Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire
sopas:
I've gotten used to the new BH signs, too... but if I become mayor of the city, my first act will be to replace them all with the Swanson signs, if not the curb lettering....and damned th expense! And if I decide to be mayor of L.A. instead--it'll be back to shotguns everywhere. Only one type of street sign will be tolerated in Gaylord's Los Angeles. Got that?
As for Pasadena... I'll leave that up to you. Btw, the sun is up here in NY--show us some signs!
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I'll show you some signs.
I've posted this pic here before, but it's a pretty good shot of Pasadena street signs in 1954. I'm not sure how long these were in use.
LAPL
I took the following pictures today right after I got home from work.
I believe these Pasadena street signs were used from the mid/late 1980s until the early 2000s. This is the only surviving one that I know of:
Photo by me
I like that they're white lettering on a black background, and real heavy-duty metal signs. But notice the upper/lower case of the lettering; supposedly, LA's trapezoidal street signs introduced in the mid-1980s were the first in the nation to feature lower-case lettering (
Correction: I guess it was the post-shotgun signs that were the first to feature lower-case lettering on a street sign in the US, the ones that date from the late 1960s to early 1970s). Notice the black plate placed under the "ST". My guess is, it's because this sign, though a Pasadena sign, is actually on the South Pasadena side of the street; South Pasadena is a separate city (many people think it's part of the City of Pasadena, to the chagrin of many South Pasadenans, ahem, including myself
), and it also has its own street numbering system. Anyway, my guess is that it had the incorrect block number on it (the Pasadena block number instead of the South Pasadena block number).
Photo by me
I'll assume that the Pasadena public works left this alone because it was outside of their jurisdiction (but for some reason was installed by them years ago). And for some reason, the South Pasadena public works department hasn't removed it.
Anyway, the current style of Pasadena street sign are these generic-looking green reflective ones, installed around the city from around 2004-2006:
Photo by me
Though I'm used to them, I still don't care for them. So generic, and no character to them.
Here's what South Pasadena street signs look like:
Photo by me
They're a little more old-school looking, with their shape and all-cap font. Even the new replacement signs look like this. South Pas hasn't gone that thin aluminum, all reflective rectangular route-- at least not yet. They even say "SO. PASADENA" on them. How can anyone mistake South Pas for being part of Pasadena? Looking at old photos of South Pasadena, I believe this style of street sign dates from the early 1970s, or maybe late 1960s. Prior to these, South Pasadena street signs had black lettering on a white background, and the signs themselves were pretty much shaped like these too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire
It looks like the Long Beach Freeway did a number on the L.A. section of "Discount Street." (Btw, the Alhambra section is in or near the old Midwick
Country Club tract. One of the only harmonious notes for an L.A. nerd in the recent HBO Mildred Pierce was the young Veda's mention that Monty "plays
for Midwick." Right over the tops of the heads of most, who at the same time didn't mind the excruciating attempt to pass off NYC and environs as
SoCal....)
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Ah, the Midwick Country Club, funny you should mention that, because I fairly recently learned about that place, which was in the southwestern part of Alhambra. In the late 1940s it was turned into a housing development. I believe it's now referred to as the Midwick Tract.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire
More on current and changing L.A. street signs--a few comments from the Militant Angeleno's entries on the subject, one alarming, one comforting:
Anonymous said...
"Actually, I did some research on this. This is a federal requirement and none of L.A.'s current street signs (other than the brand new ones) fit the bill. So over the next 5 years the city will be replacing *every* (or, supposedly, every) street sign in the city with the new Chevrolet-logo-shaped signs, with smaller versions (with no City logo) on side streets.... I'll miss the shotgun signs the most! And the City won't put them up for sale, either. They'll be recycled for scrap."
jamesinclair said...
"The rumors that the feds will force all the street signs to change is false....
The rules say that going forward, all the signs must meet the new font and reflective guidelines, and existing signs can live out their remaining life [itals mine]....
It's important to note that the oldest signs are all "illegal" because they do not meet the reflective guidelines. Usually signs fade after 20 years and must be replaced, but of course there's no such thing as a federal signage police."...
The estimable Militant Angeleno's recent street-sign posts are here:
http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com...-of-times.html
http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com...-of-times.html |
I somehow don't believe that there's now a federal mandate for a more standard type of sign. The ritzy LA suburb called Palos Verdes Estates apparently has had the same type of street sign since that city was created in the 1920s, and they're basically made out of wood, with decorative metal curlicues:
maureenmegowan.com
A bad image but you get the idea, from Google Street View:
A better image:
palosverdeslifestyle.com
Incidentally, the Palos Verdes Peninsula is where the Chadwick School is located, as in where Mommie Dearest sent Christina Crawford to school.