Editor:
I am writing in response to your article/poll about what you call the “ugliest billboard” (March 29). What kind of thought process led you to write an article that demonizes good local businesses? Not only are you throwing honest, hard-working businesses under the bus, but you are attacking local children’s nonprofit organizations.
You are running an ad for Mid City in your paper that is two pages away from casting them as possible producers of the ugliest billboard. I’m sure they are thrilled to be spending their advertising dollars in your paper, only to have you slander them two pages later. I also find it ironic that atop your online article you are running a tasteless ad for Tip Top, featuring an almost completely naked woman. My only hope is that you recognize how this article does nothing but hurt our community and pull it down.
Geoff Wills, Eureka
This article appears in The Yurok Grift.
I don’t find the billboards ugly, annoying, or anything else. There is so much natural beauty along the 101 highway that I don’t even notice the billboards all that much. But I do notice the Tip Top ad here on this site and don’t like it. Would not let my grandkids see your site because of it.
“I’m sure they are thrilled to be spending their advertising dollars in your paper, only to have you slander them two pages later”.
Another reminder of why local media self-censors much of what ails Humboldt County.
Your freedom to advertise your suicidal addictions should end where my family’s enjoyment of public roads begin.
Regulating ads for narcotics in magazines began decades ago.
If you don’t like modern civilization, you are free to leave.
Another attempt to rally support behind a virtually non-existent issue. I drove from Arcata to Eureka and counted about about 20 (give or take, I cant quite remember exactly) billboards between the south G onramp, and the Eureka slough bridge. I only counted ones on the southbound side of the freeway. However, I counted about 65 various highway signs, again, only on the southbound lanes. 65!! I also found that those 65 signs were way more obtrusive than the billboards. You can go anywhere in this county and see cows, farms, and bayviews. Leave it alone; it’s a stupid issue. Don’t be a hater.
From the above comment it appears that those innocuous road signs far out-number the amount of billboards! I would venture to say that on a total surface area of visibility coverage, it would probably be pretty darn close if not having the road signs outweigh the billboards. I totally agree with all of the comments above. I love the journal, but it seems a little like jumping on the bandwagon of protest before really looking at the logic behind the argument. Isn’t the point about the billboards blocking the view of something scenic, if that is the case then perhaps that should have been the focus of the ugly and not necessarily feature the business using them. I have lived here for over 30 years and haven’t given the billboards a second thought, at least about the view they are blocking. Many stand in front of a not so amazing shrub, Resale Lumber, the mill or some other industrial looking view. From what I’ve heard from people in the know, they provide a roost for hunting owls and hawks, and a home for mice, bugs, etc. If, someday, advertisers weren’t able to use them, would people be happier with local artists decorating them as some local artists used driftwood to make sculptures (which by the way I truly miss)? I am just confused as to what the ugly is really about, the view that it is blocking or something else.