DALLAS – The opposition to Dallas' sign ordinance took a new twist Tuesday afternoon as five teams from the Institute for Justice urged businesses to post a new sign in their windows expressing opposition to the city-wide ban on advertisements in windows.
It's a black sign with blue letters saying the city's ban violates free speech.
"These businesses rely on these window signs to stay in business and tell customers what they do, and we think they have a First Amendment right to do so," explained Matt Miller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Texas Chapter.
Miller and a colleague canvassed businesses along the Jefferson Boulevard corridor in Oak Cliff. Several others visited businesses along Greenville Avenue and other communities.
The protest signs do not violate the city ordinance, Miller said, because they are not an advertisement, but political in nature.
Last fall, Dallas City Council outlawed advertisements in the upper two-thirds of store windows and glass doors in an effort to reduce clutter and make it easier for police to see inside while patrolling and during emergencies.
"Big box stores like Best Buy, they can go to newspapers. They can go to TV," explained Carolyn Thomi, owner of AAA Vacuum in Lake Highlands. "But us little people? We can't afford to do that."
She is one of six plaintiffs suing the City of Dallas in Federal Court alleging the ordinance -- which was passed last fall -- violates her First Amendment right to advertise.
Thomi refuses to have a 20-year-old yellow painted banner scraped off her store’s plate glass windows. Code inspectors have already given her three violations, and last month issued her a citation with a fine of $350, she said.
"There's all types of new technology. You have the Yellow Pages. You have Web sites. There's all types of ways to advertise your business," said Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway.
He defends the ban, saying it has already cleaned up cluttered windows and increased safety in many neighborhoods.
Caraway dismissed the new protest signs. "They’re not unexpected for such a drastic policy change many have yet to comply with," he said.
Fort Worth and other smaller Texas cities have similar ordinances.
The Institute for Justice plans to officially announce its new protest at Thomi’s business in Lake Highlands on Wednesday morning.
E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com
