"I noticed it," says Lottie Motts' Kate Gill. "But people often put up anti-Bush stuff." The poster wasn't a big deal--Columbia City, like Seattle, is mostly left-leaning, after all. But then Kelly's landlord saw it. The eight-unit building is owned by Columbia City-based SouthEast Effective Development (SEED), a nonprofit development company that builds low-income housing with the help of city, state, and federal funding. The old building is managed by a nice husband-and-wife team, Kelly says, who called him and politely asked him to take down the political art. "I'm calling you in reference to the poster that you have hanging in your window. SEED company does not involve itself in any politics, and because it's part of the building, I need to ask you to please remove it," one of the managers told Kelly in a phone message, which he transcribed onto his website. When Kelly finally talked to the managers, he pointed out that nothing in his lease prohibited signs in the windows--he just wasn't allowed to attach things like fences to the building.
The managers then told him that SEED's director, Earl Richardson, had been calling them to complain about the sign. Richardson, however, gruffly told The Stranger he didn't know anything about Kelly's poster. Asked if political posters are barred in tenants' windows, Richardson--who's been politically active himself as director of SEED, donating to Democrats' political campaigns, and lobbying the city on SEED letterhead--didn't know. "My tenant policies are very long, and I don't know if that kind of language is in there." The building's managers did not return calls.
If the tenant policy doesn't bar all signs, says the ACLU's Doug Honig, the landlords can't judge Kelly's sign based on content. "The question would be, supposed you wanted to have a sign saying 'I love SEED.' Would that be taken off? You can't pick and choose which political messages you like."
Instead of fighting his landlord, though, Kelly acquiesced and took down Bush this past weekend. "Seems a little stupid to jeopardize my choice location, cheap digs, and decent relationship with the husband-wife rental management tag team." Then he did what any good lefty with a pressing political message would do: solicited a few friends, made a hundred copies of the anti-Bush posters (including other designs, like one of Bush's face over the word "dimwit"), and plastered the neighborhood. If he couldn't put propaganda in his window, he'd put it on every utility pole.
Huddled under a streetlamp in Columbia City just before midnight last Sunday, Kelly--a 24-year-old freelance web editor, and a Matthew Broderick look-alike--and his girlfriend, Tiffany Larson, joined up with their buddy Justin Hart, who designed the poster. The "No Bush Team"--named for Hart's poster website, nobush.info--quickly set to work decorating the neighborhood. "This is naughty, but perfectly legal," Hart said as he postered. The team even had a tape measure to be sure they didn't poster higher than seven feet on a pole.
Within 10 minutes, a guy on a bike rolled up, and asked what they were up to. Kelly told him the story, and the guy--neighborhood resident Chad McGuire--joined in. "Everyone fucking hates the president in this area," McGuire said, posting another Bush face on a pole.
Monday morning, when Gill arrived at Lottie Motts, nearly every pole in the neighborhood was coated in anti-Bush signs. She loved it, and so did her customers. "Columbia City has never looked better," she says.
Want to decorate your neighborhood with "Wrong for America" posters?
Download it at www.nobush.info
