Commercial speech is less protected

For some ungodly reason, commercial speech is less protected than other kinds.

A. Barton Hinkle in How Local Governments Are Chipping Away at the First Amendment

Egregious signs to be scrutinized

Update on Chino Hills banner insanity via Chino Hills News:

The banner design should be compatible with the surrounding architecture but only signs that are egregious would be scrutinized....

I forsee a cadre of no doubt highly paid sign inspectors scurrying around the city solemnly scrutinizing whatever signs they deem "egregious".

Breathtaking regulatory overreach

"Chino Hills News" has another item by Marianne Napoles, this one currently not available online. It begins,

Trees on privately developed property in high-fire areas of Chino Hills would be protected by an ordinance approved July 17 by the planning commission.

To me, the word "protect" here means that one's right to cut down trees on one's own property would be violated. Also, note that even though the Chino Hills area is susceptible to wildfires, the city nevertheless wants to "protect" trees in those areas. They claim that "protection" will be limited to the larger-sized specimens of the California Live Oak, California Sycamore, California Black Walnut, and Coastal Scrub Oak. This, because these are "fire resistant"--but will they actually stop fires from spreading?

So what's the rationale behind this "protection"? Apparently it's nothing other than aesthetic. Owners' rights would be violated in the case of trees "clearly visible from public rights of way, private streets, parks, or trails". Does the planning commission realize that sometimes the line of sight is pretty far?

At least Public Works Commissioner Michael Stover "had concerns about which trees meet the criteria for visibility, stating that the government's regulatory reach was breathtaking." Absolutely. Good for him.

Also,

The ordinance would also require property owners to hire a certified arborist or tree trimmer to prune trees according to the standards of the International Society of Arboriculture.

Shades of supposedly beneficial building codes.

Still no Valle Vista sidewalks

Project upgrades disabled access ramps in the "Chino Hills News" begins

Access ramps for the disabled were upgraded at 32 locations in Chino Hills over the past two weeks. The work will continue over the next decade until all ramps are in compliance with the Americans for Disabilities Act, which requires a textured surface of flattened domes to be installed in the curb cuts.

The new design lets vision-impaired pedestrians know they are entering a street. Previously, blind persons were guided by grooves in the pavement.

The city also installed curb, gutter, and sidewalks for nine ramps along the Omnitrans bus route.

In the print version, there's a picture of an access ramp at the intersection of Los Serranos & Valle Vista, but no mention of the absence of sidewalks on Valle Vista between Los Serranos Boulevard and Ramona. Big surprise.

"Coprographic"

"Coprographic" is not a word one often sees. Here the coinage is similar to "coprolalia", although I'm guessing that coprographic could refer to using dung to write with. Now that's something that I could find "egregious" not to mention "out of character" (that's the kind of banner Community Development Director Joann Lombardo says she takes exception to.)

Building codes are not always beneficial

Chino Hills Councilman Ed Graham wrote that building permits are very beneficial.

By working with your local building department, you benefit from their knowledge of building codes to improve your odds that your construction project is built right, will be safe and will last.

No doubt. But I imagine plenty of people make modifications and repairs to their houses that they find perfectly satisfactory without bothering to pay the extra fees. In writing those codes, have the authorities considered the unintended consequences? What Bastiat called "what is seen and what is not seen" (Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas)? Have they considered that they're raising the costs of construction and modification? Or do they in fact just like the fees? And what about the codes? Have the authorities considered "regulatory capture"? Who wrote the codes? It would make sense to call on experts, who are themselves builders, who pad the codes with regulations that increased the costs for residents?

Update

I might also have mentioned that contractors may take advantage of building code regulations to snitch on fellow contractors who fail to get permits. This keeps prices high, of course.

Snitching isn't necessarily for profit. Sometimes neighbors bearing grudges will snitch on neighbors whose property isn't up to code.

Chino Hills insanity - sidewalks

The "Chino Hills News" edition mentioned below also has an item about a Los Serranos improvement project. When I saw mention of sidewalks linked with Valle Vista Drive, I thought they were finally going to put in sidewalks on Valle Vista between Los Serranos Boulevard and Ramona (at which point Valle Vista becomes Bird Farm Road), but according to the city, this is an ADA Compliant Ramp Replacement "along the existing Onmitrans bus route...to comply with current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, thereby providing better accessibility for those with disabilities."

From that description, I'm not sure they're going to be allowed to use any of that money to make that section of Valle Vista actually walkable.

Any pedestrian who has to walk here is in danger. There is no shoulder to walk on at road level. Once upon a time it might have been possible to walk on the elevated berms on either side next to the fenced-off fields, but the berms have gotten narrower and narrower, and badly eroded in some places.

This is what that section is like now (taken from 4480 Valle Vista Drive, Chino Hills, CA on Google Maps; click to enlarge).

Looking east:

The south side of the road:

The north side:

A closer view of the erosion on the north side:


The ADA Compliant Ramp Replacement is costing a million dollars, mostly Federal money, for which price they could probably just give people with disabilities door-to-door service, and cancel the bus, which is empty almost every time I see it. But I guess it's the law.

Chino Hills insanity - banners

Some years ago, when some Chino Hills residents came out in opposition to the opening of the 99 Ranch Market, Gwenn Norton-Perry, then mayor of Chino Hills, was quoted as saying, "We can tell them we prefer signs to be in English only, but we can't require it...."

But they meddle in signs and banners in all sorts of ways, as we see from "Chino Hills News":
Note what Joann Lombardo is quoted as saying: