COMING SOON: KANSAS CITY LOSES THE BILLBOARD BLIGHT FIGHT!!!

A continuing Kansas City theme . . . Mayor Sly and The City Council don't really feel accountable to ANYBODY but special interests and corporate cronies . . . And this time they're reversing progress made to reduce billboard blight.

After the jump . . . Read an impassioned editorial e-mailed far and wide regarding even more upcoming changes to Kansas City's sign ordinance . . .


SIGNS

Ed Ford
Jim Glover
The Council:

For the past several weeks I have wanted to come down and testify about outdoor advertising/billboards however my health has not allowed it. If I had I would have told you the following:

Citizens have told you for years they want billboards eliminated however if you speak with them in depth they are really saying they want the ugly ones gone. I traveled those highways in this great country for over 40 years in sales management and would have gone hungry many a day without them to guide me as well as direct me to a place to lay my head down that night. Kansas City recognizes these boards are valuable otherwise you would not be spending taxpayers dollars to rent them. I know of one and it is ugly. The structure is average but the graphics are terrible.

From the early 50s to date from New York to Florida you will see hundreds if not a thousand billboards for The South of the Border Motel. These billboards transformed Dillon South Carolina from a wide spot in the road with a cotton gin and tobacco auction warehouse to a mid sized southern city all the result of billboards, If you are older you remember Burma Shave, Impeach Earl Warren` and South of the border motel signs. Ask Dillon elected officials if they love the tax revenue these billboards generate.

With the cities one per cent for the arts on constructions contracts we generate a lot of money for the arts. Why not get the arts community to work with the outdoor advertising community and create a tasteful design, mandate all new billboards be of this deign, grandfather in existing signs with a sunset provision where all the ugly ones are replaced. We can create a design that will set Kansas City apart from the rest of the nation and make us a model city.

Enact a strict appearance code then let Neighborhood codes enforce it. Before I can endorse the tax as now proposed I need to see the mood of the citizens on the upcoming taxes. Our nation is not favorable to new taxes and fees at this time.

Can the arts community approve the graphics of all sign changes to get ride of the ugly, On the city billboard I spoke of whoever did the graphics might be a great person and might make a great tipper on the back of a Deffenbaugh Trash Truck but is a disaster at graphic arts.

I am reminded that as you leave Knoxville Tenn about 35 miles north on I 75 you will see the second largest illuminated christian cross in North America and at the foot of the cross the largest adult entertainment complex east of the Rockies complete with billboards and neon lights. I laugh every time I drive by this and wonder if the message is we sin and we save as the primary message. We have some crosses in this city that are ill placed and some in need of maintenance. You have to tread lightly in this area but we should look at regulations of religious signs. I am a Christian however I must admit I don’t understand these crosses, I feel safe in saying when Jesus returns the last thing he will want to see is a Cross.

500K of taxpayers money to eliminate two signs? Only one person would believe that a wise use of taxpayers money and that is the mental midget that occupies 1600 Pennsylvania ave. Well at least for a few more months.

As always I am here to help in any way I can.

Charles Melton
cmltn41@yahoo.com
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