Thursday, March 31, 2011

Plated, now and then

Our car is finally DC-legal. 14 months later. We're sort of bad about DMV regulations, as you can see. There are plenty of excuses related to the ridiculously small window of hours the DC DMV is actually open, but really... there are no excuses. We're slackers who live in a building with a parking garage and thus can get away with being slackers. I must say, though, I've been geekily looking forward to having one of the coolest "state" license plates around.


Confused? Take a gander at this explanation of "Taxation Without Representation" and what it means in DC. Most of the U.S. has no idea that DC residents don't have a vote. That's 600,000 residents, by the way... more folks than the entire state of Wyoming.

Speaking of other states, I confess to loving license plate design. Spotting different state plates makes me a kid all over again, on the long road trip down to Disney World, playing I Spy with license plates. (Just yesterday, walking home: "Ooh! Alaska!") Being an Outer Banks girl, I always liked North Carolina's license plate (which eggs on the heated Wright Brothers rivalry with Ohio... the drama!), but I don't like the switch the state made to red letters a few years ago. Give me the old school blue, please... the red is sort of glaring.


I never had a car in Boston, but I'll endorse the classicism of the Massachusetts plate anyway. Truth be told, I might have been tempted to get the Red Sox plate there, although I firmly support the sentiment of Massachusetts as the Spirit of America, Mass-holedom and all.


For my first car in New Mexico, that amazing combination of late '80s design and mid '00s politics that it was, I was thrilled to have New Mexico's funky old-school license plate on the back, blazing with color alongside all my bumper stickers. In any other context I would hate this garish yellow, but in the Land of Enchantment, it works. Please notice that you're admiring a license plate not just from New Mexico, but "New Mexico USA," by the way. This was part of the state's campaign to assure everyone else that New Mexico is in fact part of America. Sigh... Seriously though, this plate is more effective than something like the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign by a mile. One look at this plate, and you know something strange and awesome is going on in that place.


For my second car, they were out of the cool yellow plates, so I had to go for the "new school" hot air balloon version - very friendly to tourists, very "see, we're a normal state in the United States" of them. The plate might have been less funky than the crazy yellow one, but it's still really pretty. Man I love that place.


When I moved to Texas I was pretty resistant to getting Texas plates, which says as much about my attitude toward Texas at the time as anything. My expired NM plates forced my hand, though, and I truly did approve of the Texas plate design. Its tribute to various state elements is clean and graphically interesting - although it's notably lacking a Dallas Louboutin. It's a pretty Houston plate, all things considered, but nicely done all the same. Never fear: I promptly slapped a political sticker on the car to balance the Lone Starness of it all.


A couple of years later, Texas decided it was time for a new plate, so they ran an online contest where residents would choose the new design. Oh, Texas. Some of my favorite people are from your state, and I will adore Austin until the end of my days, but this sort of represents why people make fun of you:


I want to believe that the Texans who voted for this license plate were doing so with a strong sense of irony. Maybe they thought it would be hilarious to vote for a bad tribute to State Fair airbrushing, because surely the state would not actually print something that heinous. But no, Texas. Your governor is Rick Perry, and your state did in fact print the winning license plate design. And now you are paying the consequences.

Lucky for us, we fled Texas in a hurry before being confronted with that thing. And here we are, cool "Taxation Without Representation" proclaimers at long last.

Am I alone in my license plate geekiness, or do you nerd out to license plates, too? What are your favorites?

(My non-biographical faves: Colorado, Maine, Oregon, and Vermont)

19 comments:

  1. I love looking at license plates, too! Have you seen the New Mexico (USA) centennial license plate? It's turquoise and I really like it.

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  2. This used to be on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum: http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=27722

    I bought the matching mug at the gift shop, I loved it so much.

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  3. @Laura: Ooh, I will check that out!

    @completelyirrelevant: That print is my mousepad! I love it too. I wrote about it here: http://www.freckledcitizen.com/2009/09/modern-americana-my-way.html

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  4. FUN FUN! SC used to have pretty ones, and now they are rancid. Being from NC I also get nervous over that DRAMA with Ohio. Hehehe. I am with you on the blue looking way better than the red.

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  5. I was so sad when I had to upgrade my New Mexico plate from the old school yellow. Like Laura, I kinda like the new turquoise plates. I was even more sad when I had to switch to Texas plates.

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  6. I am SO glad we left Texas before the Brush Script Catastrophe happened. I also love our DC plates! Welcome to the club.

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  7. Tee-hee! Yes, Texans know how to make anything look like it should be painted on the hood of a Chevy. I'm kind of surprised there isn't an armadillo in there, too. And a long horn. I'de like to see the runner-ups!

    I have always loved New Mexico plates. Oklahoma's are nifty too. New Hampshire's slogan "LIVE FREE OR DIE" kind of creeps me out when I see it on a bad driver.

    And that's just plain crap about y'all in DC paying taxes without appropriate representation. Wtf kind of crazy is that? I'll tell you, that's one thing that would *not* go down in Texas ;)

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  8. I share your love of licence plates. I actually have the picture at the bottom of your post hanging above my desk in my office. And I live in Oregon where we have very cool plates!

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  9. In Florida, perhaps the only state more ridiculous than Texas, we have so many vanity plates it's hard to remember what the standard issue plate looks like. (I'm pretty sure it features an orange.) At last count I believe there were 123 different specialty plates available, including such gems as "Hispanic Achievers," "Discover Florida's Horses," and "Endless Summer." There was even legislation proposed to limit the number of vanity plates but I don't believe it ever passed. We like to keep things strange down here.

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  10. I loved having the super duper green Vermont plates! Also, it was double the pleasure because you were required to have one in the front and one in the back! :)

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  11. I love this post! It had me laughing out loud. The only plates I've had besides DC were from Arkansas. Back in the day, they were very simple and classic like the Massachusetts plate above. Now they're sort of a cheesy light blue/maroon with a big diamond behind the plate numbers. But I do love our slogan "The Natural State" - almost as much as I love DC's.

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  12. I want one of those damn license plate maps so bad, but its like a million dollars. Texas does now have these ultra cool plates:

    http://www.myplates.com/Content/PressRelease/Freedom7for7.pdf

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  13. Don't think I have ever paid attention to the DC plate before. I like it! I too despise the new Texas plate, so I am glad we never had to have one. I am in FL now and was tempted to get a specialty plate just so I could avoid the ugly and uninspiring orange...

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  14. I love the DC plates!! Here is Missouri, we have TERRIBLE plates - so plain, boring and ugly. Why can't we have something pretty?? I'm a total sucker for the Wyoming license plate (maybe because I got married there), but I love that damn cowboy! Hell, I love all cowboys. Yum. :) Ok, this comment took a weird turn...

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  15. We just moved to D.C. and are in the house-hunting process. I think that half my desire to be in the District vs. MD or VA is to get the oh-so-wonderful D.C. plates:)

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  16. I love license plates! I've tried to keep one from each state I've lived, but have also been lax about registering my car in a few...it's hard when you're just there a short time!
    My all time favorite is New Hampshire, not because it's very pretty but because of the slogan "live free or die"...indeed.

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  17. This is oh so delayed, but I am going crazy with the DC DMV website right now and I remembered this post from awhile back. I'm moving up to DC in a week (eekk!!) and will only have street/neighborhood parking. Soo...does this mean I have to go to the DMV the very day I pull in to get the registrations and park legally on the street??? I'd love any DC advice (parking and otherwise) and I love keeping up with your blog!

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  18. @Brigid: Congrats! Sadly, you're going to need to get to the DMV asap. You can also get a temporary parking permit at your local police station, if you need extra time to get to the DMV. That might be your best bet. Weekends you'll be fine, though. So annoying, I know!

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  19. Being from the place with the dullest license plates in North America, British Columbia, I notice other license plates on cars all the time; they stand out against our white ones. I am particularly partial to the license plates of the southern states with their song lyrics like, 'stars fell on Alabama,' and 'Georgia on my mind.' I also liked it when Tennessee and Louisiana got creative and made their license plates read BiCennTENNnial and LoUiSiAna, respectively.

    In 2010 our government issued a limited edition Olympics license plate which, though a nice offering, brings up another 'license plate issue:' A great image, but one that can only be appreciated if you are standing directly in front of it!' For those unfamiliar, the license plate features a very nice image of Whistler. However, it took weeks of seeing them on the road before I was finally behind one at a stop light before I could make out what was on it.

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