As current and former southside neighborhood association and service agency officers, we would like to thank the Weekly for its recently article shedding light on the mayor and council action to approve a 100-foot tall theater sign in a shopping center at i-10 and Park ("Sign of the Times," July 7, 2016). We believe this unprecedented approval for a sign far taller than otherwise allowed by code and placed on top of a roof where signs are prohibited is a disservice to the southside community.
Although the shopping center development itself is welcome, the special sign approval is just one more example of the dual standard that the southside has faced for decades. It is difficult to imagine that such an enormous sign would ever be proposed, let along approved, for the theater's other locations in midtown, the eastside or Oro Valley.
We reject the idea that the sign is the sole concern of localized neighborhood deal-making, as the theater location is a good mile distance from the most vocal proponent's neighborhood and southsiders from a much wider range of neighborhoods routinely drive past the location on I-10, Park and Kino and shop at the center. To so blatantly disregard the code for a sign of this magnitude is a broader community issue.
Many of us were involved n the community-wide coalition that finally brought accountability to the epidemic of illegal billboard construction that disproportionately afflicted the south side. After seeing the improvements to 6th Avenue, 12th Avenue and other south side thoroughfares as these billboards have been removed, we are resolved to assure that the southside community is not subjected to yet another round of sign blight.
—Jesus Duran, Lupe Rodriguez, Gilbert Rodriguez, Ivo Ortiz, Pedro Gonzales, Lisa Teyechea, Mark Mayer, Nicole Gonzales, Josefina Cardenas, Rita Ornelas, Jose Luis Castillo, Jacquelynn Villa-Baze, Kely Hazou, Ana Acuna
