Say NO To Bartkowski Billboards in Bryn Mawr!
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Anyone feel like picketing in front of Pizza Palace or boycotting them? Why? because of BILLBOARDS. Picture this visual blight: HUGE billboards on top of Pizza Palace and Faden's Pawn Shop. And yes, we have the owner of the buildings, Mr. Pizza Palace himself to thank. Seriously, this is what it would look like: Is that what you want to see in your Main Line community? Is this the visual traffic hazard you want to see as you try to navigate one of THE WORST sections of Lancaster Avenue? This is the best business plan Mr. Pizza Palace could come up with? He couldn't start with less greasy food and a cleaner shop with better pricing? But then again, why should I think this turd would be community friendly since he brought us a lovely pawn shop to give the Main Line that inner city, urban feel. Who the heck wants Bryn Mawr to look like 69th street other than a piggish Pizza man and Bartkowski Investment Group? Please contact Jeff Heilmann 5th Ward Commissioner of Haverford Township with questions or concerns. or 610-945-7064. Here is his e-mail which I have permission to post in it's entirety and after that is an article about these billboard invaders.
July 12–19, 2001/all monitor/Wall Papers
Description AdSmart Outdoor is the Mid-Atlantic's most innovative Outdoor Advertising Company. Headquartered outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, AdSmart Outdoor prides itself on providing its customers with the finest outdoor displays and customer service in the industry. Whether you choose to use our creative autoads, larger than life fleet side ads, high impression transit ads, or choose to implement a stationary display, you will be provided with the most cost-effective outdoor displays, guaranteed...Contact Thaddeus Bartkowski Investment Group, LLC 610-331-7933 Who is this Thaddeus Bartkowski and who knows him? THADDEUS BARTKOWSKI P: (610) 331-7933 M: (610) 527-0501 1818 MARKET STREET, SUITE 2960 PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 Is this just another lawyer who sells billboards on the side? Jeez. 600 Lancaster Avenue is owned by Andreas Bouikikis of Broomall (see Delco public records Folio # Folio Number: 22-05-00461-00 ) and 658 Lancaster Avenue is owned by Nancy Athanasiadis of Newtown Square (see Delco Public Records Folio Number: 22-05-00477-00 ) - also, is it true that Andreas Bouikikis is also a student rental slumlord? Shame on them for doing this. Shame on all of us if we allow this to happen. |
and have requested that the hearings be scheduled at a larger venue to be sure we can accommodate everyone interested in attending. Also, because the petition challenges our code, I am requesting that the Commissioners send the Township’s Solicitor to enter his appearance at the hearings and take whatever steps are needed to protect the interests of our Township residents.- carla's blog
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https://www.corporations.state.pa.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?2205928
See this, the billboard company owner is a Lower Merion resident? Thaddeus Bartkowski?
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L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers/Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.–Jean Jacques Rosseau. The Social Contract, 1762
The same Thaddeus J. Bartkowski II is listed as a personal injury lawyer in Villanova.
Regardless of him, what has happened in the past few decades is that citizens have challenged sign ordinances that only allowed them to have political signs in their yards for 45 days before an election. Now nobody really wants a "vote for so and so" political yard sign posted year 'round, but these ordinances that prohibited political signs for more than 45 days before an election also prohibited signs like "God Bless America" or "Bring our Troops Home" except for 45 days before an election. Signs promoting things like "Save Ardmore" or "Save the Barnes" also got caught up in this - and the Lower Merion sign ordinance that is currently not being enforced technically prohibited all these signs from being put in your yard or place of business except for 45 days before the election.
Citizens across the country started challenging these restrictive 45 day sign ordinances a ways back and it made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was ruled government can't restrict signs based on content as it violated free speech and thus violated the constitutional rights of citizens.
Municipal sign ordinances have to be what is called "content-neutral" (you can certainly restrict the size of signs within reason, thus prohibiting billboards). However, municipalities became more concerned with too much visual sign "clutter" in yards as opposed to obeying the Constitution and the 1st Amendment, so they often just ignored this U.S. Supreme Court ruling and left their sign ordinances as is - and they thus left their sign ordinances as unconstitutional.
In come the lawyers. Lawyers get updates all the time on major court rulings. This is why it does not surprise me that we see numerous lawyers involved in the billboard business in the area. They know these sign ordinances are unconstitutional, and depending on how they are written, the entire sign ordinance is often unenforceable because it is unconstitutional.
So what do these lawyers do? They start billboard companies and make money by putting huge billboards up where they know the sign ordinances are unconstitutional and unenforceable.
And, when the township takes them to court these billboard lawyers win and collect their own attorney fees from taxpayers.
So, these lawyers destroy communities for a buck, and townships let it happen because they don't change their sign ordinances to constitutional ones because they don't want too many "Save the Barnes" or "God Bless America" signs in yards. Never mind that townships are all for real estate for sale signs that stay in yards forever because they get a real estate transfer tax on home sales.
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~ As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.
It looks like this guy lives in Villanova a few blocks off of Lancaster Ave. in Radnor. I think a picket of his home might work pretty well.
His street is in Radnor? Thought it was in Lower Merion? The owners of the properties might benefit from a flyer drop on their respective streets in Broomall and Newtown Square too, huh?
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L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers/Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.–Jean Jacques Rosseau. The Social Contract, 1762
Your right, it is LM. It is just accross County Line from Radnor. Regadless. IT is in Villanova and close enough to the proposed scene of the crime to stage a loud protest.
What’s also really scary is that Lower Merion has not been enforcing at least parts of its sign ordinance ever since I brought up the fact to the LM commissioners that their existing sign ordinance in regards to political signs and free speech was patently unconstitutional.
Lower Merion has made numerous attempts over the past year to draft a new sign ordinance, but every time I showed up at the township meetings where they were supposed to vote on it, they tabled it because they new all these new drafts were also unconstitutional and I would make that point (thanks for wasting my time in these meetings - until after midnight in one case as I waited around for this agenda item that was then tabled). If the commissioners had passed another unconstitutional sign ordinance (as was proposed numerous times) a billboard company could still plant tons of giant billboards based on the fact the sign ordinance is unconstitutional.
Here’s the current problem. By not enforcing the sign ordinance, even if it is only part of the sign ordinance, there is a good chance a billboard company could legally demonstrate the entire sign ordinance is null and void - but a billboard company would not wait to challenge the sign ordinance until they have already put up giant billboards everywhere and LM township tried to tell the billboard company to take them down.
Imagine giant billboards like the one in the picture up top all up and down Lancaster and Montgomery Avenues and nothing could be done about it at all because Lower Merion Township and its commissioners refuse to implement a constitutional sign ordinance.
And if this happens, don’t let the LM commissioners try and pass this off on anyone else.
I warned every single one of them about this in an email months ago.
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Brotherhood of Thieves
~ As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.