Editorial: Signing indeed is an issue

Published 10:50 am Thursday, May 6, 2010

Point taken.

The end of Wednesday’s editorial said, “This is really a non-issue.”

We want to clarify.

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Downtown signing indeed is an issue. People should debate that.

But that debate should stop claiming that the signs are approved based on how important people are or how connected some people seem. That’s what we meant by “non-issue.”

The Albert Lea Community Theatre is no better connected than the Albert Lea American Legion Club.

In fact, from covering councils for years on end, the Tribune has noticed that while being connected sometimes helps and sometimes hurts, generally councilors decide issues based on their intuition of what the general population would prefer.

The sign debate also should not erroneously think that City Council measures requests for temporary signs the same way it measures requests for permanent signs.

Like we said Wednesday: Apples. Oranges.

We support signs. Signs are handy and helpful. But we also favor signs that don’t annoy.

Why? Because we don’t think most Albert Leans like to annoying signs. It’s as simple as that.

And that’s the reason the council voted down the Legion sign request.

Moreover, this is why the city still needs a better sign ordinance.