Signs of insanity in Ashland

I have always been amazed at how difficult it is to own and operate a business in Ashland, given the manifold methods that our government employs to seeming ensure that the merchants are kept in line, under the yoke of some pretty innovative draconian rules, ordinances and mandates that seem crafted to soak the entrepreneurial spirit and dash the dreams of making a small profit against the jutting rocks of code enforcement that surround and define life under the municipal lash.

The latest slap has appeared in a newfound, zealous enforcement of an antiquated sign ordinance that seems to have united business owners against the city.

Any small Ashland business owner seems to already have the cards stacked against any reasonable attempt of success. The cost of doing business is already staggering as all expenses rocket skyward as cash registers seem tuned more for dirges than celebration. Rents keep going up, forcing the merchants to keep jumping through financial hoops as our ever smaller group of landlords seems on speed dial to share the latest fleecing.

As our national economy heads south toward the outhouse, our fearless city leaders are paving the way toward a rash of business closures not seen since the late '60s.

The council, oblivious to the realities of home foreclosures, rapidly rising fuel costs, diminished flights into and from Medford, the plummeting value of the dollar, smiles and welcomes our increasingly financially stressed visitors with a 2 percent increase in the lodging tax, an endless meals tax that costs the town hundreds of jobs due to a valley-wide dining boycott and, for dessert, parking tickets issued by an out-of-state company that has the paperwork processed half-way around the world.

This is hardly the grand welcome that the Chamber of Commerce says it promotes, yet these are the harsh realities of trying to keep smiling when visitors walk downtown glum and dour as they attempt to navigate the now legal outdoor sidewalk tables and chairs, no longer illegal as the city charges heavily for the privilege.

The sudden zeal to disallow any three-dimensional caricatures of animals or persons and the just now enforced ban on the outside display of merchandise might just be the straw that breaks the council's back, as merchants struggle to stay open and employees fear for their jobs.

For years I have watched hoards of visitors have their pictures taken with the Rocky Mountain Bear, which invites cuddling as it sits on a bench. The Bug a Boo giraffe has been a must-stop for children, yet is now being backed into the store, apparently afraid of the $250 a day fine its owner does not relish. The lion in front of The Black Sheep is somewhat a different matter, as it stops menu readers from being hit by the outward swing of the doors it guards. If my memory serves me, The Black Sheep does not have lion on the menu, yet someone wants the cat gone for good.

Flowertyme was ordered to remove a dried flower arrangement from reach from the sidewalk, yet the city is strangely silent about hanging baskets of flowers that seasonally are suspended under the awning in front of Flowertyme. Is the solution to allow hanging flower baskets anywhere except in front of a flower shop?

A city official has apparently stated that the ordinance in question, though enacted decades ago, was designed to prevent "clutter and schlock." This from someone who gets a regular paycheck with extensive benefits at taxpayer's expense, who, I must presume, has an extensive experience in the school of "I know it when I see it." The council is still sitting on a more accommodating draft of a new sign ordinance. I suggest calling off the attack dogs until our elected officials make time to become knowledgeable about the matter.

(If you feel the enforcement zeal is losing its appeal, contact the council or lance@journalist.com.)