Murals and Billboards

In Allan Parachini’s “Panel Does a Double Take, Decides Kruger Work Is Art” (May 2), regarding the mural proposed for the Temporary Contemporary Museum, he describes Councilman Joel Wachs as “an activist on the City Council in favor of ordinances to try to control the proliferation of advertising signs in Los Angeles.”

My personal experience with the councilman and his voting record show just the opposite. In response to my plea to control billboards, the major culprit of urban visual pollution, he said he was against it and he voted consistently for the sign industry: In 1986 he voted against a proposal to prohibit huge billboard supports from overhanging buildings; in 1988 he voted against prohibiting more billboards in Los Angeles (the proposal failed by only one vote); and in 1989 he urged the council to exempt illegal real estate signs in residential neighborhoods from crackdowns.

I would be overjoyed if the councilman changed his stand on this issue.

TED WU, Chair, Sign Committee, Los Angeles Beautiful Inc.