Grosse Pointe Woods businesses all lit up

[Scar My Machine]

Full Story Here.

City officials are taking a hard line on neon business signs, enforcing a ban imposed eight years ago that gave businesses with existing signs eight years to comply. But a handful of businesses are fighting back, mobilizing a petition drive to repeal the ban on the next ballot.

They say businesses are struggling enough without making it harder for them to stay afloat. And some wonder why the city isn't spending its time and resources on more important issues.

This ban should get banned. Neon signs are Americana. They are part of our history. They help business attract customers. And really, is this city council saying they have nothing better to do than ban neon signs?

After reading this story it made me think, "what's this country coming to?" -- Where are our freedoms going?

Sheesh!

I like neon signs and they have always helped me find companies I was driving around looking for. IMO, they aren't an eye sore but rather, they are America.

Leave the neon signs alone city council.

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Edited February 16, 2011 by Scar My Machine

[n0Mad]

I wonder if xenon, argon, halogen, and LED signs are allowed. =)

[candyman]

I can sorta understand on account of the issue of light pollution...I like to NOT be able to tell where towns are based on the rusty glow they give off at night...and lights kill your night vision which some people REALLY need when driving. Oh a pretty sign...and then BAM! Oh my pretty car is fucked!

[Scar My Machine]

If one city council says that neon signs are a distraction and are to be outlawed then I ask, why are there still distracting lighted up signs on the freeway distracting drivers with messages while they drive at 70 mph?

If a neon sign is a distraction at 35 mph wouldn't it be worse at 70?

I love our governments use of double standards.

[candyman]

You took this a bit too seriously...seriously dude a normal sign with regular lights shining on it works just fine...we don't need flashy shit

[taysteewonderbunny]

Seeing as there are already stipulations that most businesses close by 7 or 9 pm, I don't know why they just can't mandate that illuminated signs go out by a particular time as well.

The argument in favor of the ban is indeed concerning light pollution.

In any case, whatever the vote is, the outcome is entirely within the community's rights. That's devolution of power at its most basic--the community level. Here, the most basic unit of government is making its own decision regarding its aesthetics. I don't know how you can argue with that. Upon whose rights is it encroaching?

[Scar My Machine]

When they came for the Jews and the blacks, I turned away

When they came for the writers and the thinkers and the radicals and the protestors, I turned away

When they came for the gays, and the minorities, and the utopians, and the dancers, I turned away

And when they came for me, I turned around and around, and there was nobody left...

.....someday.

[Scar My Machine]

This one I think is more accurate.

First they put away the dealers,

keep our kids safe and off the street.

Then they put away the prostitutes,

keep married men cloistered at home.

Then they shooed away the bums,

then they beat and bashed the queers,

turned away asylum-seekers,

fed us suspicions and fears.

We didn't raise our voice,

we didn't make a fuss.

It's funny there was no one left to notice

when they came for us.

I guess there will always be those that refuse to speak up for other people's rights.

[taysteewonderbunny]

When they came for the Jews and the blacks, I turned away

When they came for the writers and the thinkers and the radicals and the protestors, I turned away

When they came for the gays, and the minorities, and the utopians, and the dancers, I turned away

And when they came for me, I turned around and around, and there was nobody left...

.....someday.

Here is a case where you and I will simply have to disagree. I can not comprehend how you believe that neon signs as a national aesthetic should have more leverage than the people in a single community per majority vote (even by proxy in city council) upon whether those signs, the use of which OUTSIDE the community will NOT be determined by this action, should be permitted.

In this case, the "they" are the simple few thousand Grosse Pointe Woods denizens. And "they" are only coming for neon signs still existent in violation of an ordinance voted upon some time ago, publicly, without ample support for their reinstatement since. If this action unfairly targets people of a definable racial, religious, cultural, or socio-economic make-up, I think the burden is upon you to prove it.