Wow, it's been a month since my last post, and what a month it's been. First, progress on the culture jamming I mentioned. Thanks to the crucial assistance of Mr. Justin O'Dell, I have managed to acquire the majority of the lawn signs from the city council election. I can't remember the exact figures, but the democrat to republican/Meredith Richards write-in ratio was very close. I am lumping together the Richards campaign with the republicans because both happened to use the same kind of lawn sign. Which is interesting. This reminded me of the funding the Bush 2000 campaign provided for Nader ads in swing states.
I noticed a large degree of clumping with the signs, with most neighborhoods having a small number of democrat signs and a few neighborhoods (notably the more wealthy ones on the north side of town) having many republican signs within a small area. We began our collection by sharing a bike around the Woolen Mills neighborhood, stopping repeatedly to grab signs, then hopped in my car for the rest of the neighborhoods.
Since then, my mind has been occupied with returning to school for my graduate degree. I have been struggling with the application for U.Va.'s urban and environmental planning department. I have stressed out far too much over this, but it's almost done. Wish me luck! Once it's over, I promise I'll update more.