Question of the Week: neighborhood signs
Featured — By Cedar Phillips on March 29, 2011 2:32 am
Signs identifying the boundaries of Uptown neighborhoods have long been a part of Uptown’s streetscape. What’s your take on these signs? Are they a worthwhile investment? Do they promote community? Who is the target audience — residents or visitors? Do you notice them?
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
2 Comments
I notice them and like them although, I’m not sure that they serve any real purpose. Seems like the target audience must be residents since they are kind of meaningless to any out of the area visitors.
I like the concept, but think that having them lining the edges of the neighborhood makes for a lot of visual clutter. I’d like to see them in the middle of the neighborhoods, sort of as “you are here” signs. I agree that the target audience seems to be residents, and perhaps having them in key locations within neighborhoods would be a good way of reminding people that they are part of a formally-designated community. Then again, that might just confuse people. I know that I’d notice and appreciate them more if not located along busy streets along with many other signs. I also like how they get updated from time to time; not that I don’t like some of the older designs (some still floating around), but most of the neighborhood designs seem to come out of contests (or in LHENA’s case, I believe they had a local artist work with kids at Jefferson to design the cut-out shapes), which when done right has the potential to energize the neighborhood and create a sense of community, not to mention promote the integration of visual arts into our everyday physical environment. I don’t know if they’re the best use of neighborhood money, but I do like them.