Make a Left at the Neon

Imagine you had these troubles. You’ve just moved to the wet side of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and have invited a few friends for dinner. It’s their first time on PCH.

As your guests slow to the speed limit in an attempt to ferret out your address, they nearly cause catastrophic collisions with speeding and irate wannabe Autobahnners.

If you were lucky enough to have such problems, you might ease the danger a bit by installing what a dozen or so of your neighbors have already attached to the fronts of their homes: neon address signs.

“When you live on PCH, you gotta have some kind of beacon so people can find you. It’s a very unsafe highway,” says Debra Root, an area resident who four years ago commissioned Gary Guidinger of Hollywood Neon to build her a sign with glowing pink house numbers and a flying blue dolphin.

Others on the highway have opted to announce their addresses in red or blue. Another went the distance by adding a pink arch and green palm trees over the address, a sign that was made by Mohammad Khodayari of Art Zone Sign and Banner in Santa Monica.

“They like to be found easily,” Khodayari says of his homeowner clients, “especially ifit’s foggy.”

Neon address signs are also popular in Southland canyons, where seeking out house numbers is equally treacherous. There, however, you’re more likely to find a neon coyote perched upon the numbers than a water mammal.

Not everyone is thrilled with these glowing, gas-filled tubes in their residential areas. “It does create an attitude in people,” says Guidinger. “There’s nothing worse than neon that’s too glitzy and too loud.”

Technically, neon outside a residence may not be in accordance with local codes. “The person wants attention,” says one building official, who requested anonymity. “[Neon signs] could be a distraction, so that possibly outweighs the benefits.”

Root, a onetime Miss Oklahoma and current owner of Mrs. Malibu Foods, doesn’t see any problem with these newfangled address signs.

“They’re really cool,” says the coastal resident. “I’m shocked more people don’t have it done.”