Get a Billboard Taken Down (or at Least Complain About One)
If you don’t happen to live in one of the states where billboards are illegal (Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont), you probably live, work, or play within spitting distance a 20-foot hamburger, say, or a three-story bottle of gin. “Billboards are the only form of advertising you can’t turn off,” says Ed McMahon a fellow…
If you don’t happen to live in one of the states where billboards are illegal (Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont), you probably live, work, or play within spitting distance a 20-foot hamburger, say, or a three-story bottle of gin. “Billboards are the only form of advertising you can’t turn off,” says Ed McMahon a fellow at the Urban Land Institute, which has been fighting outdoor advertising since the 1980s through the organization Scenic America. If you think your neighborhood would be better off without that giant calzone hovering over it, here’s what to do.
Get the facts
Find a copy of your local sign ordinance and familiarize yourself with the laws controlling billboards in your area. You may find that some of your local billboards are already illegal. If that’s the case, take pictures, go to the regulating agency, and make your case.
Team up with a group that cares about your issue
Find a neighborhood association, environmental preservation group, or local architects’ association. As a group, lobby your state or local government to ban the construction of new billboards.
Bargain
Encourage the entity that regulates billboards to negotiate with outdoor advertising companies. Suggest that companies be required to take down a certain number of old billboards on secondary roads before being allowed to put up a new one on a main road, or remove 10 traditional billboards for each new digital billboard installed.
Buy ’em out
The federal government makes “Transportation Enhancements” funds available for highway projects, including the purchase of billboards in order to remove them permanently. Local governments may apply for funds in partnership with nonprofit or community groups. See enhancements.org for details.
Embrace a challenge
Getting rid of billboards can be difficult. “The outdoor advertising industry is well organized and experienced in fighting regulation on every level,” says McMahon. But groups like SCRUB in Philadelphia and Scenic Texas have won significant victories in their areas—proof positive that success is possible.
Illustration by Trevor Burks.
This article first appeared in The GOOD Guide to Better Neighborhoods. You can read more of the guide here, or you can read more of the GOOD Neighborhoods Issue here.
Reddit user Girlfriendhatesmefor’s three-year-old pitbull, Otis, had recently become overprotective of his wife. So he asked the online community if they knew what might be wrong with the dog.
“A week or two ago, my wife got some sort of stomach bug,” the Reddit user wrote under the subreddit /r/dogs. “She was really nauseous and ill for about a week. Otis is very in tune with her emotions (we once got in a fight and she was upset, I swear he was staring daggers at me lol) and during this time didn’t even want to leave her to go on walks. We thought it was adorable!”
His wife soon felt better, butthe dog’s behavior didn’t change.
Girlfriendhatesmefor began to fear that Otis’ behavior may be an early sign of an aggression issue or an indication that the dog was hurt or sick.
So he threw a question out to fellow Reddit users: “Has anyone else’s dog suddenly developed attachment/aggression issues? Any and all advice appreciated, even if it’s that we’re being paranoid!”
The most popular response to his thread was by ZZBC.
Any chance your wife is pregnant?
ZZBC | Reddit
The potential news hit Girlfriendhatesmefor like a ton of bricks. A few days later, Girlfriendhatesmefor posted an update and ZZBC was right!
“The wifey is pregnant!” the father-to-be wrote. “Otis is still being overprotective but it all makes sense now! Thanks for all the advice and kind words! Sorry for the delayed reply, I didn’t check back until just now!”
Redditors responded with similar experiences.
Anecdotal I know but I swear my dog knew I was pregnant before I was. He was super clingy (more than normal) and was always resting his head on my belly.
realityisworse | Reddit
So why do dogs get overprotective when someone is pregnant?
Jeff Werber, PhD, president and chief veterinarian of the Century Veterinary Group in Los Angeles, told Health.com that “dogs can also smell the hormonal changes going on in a woman’s body at that time.” He added the dog may “not understand that this new scent of your skin and breath is caused by a developing baby, but they will know that something is different with you—which might cause them to be more curious or attentive.”
The big lesson here is to listen to your pets and to ask questions when their behavior abruptly changes. They may be trying to tell you something, and the news may be life-changing.
Throughout history, women have stood up and fought to break down barriers imposed on them from stereotypes and societal expectations. The trailblazers in these photos made history and redefined what a woman could be. In doing so, they paved the way for future generations to stand up and continue to fight for equality.
While conspiracy theories are not limited to any topic, there is one type of event that seems particularly likely to spark them: mass shootings, typically defined as attacks in which a shooter kills at least four other people.
When one person kills many others in a single incident, particularly when it seems random, people naturally seek out answers for why the tragedy happened. After all, if a mass shooting is random, anyone can be a target.
