City’s right to tackle this problem
I am pleased the city of Seattle, which boasts of being a walkable, pedestrian-friendly place, has finally begun to enforce its own laws protecting the rights of pedestrians against the rampant intrusion of commercial signboards on public sidewalks [“Sidewalk signs pit retailers against city,” NWSunday, March 21].
Unfortunately, the city has been lax on this for so long that such obstructions have reached epidemic proportions. Almost every commercial district in Seattle is now forested with such sidewalk-blocking signage.
According to The Times’ article, the city will not act without a specific complaint against a particular sign. But with hundreds — maybe thousands — of such illegal placards sprouted throughout town, how can an aggrieved pedestrian even begin to tackle the problem?
I want all of the illegal signs off our sidewalks.
Can’t the shop owners — and real-estate agents — come up with other means of advertising without violating pedestrian rights of way? Commerce somehow thrives in all the other jurisdictions, which dutifully protect the rights of their pedestrians. Why not here?
— Russell Scheidelman, Seattle