Vegas auto dealer told to furl U.S. flag

August 2, 2007

LAS VEGAS --An auto dealer vowed Thursday to fight a city order to take down the 109-foot pole from which he flies an American flag about the size of a competition volleyball court.

The City Council voted Wednesday to order the Towbin Hummer dealership to take down the flag after officials said the pole was too high and neighbors complained the flag flapped too loudly.

"The American flag stays," dealership owner Dan Towbin declared. "I'm not convinced that people are complaining because of noise. This is about vindictiveness and power."

Towbin says the 30-foot-by-60-foot flag fits with his oversized dealership selling oversized cars, but rejects opponents' claims that it's an advertising tool.

"All I can tell you is we never sold a vehicle based on a flag," he said.

The council action followed a similar decision in May. Towbin sued the city, and a state judge last month sent the issue back to the council, ruling that he should have been allowed to have an attorney represent him before the body.

Towbin's lawyer, David Chesnoff, said Thursday that case remains pending.

"We're going to do whatever we can to keep the American flag flying," he said.

City regulations limit poles to 40 feet, but the council grants case-by-case exceptions.

Towbin got permission for a 100-foot pole in 2006, and the city has approved eight other flagpoles of that height or higher. Assistant City Attorney Bill Henry, however, said Towbin acknowledged last year that the council could revisit the decision if it bothered neighbors.

"We think it's arbitrary that they decide who gets it and who doesn't," Towbin said Thursday, adding that noise meters he put at a neighboring house didn't support complaints about loud flapping.

"If I was convinced I was truly disturbing people, I would have taken it down a long time ago," he said. 

This makes me wonder what the city council would do if it had been a Mexican flag.

I just bought 20 flags and plan on putting them up and down the highway in our small town.    If we all did this, what a  wonderful message.   If 1,000,000 people did this we would have 20,000,000 flags flying all along our highways.    The ones I bought are overall 3' long, I bought them at the Dollar Store for $.75 a piece.   

                                       

                                             

That is a great idea, SSR and honorable.  Where I live, though there is a city ordinace against such, it goes along with handbills placed under windshield wipers in parking lots.  People who put signs for yard sales on utility poles are fined.

What anyone does on their private property is ok, though.

I'm with the guy from Las Vegas.  Good for him!

The flag flapped too loudly?  (give me a  break)  In Nevada?  For how many days out of the year?  Usually it's hotter than where 99% of politicians are going.

I fly my flag everyday, except for the bad weather days.  A lot of my neighbors fly theirs also.  If anybody ever told me I couldn't fly it, they'd be in for a fight. 

There is a business here in Anderson that has a huge American Flag flying and I know it will never come down the people will not allow it. We the people of South Carolina, aside from Senator Graham, stand for the core values of our state and nation. We will not be intimidated by others. We still fly the Confederate Battle Flag on the statehouse grounds mainly as a statement that we will not be intimidated.

The Stars and Stripes is a flag that we should be proud of and never be intimidated by any to not give our flag the honor it deserves.