walk freely, friend

Posterer of the Day
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Friday
August 9, 2002


Good news for free speech in Seattle: Washington state supreme court overturned city court's 1994 ruling which outlawed postering on public property. I celebrated by walking up and down Fremont Ave in broad daylight, staplegun in hand, sheaf of Car-Free Seattle posters in bag adorned with plastic yellow flowers I found in the street. Unexpected side benefit was conversations with strangers asking what I was posting. One woman said she was considering buying a car because buses don't run often enough. I handed her a car-free flyer and offered e-bikes as an alternative. She said she'd look into it. Golden moment came at corner of 35th and Fremont, next to middle eastern rug shop with newspaper American flag taped in window to ward off evil, near where awning collapsed last year, where recently a city bus driver was dazzled by sun and hit two women in intersection, forcing premature cesarean, where in the past postering was a part of the civic scene, evidenced by cross-hatched layers of rusty staples, nailheads, and tacks on creosote pole. A lot has happened here, and a lot more will.