Blight Fighter

* Steve Wayne (“Blight Fighter,” July 24) should stop cruising the boulevard and ripping down signs that are unauthorized. Maybe he should donate his wasted time and energy to working with former taggers/gang members or teaching a community class about the evils of illegal advertising, anything to vent his frustrations in a more positive way.

If he has been doing this for 16 years, he has not made much of a dent, because in the last 12 years I have seen an increase in the signs.

LESLIE K. SIEGEL

Glendale

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* In this transient and isolated city, the only available small community news sources are the telephone poles. This is information we once learned at established community centers, but now our neighborhoods are too diverse to attend the same church, recreation center or 12-step meeting. Acting as bulletin boards for a community too busy and car-based to stop for a chat, we zoom past the signs and absorb the various messages.

Estate sale signs subtly tell us of a man’s passing, the one who took such care of his yard. Lost animal signs beg us to be on the lookout for a beloved pet. A hand-lettered sign seeks witnesses regarding a hit-and-run incident that killed two little girls.

Without this community message board, there are many people we would not have met and countless human scenes we would have missed.

VODTJKA NOVOCHERKASSK

Los Angeles