Let’s stop the proliferation of signs, fliers

I am writing about the epidemic of handbills and illegal signs that have taken over the city: signs for lost pets, found pets and people who want to walk your pets; real estate investor apprentices needed (yeah, right); various low-budget business advertising, invariably spraypainted onto cardboard and nailed to a tree: “Warehouse Blowout Sale”; rotting signs from defunct yard sales; quotes from Woodrow Wilson (these were stapled to trees––I never did figure that one out). The list is endless.

Any day now I expect the signs for Christmas light hangers to start sprouting up.

One or two temporary signs are one thing, but the situation is out of control. We need to nip this in the bud before formerly beautiful Thousand Oaks ends up like the San Fernando Valley, where every last telephone pole, lamppost, street sign, tree, utility vault, bus shelter, pay phone, newspaper rack––everything that can possibly have a sign taped, wired or nailed to it has one.

Some have three or more. And the few poles that aren’t currently misappropriated will bear the tattered remains of someone’s previous abuse.

Want to sell your house for cash? There are plenty of buyers in Van Nuys who want to talk to you. Need junk hauled? Want to work from home? Need an alarm monitoring company? Some particularly egregious examples of large illegal signs in the Valley have had their phone numbers obscured with tape or have been smeared with paint by residents who have apparently had enough.

I’m not sure what’s worse, an illegal sign or a defaced illegal sign.

Simi Valley is just as bad, by the way. I recently counted nearly 100 illegal signs on a two-mile stretch of Madera Avenue alone.

It looks like a third-world country.

Many of the signs in Thousand Oaks are made to look as if they are from a local resident just looking to make a connection.

They’re a scam. I have seen identical signs to the ones advertising for a real estate apprentice 30 miles away in Encino. “Memory foam” mattress signs, of which at least 15 were placed in quiet neighborhoods in Newbury Park, used several different phone numbers, one of which was from San Luis Obispo.

If you need to advertise, how about taking out an ad in the Thousand Oaks Acorn? With a readership of nearly 40,000, that would surely be a more effective approach than nailing a hand-written sign to a tree.

A city of Thousand Oaks public works employee told me that they remove an average of 100 to 150 illegal signs every week. I’m sure they have better things to do.

Please respect our beautiful city and keep our lampposts, street signs and the public areas clean.

Thank you. Howard Gantz Newbury Park