within two years.
While the outraged public put on a big fist pounding show about using common sense and being fiscally conservative, a billiard/biker bar opened up on de la Vina near TJs and the Showgrounds replaced it's historic billboard with an LCD/LED type electronic billboard. Both will be a great addition to this introspective, environmental and thoughtfull community.
The uproar over the Blue Line is an indication to me that Santa Barbara residents are having a difficult time progressing/evolving from their backwards bubba stage.
(it's me donaldo)
Sara
Take off you violet colored glasses and look at reality. The blue line publicity hasn’t raised awareness by one centimeter. Instead, it has highlighted the folly of the present city council majority. They supported a project that violates the city’s own traffic code, paints lines and symbols on the streets, and they can’t see that this is graffiti. How many council members do you see removing graffiti around town as part of the graffiti hotline volunteers?
If they got off their duffs and did a little physical work, they would kill this blue line nonsense and come up with a real art project. The voters have had enough.
Pardon me for being off topic, but just scanned a discarded Sunday News-Press in a coffee shop's waste bin:
--Laura Schlessinger attacks Craig Smith, neglecting to mention the newspaper until recently covered the fire with wire stories and there's been little real-time reporting from front lines. Nice of her and Wendy McCaw to promote Craig's blog, however.
--Travis Armstrong attacks Fiesta.
--Travis Armstrong attacks the Community Environmental Council.
They aren't covered in her own newspaper, but owner Wendy McCaw seems to have three or four lawsuits going at all times and the government is prosecuting the newspaper next week.
So negative. Always attacking and tearing down. Seldom building up.
Look what Wendy McCaw, Arthur von Weisenburger and their disciples have brought to "the city she loves."
I hate to break it to you, Helene, and others, but what this whole mess has truly promoted is not "the prblem of global warming" but the ridiculousness of our city council. there are many of us who believed that way before Travis did, too, despite what Nick's Angry Poodle tried to spin on behalf of helene.
This has nothing to do with who will be mayor in two years, whether we "believe in" global warming, read the news-press or any other irrelevant factor.
The head-shaking that has gone on in town from the moment this "decision" was reached by Council has to do with one thing-- the sheer silliness of this action.
they can spin it any way they want, but that's the bottom line, Sara.
The blue line has promoted global warming and it has done so not with facts but with fear, misstatements, and misleading claims. I love the Letter to the Editor by the blue liner now saying he city will not be underwater in 10 years or maybe never. So what's the point.
The whole thing is a joke. The city council knee jerked and the spin that it was good pr for global warming is more bad spin as the only pr here is that those promoting global warming will say and do anything thinking the rest of us will just follow - in other words for the rest of the city it is clear that the blue line project is a bogus as the rest of the global warming promoters.
high taxes covers a multitude of sins...
So who is going to compensate those of us who live on the "wrong" side of the line for our diminished property value?
Either 1) the City Council has has just hastened the loss of hundreds of million value in property value or 2) nobody really believes the oceans will rise due to human caused global warming.
I think the irony of irony here is that the "blue line" has exposed global warming hysterics like Schneider as glib posers who deep down do not take themselves, or the public trust, seriously.
Money very well spent in my opinion, to separate the wheat from the chaffe amongst our local leaders.
A suggestion to Schneider and her lame cronies: climb down from your high horses and spend some time and energy fixing the temporary traffic circles before someone gets killed.
I seem to be the only reader of this blog who likes the blue line. I think it's a wonderful art project, and now that the money has been raised privately I don't really see what all the fuss is about.
FEAR NO ART.... Remember threats to burn the PEACE art and the serious slings and arrows at the M or W? These are back handed compliments. Art that is ignored would be worse. Most everyone is in the last days of summer, mostly the anal retents are commenting now. It is hidden fear, if not so extreme it could be funnier. I thought the real estate doom was special. Finally, I'll have a beach house!
I'm all for the Blue Line, more so for the conversations it's sparked. I'm looking forward to seeing it and more to all the outraged retents, get it out!
There are many of us who believe the Light blue line project is a small but positive statement about global warming.
What's amazing about the whole episode are the people who insist on living in there little bubble - driving their suvs completely ignorant of their impacts on others. The light blue line scares the hell out of them because they are either going to have to change their ways or the action-reaction cycle of things is going to come swinging back around and bite us all in the ____ - either way that thought is just way too terrifying for them to handle.
I'm for the blue line, too. People who complain it'll bring down property values - huh? The same area will go underwater in a tsunami and that information has been public knowledge for ages.
hey wineguy you miss the point as anon 10:45 said best:
Either the line is a true representation of where the ocean will be in a decade or and that has impacted the values of those properties - - -
or
The line like all the global warming hype is just that hype.
Either way the city is using our (the taxpayers) property to promote their unscientific view point - breaking their own rules and impacting everyone who lives in that area without ever consulting them.
If this was a development - that could impact these residents - there would be notifications and hearings. Seems to me we are changing the use of this land by drawing a line and those impacted have not been consulted at all.
I'm surprised the simplicity of the concept behind the blue line has enraged so many people (is it really that many, or is it just a tiny vocal minority?).
I have the feeling the people who consider global warming to be "the greatest scam on the american public" (as one politician put it), are the same ones who are outraged by this down-to-earth illustration of the effects of global warming here at home.
So, the current debate is not really about a line of paint on the floor, and it's certainly not about money: it's about a strongly held (dis)belief facing a reality check.
Don't evade the underlying theme: is global warming real or not, and does it have very real and very practical consequences, one of which is a significant rise in the sea level?
I think we all need to buy some black spray paint over the course of the next few weeks and take turns painting the blue lines on the asphalt black again. That will be hysterical!
a post above stated this "What's amazing about the whole episode are the people who insist on living in there little bubble - driving their suvs completely ignorant of their impacts on others. "
sounds like Al Gore and all his Hollywood supporters, except instead of an suv they have six and a jet or chartered jets with huge energy and carbon footprints.
the entire deal is a joke. Global warming - maybe from the sun - what a thought.
@Anon 3.32: Thanks so much for replying. I am still struggling to understand. You say "Seems to me we are changing the use of this land by drawing a line and those impacted have not been consulted at all."
How does the line change the use of the land? I think that like all art the line changes only our perception. Do the trout on State Street change the use of the street? Or do they just make us think...or smile...or whatever response they engender? Won't the line be the same?
You say no one has been consulted. The project has been going on for over a year now. Our representatives at City Council have considered it; so has the Landmarks Committee. There has been free discussion on the blogs.
Are you being hurt in some way by this line? Please explain...
no spray paint as it will effect global warming. in fact isn't most paint have some form of hydrocarbon as does this laptop and the multimedia the promoters of the blue line and all the goodies they sell on their website- sounds like a
Big
Blue
Line
Billboard
yes?
The truth about global warming denial.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20122975
This is off topic but there was a very interesting article in the Sunday issue of the Santa Maria Times by Randy Alcorn.
It addresses topics discussed on BlogaBarbara in the past.
Perhaps the article could be a topic here on BlogaBarbara.
5:16, my guess also is some "urban guerillas" will spray over the lines --- then will the city spend time and money repainting them?
Since the city can never catch grafitti punks in action, even when dangling over freeway overpasses, how far will they go to ensure the safety of the Sacred Blue Lines while the rest of the city rots in grafitti?
I doubt it will be "urban guerrillas" that paint the line black. It will likely be independently-acting homeowners adjacent to the "line".
Wouldn't that be terrorism? Or, is the painting of the line itself terrorism?
Merriam Webster defines terrorism as:
"the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.
It defines terror as:
"one that inspires fear"
Think about it...
"I seem to be the only reader of this blog who likes the blue line. "
You're not the only one, not nearly. It's just that the trogs have become very vocal on this blog.
"is it really that many, or is it just a tiny vocal minority?"
3/4ths of the anonymous posts sound like they're from the same person. Of course that's the thing about dittoheads ...
87% of the New Age Leftie posts sound like they are from the same person.
Nope, this time the voices criticizing the blue line are all over this town. There is no defense of it anywhere I hear, not even among those who have made rational decisions for themselves about global warming.
So it is a mistake to think this is some minor art project or minor amount of money. It is as minor as a 3rd rate burglary at the Watergate. The council defenders miss how badly this reasonates with the voters this year.
This is a new age and the voters need a little re-education, but they will come around and see the light.
Voters don't need scolding or "re-educating". Candidates and elected officials do. Some how you got it all backwards.
I'd say they do need re-education. Just look at the opposition to the blue line and tell me they don't!
The value of the blue line to me is that it shows the true color of people that I thought of as friends. What I see is that those against this are conservative and global warming deniers and it has become very difficult for me to even talk to these people. In fact I find myself going out to the way to avoid them. I feel they should be punished somehow but they used to seem so nice and that makes thinking bad about them hard.
Have any of the people complaining about the lightblueline website actually visited the site?
http://lbline.org/
Nothing is being sold. Comments are open. The science is real, so are the education materials from NASA and elsewhere.
Anonymous attacks against art simple show the author is not ready to identify with their words.
Bruce, the more people you re-educate the better!
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