The city is putting up new parking direction signs in Old Town. Have you seen the new one on Queen Street? If not, that is possibly because they put it behind a tree. Not behind the leaves, but behind a 4-foot tree trunk. Well it’s only behind a tree if you are stopped at the stop sign. If you are midway down the block and at the elevation of a London double decker bus, it’s OK.
Of course I was surprised to find the 3x5 foot sign towering 15 feet above street level in front of my house on a 100 percent residential block. So were my neighbors. To date no neighbor ever recalls being told of this billboard’s arrival by the city’s bureaucrats. Is this sign going to help direct people to parking? No. I would be in favor of that, but literally you will not notice this sign unless you live on the block. I notice it, because it partially obscures the views from the windows in my house. This billboard reduces the value of every house on the block.
The sign on one side give directions. On the other? It’s blank. Yep, a blank billboard. Just what Old Town needed. I can’t decide whether to convert this monument to thoughtless bureaucracy to a basketball hoop or post my own ideas of signs for where the city can go.
The council needs to exercise meaningful oversight on careless city bureaucrats.
Dan Hazelwood
Alexandria