Bus editorial off the mark

Your editorial (“Revisit bus-sign ban,” March 6 and video urging reconsideration of the bus bench removal was:

(1) Uninformed. (The city has had almost 10 years to enforce its off-premise signage laws; ditto STA getting off the dime.)

(2) Empirically baseless. (You haven’t a clue how many people even use these mini-billboards – given our winter weather what we need, if anything, are shelters, not benches.)

(3) Disregarding history. (Seemingly the S-R couldn’t care less about a now two-decade-long effort on the part of neighborhoods to get rid of these ugly, intrusive things.)

(4) Utterly naive regarding the sign lobby. (It took neighborhood pressure 10 years to force the sign lobby just to place their benches only at bus stops, i.e., this self-serving so-called “industry” has shown an utter disregard for the public interest.)

(5) Disingenuous. (I don’t see you advocating for bus bench advertising downtown, maybe right in front of the Review Tower?)

(6) What you urge is arguably unconstitutional – that little thing we call “equal protection of the laws.” (I’m all in favor of banning these insults downtown; I just want the same protection for neighborhoods throughout the city.)

Instead of informing the public, you choose to wallow in populist demagoguery.

Robert Herold

Spokane