Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Free speech is one thing, jerkiness is quite another

Friday, Apr 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

Those who travel through the busy intersection of Lincoln Avenue, Fullerton Avenue and Halsted Street might have noticed the giant sign hanging over the McDonald’s that reads “Chicago Republican Party, Chris Cleveland, Chairman.”

The city recently issued the owner of the building at 2420 N. Lincoln Ave. a violation for putting up the sign without a permit, threatening to fine the group if it doesn’t follow city protocol, according to the complaint. The chairman of the Chicago Republican Party called the request “unconstitutional.” […]

“I refuse to ask permission for any government entity before engaging in political speech. It’s unconstitutional and offensive,” Cleveland said in an interview.

There’s an error in that second paragraph. The city is going after the building owner, not the Chicago GOP.

Still, it seems like more than a bit excessive on its face. Just one more story about those needless and burdensome city sign regulations.

* But all is not as it seems…

City officials aren’t the only ones fed up with the Chicago Republican Party’s giant sign.

The sign, which was installed by the group at 2420 N. Lincoln Ave. last fall without a permit, is covering a big window in Tom Alcock’s psychology office — and he’s not happy about it.

“This has been really hard on me,” Alcock said. “I’ve lost sleep and pounds trying to protect my business.” […]

Alcock said not only does the sign violate city law, but it also violates Alcock’s lease.

Um, yeah, I’d be upset too if some guy violated my lease by covering up my office window with a giant sign…

Cover up your own window, freedom fighter dude.

…Adding… I thought I remembered those signs. Thanks to a commenter for this link.

45 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 *** Today’s quotable

Friday, Apr 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

*** UPDATE *** Important correction issued by the magazine…

Rich, thanks for including our magazine piece on the blog today.

Wanted to let you know that we’ve issued a correction on that particular quote from Victoria Watkins in our April issue of Chicago Lawyer. After checking the original transcripts, she told our reporter “I protect the city in Springfield.” Somewhere on the editing desk, it got changed to “from Springfield.” That one-word difference offers a vastly different connotation than what Ms. Watkins told us, and I’d like to apologize for the error. We’ve updated the web version of the story and left a note of the change.

Best,
Marc Karlinsky
Editor, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Victoria Watkins, deputy director of the city of Chicago’s Office of Legislative Counsel and Government Affairs, asked by Chicago Lawyer Magazine about a typical day…

When people ask what it is I do, the first thing I always tell them is that I protect the city [in] Springfield. I take that job very seriously. Some people might say too seriously… I wish that’s something more people knew — we have to protect the city far more than we can get for the city. There are so many bills that (city) departments hate and are more concerned with not becoming law than there are with getting their other requests granted.

* On how the state budget impasse affects her job…

I am the funding and complaint hotline. By September, I started getting routine calls from different city departments asking, “Victoria, when will we get this money and these appropriations because we need to get started on these contracts?”

We started getting cease-and-desist letters on our projects last year, and we’ve been able to get some things done piecemeal. Unfortunately, there are still some things hanging out there, and many of them are human services-related. The heavy financial and infrastructure things are done for the most part but many intangible, important things that are not. We just keep pushing every day.

15 Comments

« NEWER POSTS