On the Side| Brad Hicks
When it happened, the building shook.
It caught me off guard, that’s for sure. Everyone who looked at it said there wasn’t much to it.
Oh, sure, there were a couple of long iron beams that held it in place, but the vertical sign in the middle was nothing more than a thin piece of tin with plastic letters.
So last Thursday morning, to be in compliance with a city code selective of Commerce, Senate and Broadway, The Red Oak Express’ sign landed with a significant thud in the front yard.
Oh, it didn’t go without a fight. There was a pretty good breeze. And the plasma torch had to cut through the entire bracing on both sides. For a while, I thought the more-than-25-foot-high, uniquely-shaped, in-need-of-repair structure was going to win. It just didn’t want to go – perhaps the best last-ditch protest an inanimate object can make of man’s regulations. But go it did.
The front of The Express building, absent the sign, is remarkably bare. Our new sign is in the making, but it won’t have the romance of the one which left us in 2016. No, it will be mounted to the building – pending approval from the city, of course. It will be newer, and in terms of being kept in repair, easier to maintain. It won’t be a member of suburbia, a light inside a plastic bubble mounted firmly to terra Stepford. No, it will just be a sign on a wall, letting people know that we are open for business.
When Red Oak enacted this special sign ordinance more than half a decade ago, it was done with an eye toward the future, a hope for beautified entrances to the community. It was done with the best intentions, to promote a picturesque town. But going forward, city fathers should always consider the businesses impacted.
The signs you have seen erected in the last couple of months aren’t inexpensive. Some firms spent $6,000 to more than $10,000 on their signs. Those are dollars that didn’t go into someone’s paycheck. In many cases, those are dollars that left town and won’t roll over here.
A couple of months ago at a community event, I spoke with the owner of a business on Broadway. I brought up the sign ordinance, and received an earful. I’m not sure he understood that I felt the same way, but I do know he was glad that someone gave him a forum to vent. A sign says a lot about a business, and there was nostalgia surrounding that one. It is no more.
Will the new signs generate new revenue that will result in new customers, raises, more option taxes, and attract other new businesses? That’s a long debate that only results in the answers that the people who are arguing want to hear. One side will say it’s a beautification project that will impress people and make others want to be part of the business community. One side will say it robs a community of the look of activity. One side will say it makes businesses less noticeable from afar. One side will say it cost them money for no good reason.
Yes, the vibrating thud of the sign hitting the ground surprised me. I’m sure there is hope that all of these conforming signs will result in an ongoing boom. Isn’t that what government always tells us? Maybe I’ll be surprised again.
Maybe.
Contact Brad Hicks at publisher@redoakexpress.com.