With the campaign season officially over, many will now be working to eliminate the thousands of political signs that have popped up throughout our communities. Andrea Ibañez is deputy director of housing and community development for the city of Tucson. Among other things, her department is in charge of enforcing the city’s sign code, which dictates political signs can only be placed on private property and not on a public right of way.
“Since August we’ve removed 7,000 signs on a complaint basis only,” she said just before the polls closed on Tuesday. Ibañez says people typically contact her office and complain that the signs create visual clutter, and impede movement and views on a public right of way. She points out that many jurisdictions have banned political signs on both public and private property but “in our community it’s always considered to be ‘freedom of speech,’ and that ‘that’s the American way of campaigning: to get signs out there.’”
City code dictates that all political signs be removed no later than 15 days after the election, Ibañez says. She points out that past efforts to levy fines and to hold campaign managers accountable have not been feasible because of the vast number of zealous volunteers operating during the election season.
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.