Luz Lopez could see the writing on the wall, or more specifically the writing on the telephone poles and along the sidewalks and often in the medians of the busy streets in and around her Cloverleaf neighborhood.
Between the illegal dumping and the intersections cluttered with signs offering easy money, predatory loans, home sales — even offers to buy diabetic medical supplies — things were not looking good.
“At some point, if no one else is going to do it, you just have to do it yourself and you start making a difference,” she said.
When it comes to so-called bandit signs and their proliferation around the Houston area and beyond, making a difference is a costly and complicated challenge for communities. Houston spends nearly $300,000 yearly yanking down illegal signs, while state lawmakers are considering increasing penalties for repeat offenders to make hanging illegal signs hurt to the point it isn’t worth it.
For Lopez, 44, doing her part means a lot of detours during her free time as she drives around the neighborhood. When she spots an illegal sign — anything in the public right of way that is advertising — she finds a place to park and takes the sign then and there, or makes a note to come back and retrieve it later.
Source: Bandit signs: Sign rangers, increased fines, aim to stop illegal signs
dug begley 