Knock Us Over With a Feather
“While the fire hazard is the biggest concern,” writes couch ban proponent Tony Ramirez in a letter to the News, “aesthetics also matter.” We had no idea that this proposal might have benefits besides keeping students safe.
You seem to care an awful lot about a couch ban. Honestly the primary reason why people put a couch on the porch is that they don’t want it/don’t have room for it inside and they’re too lazy/don’t care enough to get rid of it.
If the city wants to ban them. AND they’re willing to haul them off…. Home Depo has plastic porch furniture for $3.
Who cares.
posted by Al Mcbetterthanyou on July 14th, 2004 at 2:20 pmI know plenty of people who have/who’ve had porch couches who thought they were “good enough.” Also, the city charges to move large items like couches — $30 per 2 cubic yards (which they say is “two sofas” — but if you only have one, they’ll still charge you $30):
http://www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us/SolidWaste/bulk.html
It’s cheaper to take it directly to the Drop Off Station, but not much cheaper (it’d be $14-28 for a single sofa at the drop-off station), and most students don’t have pickup trucks, so this isn’t a real option.
posted by Scott T. on July 14th, 2004 at 2:28 pmRe: $3 plastic furniture
Is this really better than couches, aesthetically?
IMHO, couches are more comfortable.
IMO, I like the idea mentioned in a recent AA News column that the city encourage landlords to put the couch ban in leases, rather than make it law. This makes the point negotiable — i.e., Tenant: we’ll get rid of the couch if you paint this place, redo the landscaping and otherwise make it look half-way decent, Mr. Slumlord.
posted by Scott T. on July 14th, 2004 at 2:31 pmThe primary reason that people have a couch on the porch is that they specifcially purchased/salvaged that couch for placement on the porch. I don’t think most folks just happen to have extra couches lying around and then decide to put them on the porch when they realize it doesn’t match the bedroom.
posted by Brandon on July 14th, 2004 at 3:30 pmIf this is about fire safety, wouldn’t the more intelligent thing to ban be, say, grilling on a wooden porch? We all know that wood is pretty much inflammable, right?
You can’t legislate taste….unless, of course, you have a lot of money or a lot of time on your hands (preferably both).
posted by todd on July 14th, 2004 at 3:53 pmA friend of mine has always called Ann Arbor “Home of the Wooden Fire Escape”. Maybe these busybodies could pass a law to get the landlords to keep the wooden ones nailed on - there are plenty of rickety ones. Oh, I forgot…the landlords are more important than the students…
posted by Michael McC. on July 14th, 2004 at 4:00 pm… They still haven’t printed my letter, which would have been a fine rebuttal to Mr. Ramirez.
posted by js on July 14th, 2004 at 6:32 pmjs
The combination of self-involved parents, 4-year olds, and 6 inches of water can be hazardous. Bathtubs should be banned.
OFW residents cannot be counted on to clean their chimneys every year. We must ban fireplaces.
Let’s ban windows that open — burglars can enter through them, and what if someone falls out of one?
Knives can cut people, indeed, they are responsible for hundreds of stitches a year. From now on, only plastic knives should be legal in Ann Arbor.
Wood-frame houses burn down all too easily. We will vote on an ordinance change that will allow only steel and cinder-block construction. I’ve already ordered the bulldozers and dump trucks. Let’s get this done while the OFWers are on vacation in August.
posted by Anna on July 14th, 2004 at 6:44 pmHave you thought about getting I hate Ann Arbor bumper stickers made? Or Ann Arbor is overrated stickers?
I hate this place. I get to leave soon!!! Hah, hah, hah!
posted by tina on July 14th, 2004 at 7:59 pm“Then there’s the solid waste issue. Every year dozens of water-logged, smelly couches and easy chairs make their way from the porches to the curbs to the landfill. After spending a year out in the weather they are of no use to anyone.”
This is an issue? Instead of an annual stream, there would be a flood this fall, then…a steady stream of indoor couches that get junked, same as always.
posted by Dale on July 14th, 2004 at 8:13 pmSome data from the fire dept. would be helpful. Number of and sources of house fires in 2003. I’m guessing that if couches appear in the data at all, it’s a microscopic sliver of the house fire pie. Maybe that will shut Ramirez up.
posted by Laura on July 14th, 2004 at 8:30 pmI’m going to erect at twenty-five foot crucifix in my front yard. I had been using it inside my house, but it’s gotten shabby. But it’s not too shabby to discard just yet.
posted by Eric on July 15th, 2004 at 8:36 amCan we talk about something else? ANYTHING else?
posted by c-loh on July 15th, 2004 at 11:36 amI know it’s summer and things are a little slow, but good grief!
How about that sketchy president’s house deal at EMU? I don’t really care about that either but at least it’s unrelated to porch couches. Or, hey, Art Fair is coming up next week…
Maybe those who prefer to keep their upholstered porch furniture could claim that it’s art. Better yet, Public Art, and then complain that their freedom of speech is being trampled upon. Now there I go, continuing this tired thread. Bad me!
When I find a thread boring, I stop checking for new comments. Hope this helps.
posted by Anna on July 15th, 2004 at 11:41 amI know. Surely there’s more going on in the Athens of the Midwest than porch couches. Right?
posted by Nick on July 15th, 2004 at 1:23 pmA) AAIO should make bumperstickers that say “ann arbor is overrated” in the same font as those “i’d rather be in ann arbor” ones.
B) How about putting our couches on a stick for art fair?
posted by Brandon on July 15th, 2004 at 4:05 pmKind of like Teddy Roosevelt said: “Speak softly and carry a big couch on a stick.”
posted by c-loh on July 15th, 2004 at 4:09 pmI am interested in whether everyone thinks these porch couch posts are boring. Well, a little bit interested, anyway. But really, there’s nothing else going on.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 15th, 2004 at 8:15 pmAlso, I’ve been meaning to make bumperstickers for a while. But I’d probably use CafePress, and I think they only have white backgrounds. Would people actually buy them?
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 15th, 2004 at 8:36 pmWell, I guess I’d like to see the measure defeated, so I’m glad AAIO is posting about it, even though I can’t imagine else there is to say. What I’d like to see is some emails to the people involved with responses posted on AAIO. That could be pretty funny.
posted by Anna on July 15th, 2004 at 8:53 pmRegarding the couch posts…some of them are really freaking funny.
Couch on a stick at art fair?
This is why I read this blog.
posted by Matthew on July 15th, 2004 at 9:23 pmPrint your own damn bumper stickers. Get VG Kids to do it (VG Kids). Using CafePress would make you look similar to the people your poke fun of. Actually, it might make you look even worse.
Would I buy a bumper sticker? No. But I would buy one that said “Couch on a stick” and had a nice graphic of a couch. Maybe I’ll just call VG Kids myself.
posted by Eric on July 15th, 2004 at 9:37 pmThere’s also The Sticker Guy.
posted by Alex on July 16th, 2004 at 7:34 amVG Kids is in Ypsilanti. Send your money there instead of Nevada.
posted by Eric on July 16th, 2004 at 8:27 amThe porch couch posts are boring, but some of the comments are a hoot (e.g, the “cooler than thou” food fight between mucho and others).
posted by tom on July 16th, 2004 at 9:56 amI think the couch posts are good, and the mucho-related cooler-than-thou whinefests not quite annoying/tiresome enough to make me stop reading the comments.
I think c-loh has a good idea, though. Everybody should paint/quilt/otherwise decorate their porch couches in the most garish possible way, then call it “interactive public art”. It could be like Detroit’s Heidelberg Project. Better yet, everybody should paint their couches the same (OFW-approved) color as Tony Ramirez’ house, so now it’s political art as a commentary on the coercion of conformity by neighborhood associations and historic districts.
If the OFW members really think it’s that big of a deal, they ought to buy the couches from the students and take them to the dump. Or buy nice porchswings for the students. Or do *anything* that involves working with the couch owners, rather than whining to Daddy Hieftje about the students.
posted by Murph on July 16th, 2004 at 12:06 pmI’m getting the most page views per day ever this month, even though it’s summer, so everyone must want to read about porch couches.
I’m not sure about making couches more obnoxious - to me, the “public art” makes more sense on “outdoor” furniture so it’s technically within what the ordinance allows and shows how much worse (or better, depending on one’s taste) things could look.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 16th, 2004 at 3:14 pmalso, why is CafePress bad? Especially when I’m too lame to print up my own stickers.
And does anyone know what the font used on the “i’d rather be in ann arbor” stickers is?
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 16th, 2004 at 3:21 pm*cough*
There actually *are* “I’d rather be in Ann Arbor” stickers?? I thought that was a joke.
posted by Anna on July 16th, 2004 at 8:20 pmoh there definitely are! I walked past two on my way home.
posted by Alex on July 16th, 2004 at 10:57 pmPersonally, the couch-on-a-stick sounds like a wonderful new frontier in art to me. It could be a series, all about Ann Arbor… there could be a slightly elderly couch on a stick, a small patch of unkempt lawn on a stick, an untenured professor on a stick… c’mon people! Let’s get on this while it’s hot!
posted by art student on July 17th, 2004 at 3:28 pmYes, the “I’d rather be in Ann Arbor” bumper stickers are real and they are maize and blue, not sure of the font though.
And for the couches, yes art them up. Ann Arbor likes to call itself an art community, so why not?
posted by Kozzie on July 17th, 2004 at 10:40 pmThose bumper stickers are obnoxious. How about ones that say,
“I’d rather be someplace other than Ann Arbor”
Or,
“I’d rather you stayed in Ann Arbor”
posted by Dan on July 18th, 2004 at 2:38 pmI believe Leighton actually had ones for ypsirocks.com that said “I’d rather you stayed in Ann Arbor.” Of course, I’d rather the people that sticker is aimed at move to Saugatuck, since I don’t really have much choice but to remain in Ann Arbor.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 18th, 2004 at 3:14 pm“I’d rather not be in ann arbor” would be a deceptively-simple twist on the original, otherwise.
posted by Brandon on July 18th, 2004 at 9:10 pm