What's driving me crazy, part two

I want to complain. I love this city. I really do. It's one of those little underappreciated places that's a heck of a lot of fun to live in, but there are a couple of things about it that bug me. City planners who can't quite wrap their heads around the "planning" part of their jobs, and moveable advertising signs.

I'm going to leave the city planners alone, though. The signs are what are driving me crazy, today.

These signs are everywhere in this city, and they look like hell. In fact, if you drive in from the south on Calgary Trail (or whatever they're calling it these days), you would swear that the whole city is one big garage sale. It's embarrassing. Monumentallly embarrassing.

I remember a few years ago, it was decided that companies would be allowed to advertise in flower beds on certain sections of the Whitemud freeway. I was ready to be REALLY pissed off, because this felt like more of the same. However, they were tastefully done, quite pretty, and well kept up. But from the uproar, you would've sworn that these companies had dumped huge truckloads of cow manure on the Whitemud -- and because of the outpouring of disgust by the good people of Edmonton, they were discontinued.

Now those mounds of dirt are , well -- weed infested mounds of dirt. No one did anything more than tear out the advertising, and the flowers. To me, they NOW look like big piles of cow manure. But I guess no one (except me) minds about that. After a while, you just don't see the crap.

However, I do. Every year I watch more and more weeds grow on those mounds of dirt, and more of those frigging signs pop up, more and more of them, like a dandelion infestation that just never stops. (at least dandelions go away in the winter!) They are ugly and garish, and make our nice little city look cheap.

We gotta get rid of them!

Any ideas? Or am I the only one who sees how ugly they are?

Thanks for letting me vent.