SIX EIGHTY AUTO SALES Derogatory signs outside business anger neighbors

The business owner has repeatedly complained about a nearby bar.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Derogatory messages about various city officials displayed on two outdoor signs are commonplace at an East Midlothian Boulevard business.
The latest target is Chief Robert E. Bush Jr., a mayoral candidate.
James Ludt, who runs Six Eighty Auto Sales on the 1400 block of East Midlothian, is displaying two outdoor signs about Bush. The messages read: "Chief Bush, your [sic] a corrupt, gutless piece of s---!! not doing your job."
While the messages are common, the use of the expletive is "starting to push the envelope," Bush said. And some neighbors have complained as well, leading police to stop by and look at the signs, one facing Midlothian and the other facing Shirley Road. Officers said they were videotaped by someone in a dark blue minivan as they wrote their report at the scene Saturday.
Bush said the city prosecutor's office informed him that Ludt has the First Amendment right to post or spray paint whatever statements he wants on his property.
Why is Ludt angry?
The object of Ludt's ire is the New Affair Lounge, next to his property. Ludt isn't pleased that the city permits a bar with scantily clad women to operate next to his property, though a woman at the bar said the club's female performers wear bikinis and are not nude.
Ludt has anti-bar messages spray painted on his building.
Ludt also has placed signs outside his business complaining about Bush, Mayor George M. McKelvey, council President James Fortune, former council President John Swierz and Councilman Mark Memmer.
Ludt's business is in the 7th Ward. Memmer is the ward's current councilman, and Swierz was councilman of the ward in the past. Memmer is running this year for council president, and Bush, Swierz and Fortune are running for mayor.
Ludt purchased the East Midlothian property in 2000. The New Affair Lounge relocated to the street in 1997.
"It was already there when he moved, so I don't know what his contention is," Swierz said.
Bush said the New Affair Lounge is a quietly run operation, and there have been no problems at the business.
"We take enforcement issues seriously, and we check for criminal violations," Bush said. "There haven't been any problems at the business."
Swierz said his name was on a sign outside Ludt's business last month claiming the mayoral candidate is corrupt.
"He does it just to keep you on your toes," he said.
The owner of the New Affair Lounge filed a lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court stating Ludt is harassing bar customers and interfering with its business.