Inglewood Streets No Longer to Be Advertising Alleys

Used to be, one could drive down any thoroughfare in Inglewood and find out who was having a garage sale, who lost their cat, who was running for reelection and who was playing at the local nightclubs, just by reading the signs and posters tacked onto poles and trees along the city’s streets.

Those days are gone.

Prompted by Mayor Ed Vincent, Inglewood has declared war on illegal street signs. Cleanup crews have collected and destroyed more than 2,000 signs and now, two weeks into the battle, almost all that remains are staples and lonesome nails, Vincent said.

“I’d be hard-pressed to find a dozen signs today,” Vincent said. “Last month I could have found hundreds in all shapes and sizes.” The signs ranged from cardboard scraps with information scrawled in crayon to glitzy posters with professional lettering and fluorescent paint.

Though the city has been plagued by illegal signs for years, officials say the recent cleanup represents the first organized effort to rid the area of unsightly posters. Sporadic citings and random cleanups in the past did little to deter people from posting advertisements throughout the city, officials said.

Possible Fines

Advertisers seemed to ignore the fact that they committed misdemeanors in posting the signs and faced possible fines or jail sentences, officials said.

Despite state and city laws prohibiting posting signs on trees, utility poles and the like, advertisers placed the posters on “just about anything that stood within view of the street,” Vincent said. The city’s utility poles and bus benches were transformed into unofficial community kiosks, he said.

“I can almost understand a person putting up a sign for their garage sale,” said Inglewood City Councilman Tony Scardenzan, “but they do not want the burden of cleaning up after themselves.

“The businesses are the worst. They pay people to put the signs up, but I bet they don’t tell them to go back and take the signs down.”

The signs had become so common in the area that one official said Inglewood’s streets carried “almost as many ads as the Sunday classifieds.”

Handful of Complaints

Only a handful of people, mostly teen-agers, have complained to city officials about the cleanup, saying the signs tell them about events that are not advertised elsewhere. But the group received little sympathy from city officials.

“When I go over to the plaza and see a sign pounded into a tree or glued onto a war memorial, I think (advertisers) ought to come up with a more imaginative way to reach people,” said Howard Rosten, Inglewood’s city attorney.

“We’ve been taking signs down for block parties, lost dogs, real estate companies and music events outside the city,” said Les Curtis, director of Inglewood’s Parks and Recreation Department. “I think these advertisers are aware of the tremendous traffic that comes through Inglewood every day.”

Officials say the Hollywood Park race track and the Forum sports arena attract thousands of motorists to the city each day, and hundreds more travel on Inglewood streets on their way to Los Angeles International Airport and nearby aerospace firms. In addition, officials estimate that nearly 2 million commuters pass through the city on buses each year.

“The signs almost became associated with parts of Los Angeles and Inglewood,” said Southern California Edison spokesman Ed Braly, noting that the utility finds fewer signs in neighboring areas such as Hawthorne and Westchester. Edison owns most of the utility poles in the area but the company is not responsible for keeping the poles clean, Braly said.

‘Part of Everyday Life’

Though the signs brought frequent complaints from citizens and businesses, city officials said the posters became almost a “part of everyday life” in Inglewood. “People got used to it like they got used to crime--they learned to live with it, but they didn’t like it,” Rosten said.

Officials say the cleanup has jolted residents’ awareness. “Now that most of the signs are gone, people are calling and writing letters to say they don’t want them back,” said City Councilman Bruce Smith.

Though almost everyone seems to agree on the program’s success, some residents say the only way to get rid of the signs for good is to fine the people responsible.

“The real way to solve this problem is to start charging the people who are putting these eyesores up all over the city,” said J. D. Richardson, an Inglewood resident who said he has been removing illegal signs in his neighborhood for eight years. “Otherwise, they’ll just come back when the city stops taking the signs down.”

Guilty of Misdemeanor

Anyone who places a sign on a utility or telephone pole is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a maximum $1,000 fine or six months in jail or both under state law. Those who place signs on trees, bus benches, statues and other structures along the public right-of-way violate a city ordinance and are subject to comparable fines.

Officials say both laws are difficult to enforce because a violator must be caught in the act to be cited.

“The person who actually posts the sign is the only party that can be held accountable for the crime, even if he is an agent for somebody else,” said City Atty. Rosten.

But he said the people who post the illegal signs are “almost invisible.”

“Even if you do see them out there posting signs, they’re gone by the time police arrive,” Recreation Director Curtis said.

Inglewood police will be on the lookout for illegal advertisers, but for now, officials say, the cleanup appears to be the best course.

“If we take them down as fast as (advertisers) put them up, maybe they’ll get the message,” Vincent said.