Welcome to The No No Project!

This is the “soft release” period for The No No Project website and blog. While there is no planned “official” start date, we should be revving up to speed in the next few weeks.

For more details about the Project, check out the About page — the quick version goes like this:

The No No Project is a tongue-in-cheek look at the supreme effort governments and businesses exert to make healthy activities verboten. The idea came to me after I began to notice just how many signs there are around forbidding things like bicycling, skating, standing, walking — all quite healthy activities that get you outdoors, moving and breathing.

Here’s a good simple example from the local Del Taco:

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The usual No Soliciting and the vague No Loitering (which is, what? sitting and standing?) are used, but then there’s the seemingly ubiquitous anti-skating provision, here aimed at the equipment with No Skateboards.

Sometimes instead of equipment, the signs go after the activity itself:

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By the way, that “CPC 602.5″ refers to a section of the California Penal Code specifically dealing with Trespassing, namely:

…aggravated trespass punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.

Good times.

In other cases, signs do away with words all but entirely:

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The Redlands City Ordinance 62104b mentioned has this to say:

It is unlawful for any person to ride upon any bicycle, roller skate or skates, skateboard, or other contrivance upon any sidewalk within any business district within the city of Redlands, except for authorized law enforcement personnel of the city. Business district means any business district as defined by section 235 of the California Vehicle Code.

So yeah, keep your wheels off the sidewalks.

Making skateboarding a de facto illegal activity has been protested against loudly and thoroughly across the country, but it’s going to take a ton of time and local activism to change attitudes, much less laws. In towns like Redlands or San Bernardino, which offer relatively few activities for teens, this becomes even more difficult.

Something else to think about while we document the anti-aerobic bureaucracies.

Coming Soon!

Coming soon: The No No Project. Chronicling the Anti-Aerobic Conspiracy.