Home @ 19 Jan 2007 12:36 pm by Christina Waters
Is it just me, or is the River Street Sign still the ugliest thing in Christendom? (How’s that for a politically incorrect phrase?) – Nah, I know for sure that it ain’t just me.
It’s been too long since we all collectively kvetched and vented concerning this colossel civic eyesore. Not to mention the procession of equally odious street lights, each yellower than the next.
Can’t we just get rid of them? I know, I know, it costs big bucks to remove them. Surely someone knows a mafioso somebody who would be willing to run down these grotesqueries for a reasonable rate? Email me if you know the right people.
ARRGGH!! I was just admiring the hideousness of that sign yesterday, as I sat beneath it, waiting for the light to change. It doesn’t look any better than it did on the day in infamy when it was erected. I still can’t figure out why it’s there and why someone (bless them!) hasn’t blown it up yet.
Maybe we can put it on craigslist and see if someone will just take it, for free, very far away.
Seems to me that with all the artists around here, someone could figure out how to decorate, remodel, change the lettering, colors, plant trees underneath? camouflage the poles??… SOMETHING!
Calling Creativity, can you help?
I really don’t think that is the first thing people should see when they get off the freeway to come into Santa Cruz. When I first drove in I thought to myself, “God that thing is ugly”. Since I was not familiar with the geography I thought that was all this little town had to offer in the way of a down town. Let me tell you, I was a little apprehensive about moving here. Good thing I took a little tour around town after my interview!
I often pass the River Street sign– producing the usual fantasies: several people with chainsaws cutting that thing down or a frontloader digging deep holes and toppling it. (”It would take $80,000 to remove it” indeed.) However, the best ideas came when the story was hot. The most feasible seemed to be to give it to the Boardwalk (preferably way to the rear of the rides). Remember Bolinas–though smaller, every sign to it over the years has mysteriously disappeared.
What I’ve never ever known or been able to fathom is WHO made this decision in the first place. GOOD LORD. Is there, like, a secret bad taste committee or something? Maybe the same people who turned Santa Fe into a Southwestern Theme Park? In any case, EVERYONE seems to be mad about it, but NO ONE knows how it happened.
As far as the “cost” of removal (right), I bet we could muster an army of volunteers to spend a weekend getting rid of them - I imagine someone among “us” has a concrete saw/crane/flatbed truck/and the knowhow to do the right god damn thing.
Or perhaps we should just send Guido over, with a tire iron (this is a running joke I have with my septic inspector, but that’s an other story).
Cheers, all.
PS - “Give” it? How about, we’ll PAY them to take it.
Ps Christina, this opportunity you’ve given all of us to RANT is so meaningful, you’ll just never know.
Doesn’t anyone remember the contest that the Sentinel had to redesign the sign? At my house, we laughed and laughed at the results. I think my favorite was the Egyptian motif, with Cleopatra reclining on the top, carried by three helpers.
(See http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2001/November/25/style/stories/01style.htm and click on “Enter Gallery” at the bottom of the story)