Put the brakes on ugly signs in East Brunswick

This is an open letter to my fellow East Brunswick residents.

As a newcomer to East Brunswick who very quickly began a love affair with the town and its beauty, I am truly upset by something that I believe can easily be corrected.

I am disheartened by the amount of signs that clutter the sides of the roads of our great town. Recently, with the presidential and mayoral elections, the amount of signage quadrupled in my neighborhood.

The signs for maid services, plumbers, gutter repair, palm readers and all other manner of private businesses are ugly and destroy the beauty of our town. The signs on weekends for garage sales and house auctions remain up weeks past their dates and are never taken down after the Saturday or Sunday when they take place. The signs are then destroyed by the weather and become streaked and visually unappealing in what should be a pristine view.

The signs for church, temple, 4-H, rotary, school and other events have no controls put on them and are produced slapdash and in a haphazard manner. Many are often blown onto the roads after the winds knock them down, and they become a hazard to driving.

I am constantly faced with visual overload that makes our wonderful town look like “Schlock City.” Even the large corporate box stores get into the game with their metallic stick-in-the-ground signs. How many of us can’t stand the Target, Home Depot and Subway signs that litter the beautiful islands with green grass in our malls?

What is a citizen to do? Sometimes these businesses even have the gall to put up their signs on private property. Let us not forget to mention the for sale signs put up by the dozens of real estate companies that add to the unattractiveness of this hodgepodge and unruly litter of ugly signs.

Please join me in asking Mayor William Neary and the Township Council to put some controls and brakes on the sign wars taking place in East Brunswick. When you see council members or Mayor Neary, talk to them about this ugly cancer in our town that destroys the beauty of East Brunswick.

Join me in putting up one more sign — “Stop” — this year. Now, that is a sign that I would love to see put up.

Michael Hill Goldstein

East Brunswick