My little town of Azusa, California is being blanketed by signs and glossy mailers urging us all to vote Yes on Measure A to "Restore our hills and restrict mining now." Sounds like some sort of conservation effort, doesn't it?
Actually, Measure A is about allowing highly visible sections of the San Gabriel Mountains to be dynamited for gravel. The essence of the measure is to shift this activity from the Azusa side of the San Gabriel River to the Duarte side. No matter which side it takes place on, the disfigurement will be visible across large portions of LA County.
Californians may have gotten used to deceptive advertising on ballot initiatives, but in this case, even the language on the ballot itself will be misleading. Here's what Azusans will be asked to vote on:
Measure A: Shall Ordinance No. 10-05 adopting a development agreement with Azusa Rock Inc., which was approved by the Azusa City Council and provides environmental benefits and assurances, including millions of dollars in reclamation of the Mayan Steps, requires additional air quality monitoring, requires permanent access to Fish Canyon, provides Open Space funding, and mandates an end to hillside mining by 2038 be adopted?
Based on this language, how could Azusa voters have any glimmering of what they’re actually voting on?
I decided I'd like to help. If the advocates of Measure A couldn't find a way to tell the voters what they were thinking and proposing, maybe I could do it for them. I took their basic lawn sign and developed a number of improved variants. Here are a few. (Vulcan Materials is the name of the company that would be doing the "mining.")
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My next step seems to be to find somebody willing to pay to have the signs printed up, and then get out and physically deploy them. I'd love to post them in sequence along busy streets--kind of like the classic Burma-Shave roadside ads.
I suppose it might also be a good idea to find a lawyer. Our local police officers' association has been vigorously touting Measure A, because the gravel company it would benefit has said it would spend a lot of money on them to spare them from budget cuts. One of my proposed signs needles them a bit for this.
Just in case they don't have a sense of humor, if for any reason I should drop out of sight for a while, please make inquiries of Azusa PD, 725 North Alameda Ave, Azusa, CA 91702.
