Bad Sign A Good Sign

I live in North Hollywood, which is something more than an 'up and coming' neighborhood, but not quite a firmly established one. We have a core to build on in the Arts District, and welcoming all motorists and pedestrians traveling into that area from the south is a grand sign spanning Lankershim Boulevard up high. It is a rather polarizing sign. I will say that a consensus could be build around a description of it as very boldly designed.

There's always going to be criticism from some quarter or another when art is presented. No piece can please everyone, and so there is nothing worse than art conceived, created and approved by committee. There has to be one hand on the tiller in order for any hope of success, and with this sign there clearly had to have been a singular vision. No effort seems to have been expended towards the end of making everyone happy.

To be sure, few are terribly happy with it. I don't care for the colors. It's rather garish, being rendered as it was in green and yellow. It also has this sort of junky, built by a teenager from scrap quality. Maybe I just object to the philosophical slant of that as it applied to the neighborhood. I think we're putting something good together here in North Hollywood, but I don't believe we're using waste material. We have good people and things.

You can see then that I offer no unqualified endorsement of the sign. What I am glad for though is that such a sign was built. It was imagined, commissioned, accepted, constructed and installed. None of that would have happened in the absence of a confidence in this neighborhood. A belief was there that it's a good place of productivity and potential, and that it can be more. This vote of confidence tells me of investment to come- of efforts that will be made to give us more and help us do more. It may be ugly as sin, but I love that sign.