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Show THE BILLBOARD NUISANCE. From Today's Herald. Councilman Black and his confreres on the City Council deserve the lhanks of the community for wiping out the billboard nuisance In Liberty park. The ordinary billboard is a nuisance anywhere any-where it is placed and. in a public park, frequented by thousands and maintained main-tained by public money, it Is a civic crime. Now, if the Councilmen will take up the whole question of obnoxious signs and billboards they can extend their fame and do a still greater service. There are resident portions of the city In which property has been depreciated materially by the erection of billboards which are as unsightly .ai a garbage can. and which have no excuse for existence ex-istence except the cupidity of property-owners property-owners and the apathy of the people who suffer moat from them. In all the largest Eastern cities a tax la placed on these- nuisances, their size Is regulated by ordinance and a general effort is being directed toward the encouragement en-couragement of artistic work instead of the nightmares of color which adorn most signs of the sort. In Minneapolis, particularly, a local association convinced con-vinced the real estate dealers of the city that signs could be made artistically artisti-cally and at no greater cost than the old-fashioned delirium of letters and figures. The result has been a vast Improvement Im-provement In conditions and the relief of those people who like to have their homes look out upon pleasant surroundings sur-roundings . |