BRIDGING DALLAS' NORTH-SOUTH GAP - Signs of Progress? - Restricting ad clutter will help reduce blight

July 8, 2008 - The Dallas Morning News (Editorial)

Convenience store owners say the signs covering their windows and walls are effective advertisements for soda, sandwiches and cigarettes. But in mass quantities, these mini-billboards have become advertisements for blight.

Too many food markets and mom-and-pop shops can't seem to get enough of these signs, wallpapering over entire windows and doors and blanketing exterior walls with a hodge-podge of products and prices. While it's reasonable for a business to trumpet this week's 99-cent special, these stores have taken a more-is-more advertising strategy to the extreme.

Fortunately, the Dallas City Council is calling a halt to this practice with new restrictions that limit what percentage of a building's windows and facade can be obscured by signs. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway proposed the idea, arguing that advertising gone awry has become an eyesore.

He's right. In small pockets across the city and particularly in a number of southern Dallas neighborhoods, convenience stores are creating both visual clutter and a public safety issue. Police have long complained that the signs block their view of store interiors.

Ideally, businesses would regulate themselves, striking a balance between advertising and aesthetics. But they've failed to do so, forcing the city to step in.

The new ordinance offers stores a more-than-ample grace period of one year to comply with the restrictions and still allows a reasonable number of signs on windows and walls.

A few business owners have protested such limits on their private property. But this ordinance is no different from the reams of existing city codes for homes and businesses. Just as knee-high weeds drag down an area, these sign-enshrouded stores give the appearance of an unkempt, disorderly neighborhood.

Pulling down the placards won't cure all that ails these struggling areas - far from it. But it removes unnecessary blight from the landscape.

Business owners don't need to promote every single product in their stores. Losing the sign touting Frito pie isn't likely to be bad for business. But keeping too many of them up has proved to be bad for the neighborhood.

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