Photo: City of St. Petersburg
“Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin and the City Council get into a testy discussion over the number and type of signs…the quarrel is about the signs that will sprout throughout the 26-acre Pier District…
For some council members, it was about what they viewed as a possible proliferation of signs at the new Pier. And to their horror, that some might be digital…
The issue was raised by Council member Ed Montanari, who had enlarged diagrams attached to the agenda item seeking council approval for funds to design the foundations and installation for wayfinding signs at the Pier.
‘I was shocked by the number of signs that are going to be out there. I counted 91. … When I looked at the descriptions, there are four signs out there that look like the digital billboards that we discussed last October and they are called directory kiosks.’ he said. ‘I want to get more information of what can be displayed on these kiosks.’
‘When I see the number of signs out there, the first thing that came to mind to me was the Las Vegas strip’ he said, later explaining that he came up with his count by totalling dots on the diagrams he had enlarged…
‘If we need 91 signs on the Pier in order for people to find their way around, we have too much stuff. … This is clutter,’ she said. ‘I too was troubled by the addition of digital kiosks. … I don’t see where they are really necessary…’
[The matter was deferred.]”
— Waveney Ann Moore, Tampa Bay Times