a little courtesy goes a long way

Earlier this afternoon, I was heading out for a bike ride and saw a CDOT guy taking our SOS sign and our neighbor's from our front yards.  I stopped him and asked him why.  He said he'd gotten a lot of complaints about too many yard signs and was removing the ones that were on the parkways.  He recited his bureaucratic spiel about "possible distraction to drivers," "possible tripping hazard," etc. 

Possible tripping hazard?  In the middle of my garden bed?  99% of the time the only person who walks there is ME, and that's when I'm doing garden maintenance, which sure isn't happening at this time of year.

This week a lot of new yard signs HAVE been added - for this weekend's open houses for prospective students at a few local schools, signup for summer baseball and softball leagues, nonprofit fundraisers, a few political campaigns, and our local open space initiative.  The vast majority of these were for nonprofit efforts and would be there for a very short time frame.  Many were for events this weekend.

I made him give back our signs and placed ours on the other side of the sidewalk, closer to the house where it won't be as visible as it was on the corner.  Our neighbor happened to arrive home at that moment, and I handed his signs back to him.

The city expects a lot from us in terms of maintaining the parkways, which are technically city property.  We're expected to mow the grass and keep the parkway neat in front of our house.  Fine, we've got no problem doing that, because it makes our house and neighborhood more pleasant.  City law requires us to clear snow and ice from the sidewalks.  Got no problem with that either, because it's a good neighborly thing that greatly improves quality of life by keeping our sidewalks walkable.  Then they send this guy around to steal items that we chose to place on our parkways, in the middle of the afternoon when day shift workers are generally at work and night shift workers are running errands or sleeping.

Just because it's bureacratically mandated stealing doesn't change what it is: stealing.   How about getting word out through the alderman's office or BAPA and giving us the weekend to move signs instead of just stealing them? 

We appreciate what CDOT does to maintain our roads and other infrastructure.  How about showing some appreciation by giving us a little consideration in return?  Give us reasonable notice (a few days) on things like signs, or non-emergency construction that affects our parkways and sidewalks.  A little bit of courtesy goes a long way.