ill
nd
on
cc
:ia
an
u-
it-
or
le
,i-
of
le
l-
le
it
i-
l-
id
f,
is
jr
it
*s
l-
l-
d
e
u
e
vum
tuii niLiJL ju vu’iii nearu ef-
fectively, and perhaps impose its will.
BELATED SENSE OF SHAME
T^rrrrr.'
i
I X
SAN ANTONIO
If greed, indifference or ignorance will lead us to blotch Mother Nature’s beautiful face, why should we hesitate to smear with ugliness and gross cheapness the immediate surroundings of stately public buildings — libraries, art museums, courthouses — or parks, or churches, or squares and plazas architecturally magnificent, on which, we spend millions?
As water on the wheel of its own crusade for a related civic pride and optical comfort in its community, the Kansas City Star makes much of this striking development:
In tho vicinity of the Now York City public library, an imposing structure, arc numerous roof signs that have proved objectionable in several ways. 1c seems to be a way signs and billboards have, following up and hovering about such places as public libraries, union stations, and trailing along public streets and highways. It is perfectly' natural, therefore, that public resentment should bo shown toward such a practice.
In New York a national committee on billboard and sign restriction lias turned its guns on the unsightly objects about the public library. The committee is aided by firms that advertise nationally, by national organizations, women's clubs and chambers [ of commerce. The work of these forces has been effective elsewhere in the country, particularly about Glens Falls, N. Y., where the effort started.
Of course, the proper, sensible time when all such high-minded, influential businessmen and clubwomen should act, is when the municipality or the congregation or the civic body announces its selection of the site for the particular building concerned. It is unthinkable that their combined influence, their community standing—together with the
willingness of many houses that advertise nationally, to refrain from participating in the disfigurement—could not prevail upon the owners of most, neighboring structures or vacant lots to protect a public thing of beauty from a distressingly cheap and unsightly environment, and thereby promote the city’s attractiveness and guard its repute.
As the desecrated condition of even some so-called community centers, and of highways, countryside, and many an originally beautiful residence district testifies, these organizations are belatedly solicitous. That is, they exerted no preventive effort to ascertain how many owners of property available for obnoxious billboards and signs were amenable to an appeal to civic pride. Now they are driven to call upon legislatures, county commissions, city councils and other public bodies to order drastic remedial action—to resort to a heavy, costly cure because no light work of prevention was undertaken.
FOR . A CENTRAL NAVAL BASE IN THE PACIFIC
-:asy
rs of
ited
15.
Better d here sold by pard up .vas an-esident. and at g these iy more on will tndisers t is rc-
) weeks number nt with Board >osjtion eted to cr held
> More than 2000 illegal advertising signs on the streets of San Antonio have been lorn down and placed in two large piles by Joe Bova. assistant building inspector; .T. P. Voatright, motorcycle officer; M. T. Sain/., F. P. La Blank and F. W. Juste, firemen. The cleanup will bn continued until everyone of these objectionable signs has been removed, says City Building Inspector (Jus F. Niggli. This is only the beginning, however, says Mr. Bova for only two streets have been cleared of the unsightly signs.
With an order from Mr. Niggli Saturday a week ago, the cleanup was begun. Mr. Bova. with the assistance of Messrs. Voatright, Sainz, La Blank and Juste obtained a ton fire truck and soon Jtad it loaded with signs, sizes of which ranged from six inches square to paproximatcl.v ten feet.
Remove 2000 Already.
A vacant lot on the Concepcion road was made the temporary dumping ground for some of the signs while a lot in San Fernando addition was used to accommodate the signs of the southwestern part of the city. By Thursday night about eight truck loads of the signs had been torn down and
>,11	   i	-	'V...1VO
more than 2000 signs had been removed.
‘’This is just the beginning of the city-wide cleanup,” said Mr. Bova last week, “for we have only worked the Somerset road and South Flores street to the city limits. Before we finish this job we probably will have stacked several thousand signs in those pile?. Within a few minutes we cau procure a ton truck load of them.”
With a view of improving the looks of city streets as well as to enforce a city ordinance, the building inspectors began the campaign to remove the illegal signs from trees, fences, telephone poles, bridges and public buildings. The city ordinance which requires a sign builder to put up n $15,000 bond as well as Id have a license and a building permit^will be rigidly enforced, says Mr. Niggli. It is expected that hereafter prosecutions will follow violations. The penalty is a fine ranging from $5 to $200.
Kill Some Trees.
It is explained by the building inspectors that to erect a sign or a billboard, the prospective builder must first make bond. Then lie must secure a license and just prior to building the billboard he must procure a building permit from the city building inspectors office. The latter will cost $1, On practically every principal street just outside the city’s business district, the signs have been placed. Tho placing of some of them has been the cause of killing many trees.
A billboard or a sign must be attractive in order not. to violate the. bill posting ordinance, says Mr. Niggli. In addition they must not be tacked to telephone poles, trees, fences, buildings or bridges. k
A truck load of small signs found tacked on poles and trees was gathered up by city employes Saturday morning, inaugurating a campaign against tho unsightly placards, under direction of City Building Inspector Gus Niggli.
Saturday morning’s campaign included a tour of Garden Street to Mitchell to Presa and back to the* business district. The truck then was taken to the incinerator plant at Bracken ridge Park, stopping along Josephine Street on route. On that street one tree was found with signs nailed to it. to a height of seven feet, and damaging it so that the tree nut" be killed.
The signs collected are mostiv small ones advertising products with National distribution, so that it has been impossible to hold anyone responsible for.them under the city ordinance against such signs.
As fast as they arc put up. however, they will be removed by the city, and at the same time police were requested Saturday to watch for anv persons nailing up the signs.
.11 its pur-Paris
LYTLE MAY ERECT ||~
(f^ .rv	^
in the Code Napoleon—promulgated more than a century ago—for restricting the erection of electric signs irf the Place de l’Opera, than that New Jersey officials should seek to prevent motoring • the “blue” laws of 179S. Both statutes were efore incandescent lights and automobiles were j| gam official, however, has common'sense and a /i his favor, for the regulation in question aims artistic value of national monuments through environment from the encroachment of ugli-sity for such a rule is readily understandable. MAprobably would not want an iron foundry cmit-or an unsightly billboard, adjacent to the Lin-l-Jjlf Washington. The French proudly acclaim the gieautiful building in the world, and though some |ies may
think otherwise, all assign it a
high
\Y
he Parisians’ objections to the electric signs in & Her will seem strange to the many Americans to Woqt White Way” represents the pinnacle of prog-^ic of artistry. What could be finer--to theni-mong glory of Broadway at night, transforming the
250(.
Hup
ay, and even improving upon Old Sol himself?
they with Broadway’s effulgence that
French folk, They
as issed are
tho' every city a Broadway of its own.
^different ideas of beauty and splendor, pro*	,	,
Tliqch display as vulgar, and prefer to view the
Jlcnulptures in a softer light. Certainly they have
iri to their artistic opinions.
CITY IS JUNKING SIGNS FOUND ON TREES AND POLES