TROLLING around the web, I noted an item that L.A. Observed posted last week via a site called, "Militant Angeleno" about the changing appearnece of street signs in L.A. We Angelenos notice such things. We endure so much change that, well, it makes us a little more than prickly about the things we expect will remain fixed and constant:
The things that identify us, quite literally our markers.
Road signs.
The M.A. begins his post, thusly:
Have you noticed the new Los Angeles City street signs lately? The Militant has!
You can find them along the 1st Street corridor in Downtown Los Angeles, in the Civic Center and Little Tokyo areas. The aluminum signs are slightly larger than the current city street signage and have "wings" on the top and bottom, displaying the City Seal on the top wing and the block number and direction on the bottom wing.
These signs aren't all that new; they were first spotted in June of 2009, like the Main Street sign pictured above left. You would have expected The Militant to do a post on the signs back then, but he was too lazy-ass to do it. wasn't sure whether it was some sort of "pilot project" (as the City is prone to doing) or whether this particular signage style was supposed to be unique to the Civic Center. Some more information was needed.
This week, though, The Militant noticed more of these signs popping up - this time outside the Civic Center, like this sign on 1st and Alameda.
When he first saw the signs nearly two years ago, he thought they were kind of strange, mainly because of their UFO/Chevrolet logo shape, but admittedly, they have grown on him. They're large, and have larger lettering, which means they are more visible to motorists and pedestrians (and cyclists, too, of course) alike. Second, they are the first Los Angeles street signage to acknowledge the City of Los Angeles outright. Very important in this region of nearly 90 suburbs, satellite cities and unincorporated areas, of which street signage is the one of two tell-tale ways to know exactly which city you are in (calling 9-1-1 and seeing which police department shows up is the other, but The Militant doesn't recommend you do that...).
It's a great post which goes on the outline the history of the street signs here -- eras, shapes, colors. Finishing that post, I found myself skimming through other posts and appreciating not just prism but the voice: passionate, humorous, specific and informed by fact and history.
Check it out.
-- L.G.
(image "shotgun-style street sign," credit: keith justin gallagher via flickr creative commons)
This is a very interesting observation. It's kind of funny how such small thins in our everyday lives change and become a part of a whole new identity for a specific place...especially when details like street signs change. I remember two years ago in La Canada when buildings, signs, and street signs were being reconstructed to fit a new design, which was a part of plan to make La Canada Flintridge look more elegant and clean. The best part of La Canada were the old buildings with wooden signs posted in the front and the remains of old paint slowly chipping from the weather. I recently interviewed an elderly man named Eugene and he talked about the places that vanished in Los Angeles, specifically in La Canada. Almost all the signs for businesses were painted on the sides of buildings. It's sad how things have to adjust as technology spreads and when people think that the new is better. The new street signs of La Canada are written in a pretty cursive font on a pretty forest green sign. It's sad how I can barely remember how the streets signs of La Canada used to look like.
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