This column criticizes the recently-passed Kansas City ordinance that restricts billboard advertising within the city, claiming it will disproportionately harm local small businesses that are already having trouble getting noticed.
"Don't billboards occasionally serve a purpose nobler than persuading people to buy malt liquor, cigarettes and lottery tickets?"
"For instance, there are those missing-persons billboards and the ones seeking help solving a crime."
"Yep, given the choice between too many roadside signs and the opposite, count me in on the side of information overload."
"What it all comes down to, sign-wise, is size. Unless you're Costco or Best Buy or Target (the bigger the store, the bigger the sign allowed), a business owner has a hard time getting noticed in the suburbs."
"Most cities don't allow businesses to put a sign on a pole. They've got to be attached to the building. They can't blink, be strobe or be made out of colorful neon."
"In short, business signs, like the business districts themselves, are required to blend into the background - as if they weren't even there."
FULL STORY: Bring on the billboards!

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

Ken Jennings Launches Transit Web Series
The Jeopardy champ wants you to ride public transit.

BLM To Rescind Public Lands Rule
The change will downgrade conservation, once again putting federal land at risk for mining and other extractive uses.

Indy Neighborhood Group Builds Temporary Multi-Use Path
Community members, aided in part by funding from the city, repurposed a vehicle lane to create a protected bike and pedestrian path for the summer season.
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