So, this guy owns a bait shop and has a painting of a fish on the side of his building. He is fined and told to remove it. Now I can understand why a city would want to remove urban clutter but have a look at the pictures painted on his building. Pictures of fish! No ad's, banners, script and it isn't free standing but just part of the building.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2009/01/instead-of-forb.html

Clearwater tackle shop covers forbidden fish mural with First Amendment

CLEARWATER -- The owner of a Clearwater bait and tackle shop is using the First Amendment to cover up a mural that city officials said violated city ordinances.

Today was the deadline to get rid of the fish mural, so Herb Quintero, owner of the Complete Angler at 705 N Fort Harrison Ave., covered it with a banner displaying the text of the First Amendment.

"As passionate as they are that it's a sign, I'm more passionate that it’s not a sign,'' Quintero said today.

Code enforcement officials say they're simply enforcing Clearwater's strict sign ordinance, which forbids murals on the outside walls of a business that depict a product that a business is selling. Since the mural is on a tackle shop, the fish mural is forbidden, city officials say.

Since he's not selling the First Amendment, his new banner apparently is okay.

The ordinance, which also forced many Clearwater businesses to downsize or lower their signs beginning in the 1980s, is credited with reducing clutter and improving the look of the city’s main thoroughfares such as Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

Jeff Kronschnabl, the city's director of development and neighborhood services, says the city has no choice but to enforce its codes consistently and impartially, without making exceptions. If not, he said, something like a lingerie store or adult entertainment business could display a large mural depicting its products.

"If he can do that, that means everybody else has a right to do that,'' Kronschnabl said.

Despite covering up the mural, Quintero says this isn’t over: "I’m not trying to be difficult, but I can't just let them railroad over me.''

Mike Brassfield, Times staff writer



UP-DATE
ACLU Backs Florida Bait Shop Ticketed for Displaying U.S. Constitution

Posted Feb 24, 2009, 03:31 pm CST
By Martha Neil

At first, it was a painting of game fish on an exterior wall of a Florida bait and tackle shop that drew adverse attention from sign code enforcement officials of the city of Clearwater, who said it violates a ban on a business displaying a depiction of the product it sells.

But, when by the city ordered the Complete Angler to paint over it, the shop instead covered it with a banner providing the text of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution—and was cited over the banner, too, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Already facing $700 in fines, owner Herb Quintero says he's been told the ante will soon be upped to $500 a day.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union has joined the fray, suing the city in federal court over the alleged First Amendment violations, the newspaper writes.

“Only in Florida could a business owner be targeted and fined for displaying artwork; and then in protest of the fine, display the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—and then be ticketed for that,” Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, tells the Times.

The city says it is simply enforcing strict rules in a uniform manner regardless of the content of the sign.

That is clearly the city infringing on the owner's rights but the ACLU SWALLOWS DOG SE**N! I despise that organization to no end. If I were in the owner's shoes I would tell them to go away. My list of reasons is very long why I hate the ACLU and part of it is their Hypocritical views on what causes they take on.

The owner is right to fight the city! This is proof positive of the gradual erosion of freedom in our country. Bureaucrats are constantly over stepping their authority and it is becoming a problem in Los Angeles as well.

If anything we should get contact information to the appropriate city councilmen to barrage hem with emails telling them off in support of the business owner!!

yes I did go to the article you listed and yes I am appalled. Makes me want to go to Florida for some quality tagging time there! I'll start with city hall. BUSTA TAG Is in the Hizzy! Got Spray paint Will Travel! I Think I will do Gangsta fish all over their walls! Scarfish!