No on G (Historic Home Restrictions): Palo Alto, 2000

Few things are more sacred in the City of Palo Alto than the historic homes of the community—many dating back more than a century. They add to the character of the City and carry fond memories for residents.

So when the City proposed a “historic home protection” ordinance in late 1999, many local observers figured that it would be a slam-dunk for passage, since voting against it would be like opposing baseball and apple pie. As a matter of fact, polling showed that Measure G started with over 54% support, despite early community opposition.

A coalition of homeowners, realtors and other concerned residents of Palo Alto had formed a committee to oppose the measure. TBW and Decision Research were hired to assist the grassroots committee with message development, fundraising ideas, field operations, free press efforts and direct mail.

Decision Research’s polling showed that our only chance of defeating Measure G was to turn the focus of the debate to the measure’s many flaws rather than the basic question of whether or not to protect historic homes from demolition. If the campaign was fought on the value of historic homes, we would definitely lose, which is why we printed hundreds of lawnsigns with our “Protect Our Homes” message.

Our four piece mail plan continued this theme by stressing that Measure G was a flawed, overly complex measure that protected some relatively new homes while ignoring truly historic residences. The most striking piece was printed on newsprint, and when completely unfolded, showed the entire text of the ordinance in six point type, demonstrating how truly complex and bureaucratic the issue had become. A press event at City Hall included oversized copies of the ordinance, and precinct walkers discussed the issue with voters on their doorsteps.

On March 7, 2000, Proposition G was defeated, 52%-48%.