In Cary, a sign of struggle

By Corey Friedman

David Bowden would rather get screwed than be silenced.

The Cary resident had a painter scrawl “Screwed by the Town of Cary” on his home during a drainage dispute with the town, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. Town leaders didn’t appreciate his blunt assessment, so they told Bowden his message violated the Cary sign ordinance and he would be fined up to $500 a day until he removed it.

David Bowden used his home as a political sign. Image courtesy of the fr33 Asheville blog

In its haste, the town overlooked — or more likely, ignored — the First Amendment, which protects such expressive efforts. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina rushed to the rescue, notifying Cary’s town attorney that “several provisions of the Sign Ordinance, both on their face and as applied to Mr. Bowden, are unconstitutional…”

U.S. courts have consistently ruled that free-speech rights trump government’s authority to regulate residential signs, ACLU Legal Director Katy Parker wrote in a letter to the town. Judges also frown upon selective enforcement of sign ordinances to effectively muzzle political messages with which they disagree.

“(W)hile courts have upheld certain regulations of signs by size and shape, such limits are only permissible provided that they are content-neutral and are narrowly tailored so as not to infringe on the ability to exercise free speech effectively,” Parker wrote.

It’s a safe bet that the town wouldn’t have thrown a tantrum over a more innocuous message. Cary didn’t appreciate one of its own taking such a public swipe, so it retaliated by abusing a law intended primarily to govern billboards and storefront signs.

The ACLU is challenging not only Cary’s misapplication of the law, but the poorly worded ordinance itself. Parker told the town it must now “bring its ordinance into compliance with the First Amendment.”

Bowden’s spat stems from an ongoing problem with rainwater drainage. He had the home’s foundation waterproofed after the issue arose when he bought his house in 1992, the News & Observer reported. When the town recently resurfaced his road, the flood of rainwater returned.

Cary has tried to correct the problem by building a retaining wall and a new driveway, and the town has offered to install a drain, according to the N&O. Bowden’s weary of the washouts and instead wants the town to purchase the home — for $80,000 more than its tax value.

That seems like an unreasonable demand, and an objective observer would have to question Bowden’s claims that he’s being screwed. But whether his complaint is valid is altogether beside the point.

A homeowner has every right to express his opinion about his town government, whether that takes the form of verbal complaints, a protest Web site, T-shirts, bumper stickers, or even foot-high letters on the side of his home spelling out his disdain.

It’s called free speech. Efforts to intimidate a dissenter into clamming up are unconscionable, unconstitutional and un-American.

If Cary’s town government wasn’t screwing David Bowden before, it certainly is now.