Nibbled to death by ducks

Apple is trying to have a bigger stake in Portland; they want to have one of their flagship stores in Northwest Portland. It's a good fit in my opinion; Portland is home to one of the longest-running Macintosh Users Groups, and has always been, despite the hulking presence of Intel on the western horizon (oh, wait, Apple likes Intel now; I almost forgot) pretty much a Mac town, in much the same way it's a book town.

And trendy NW Portland is also a perfect fit - if your stereotype of Portland is liberal, sandal-wearing, latte-sipping beautiful people. Which is incredibly accurate, by the way.

Side note: when did everyone start calling NW Portland the "Alphabet District"? I've lived here most of my life, was born in Portland, and it's always just been NW to me? Yes, yes, I know, the streets from Ankeny to Vaughn are all in alphabetical order, one per letter, but we've still always called it NW Portland. Or, occassionally we make with the snark and call the main drag through there "Trendy-Third" - I don't know when this new nickname started. Probably the developers or somethin'.

Wait, my story - or is it a rant? I can't decide. Oh, right... so Apple has a huge Apple logo they want to include on their store, just like they brand everything with their logo. Only now it appears that the logo might conflict with Portland sign and building code (link is only good for 14 days after the date of this post - I'll add a saved version later).

It's not that Apple is tearing down some ancient building to build their sleek modern store (can you tell whose side I'm on here?) since the building they're moving into is barely old enough to vote (it dates back to the halcyon days of 1982 - ironically, the year that Time proclaimed the computer their Man of the Year), but the sticking point appears to be (from the bOregonian article):

...city design guidelines adopted in 2000 say new buildings "will seek to incorporate design themes characteristic of similar buildings" in the historic district.

Don't they realize that Apple has way more individuality and style than that? You can't force Apple to conform to other people's themes. That's not Apple, baby. They lead the pack, not follow it.

Again, from the article (and why is this statement unattributed? I hate lazy journalism):

The size of the Apple sign undoubtedly will draw attention of the landmarks commission and the neighborhood, which has a history of taking land-use and design issues themselves far too seriously.

Oops, I accidentally corrected that; don't thank me, I'm just doin' my job.

So which city commissioner do I need to bombard with emails and phone calls on this?