Lafayette Crosses: Free Speech

Chronicle / Kat Wade
Today's SF Chronicle reports:

Is a collection of 420 wooden crosses lining a Lafayette hillside a moving memorial to thousands of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq, or a slap in the face of the soldiers and their families?

Residents of the usually quiet Contra Costa County city are expected to stage a lively debate regarding the merits of the display at a City Council meeting Monday evening, even as council members say their concern is limited to the proper size of the sign accompanying the white crosses.

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The crosses and a sign reading "In Memory of 2,867 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq" have sparked strong reactions since they were erected earlier this month on a hillside overlooking the Lafayette BART Station and Highway 24.

The city gave memorial organizers a Nov. 20 deadline to take down the sign or replace it with a smaller one that conforms to signage rules. The organizers decided to keep the sign in place because they consider it to be part of the memorial, not just a public sign.

Lafayette officials said the crosses are legal because city law exempts memorial and historic markers from the rules that restrict where signs can be erected and how big they can be. But they say the sign must conform to regulations, which call for nothing larger than 4 square feet -- roughly the size of a real estate for-sale sign. The memorial sign is about 64 square feet.

Monday's meeting may disappoint some people who want resolution one way or the other to the larger issue of whether the memorial is appropriate, City Councilwoman Carol Federighi said.

"We're not going to be discussing the pros and cons of the memorial," Federighi said. "We're going to be opening it up to allow staff to educate the community on where we are and what the process is and giving people a chance to express their opinions."

The memorial has evoked some emotional responses -- one woman stopped her car, climbed the hillside and knocked the sign down -- and has drawn national attention to a place unaccustomed to the spotlight. Federighi said the biggest issue to come before the Lafayette council in the past year was an aborted proposal to put a recycling center near the corner of Pleasant Hill and Deer Hill roads.

"I got over 100 e-mails" in regard to that issue, Federighi said.

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Samson said the best thing about the expected high turnout for Monday's meeting will be the discussion it sparks about ideas such as freedom of speech, national pride and the merits of the Iraq war.

"Lafayette is a small town, and there is a history of people getting up and being able to express their point of view," Samson said. "That's very important in a democracy."

Jeff Heaton, a 53-year-old Lafayette general contractor who put up the sign, said he will attend the meeting in hopes of persuading city officials to let him leave the memorial as it is. Heaton said the sign, which was inspired by a 1989 visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., has sparked a needed debate about the war and its toll on soldiers and their families.

Heaton said he meant no disrespect to the soldiers by placing it on the hillside.

"I'm going to talk in support of the memorial and express my hope that the council reconsiders its ordinance in relation to this memorial," Heaton said Friday. "It's not a commercial sign. It seems to be an effective way to make people aware of the number of soldiers who have died in Iraq."

He said he had seen people near the hillside Thursday holding signs that read "Support our troops," a development he welcomed.

"I don't think it's disrespectful to practice democracy on the local level to bring attention to a national issue," he said. "We're lacking participation in democracy. People have responded to this memorial with a lot of emotion. It's good people are letting their feelings be known."
Council meeting

The Lafayette City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the Manzanita Room of the Lafayette Community Center, 500 St. Mary's Road.