Inquirer: Shrubs render many downtown Columbus map signs useless

I sometimes wonder if all cities have the trouble with signs that we have here.

This week, a Concerned Reader named Mark reports a large map sign at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway. It's a nice map of downtown with interesting sites to see marked all along Broadway.

Problem is, the map's legend is covered by bushes, so Interested Readers can't read the points of interest without getting a face-full of bush.

A saunter up and down Broadway between 10th and 14th streets reveal that there are four of these signs on each block, two on the northbound side and two on the other. The majority of them have one or both sides blocked by shrubbery.

I wasn't sure whether this would be a city issue or an Uptown Columbus Inc. issue, because they're in downtown and they have the Uptown Columbus insignia on them. The

signs, not the bushes.

Pat Biegler, director of Public Works for the city, said she didn't know off the top of her head which entity was responsible.

"But if it's something the city usually takes care of, we'll make sure it gets done," she said.

Richard Bishop, CEO of Uptown (and a former deputy city manager), said, "No question, it's a city responsibility."

So I called Biegler back and she said she would make sure the proper people would take care of the signs.

I am confident that it will be completed more quickly than

Update

Readers may recall an Inquirer back in April 2014 when I wrote about the five signs along the river near the southwest corner of the Synovus building.

They were so weathered and faded that they were mostly unreadable. (Concerned Reader Mark certainly remembers, because he reported that one to me, too.)

If the signs had been readable, you could have read about the wildlife on that stretch of the river on one, the geological phenomenon that is the fall line on another, the Creek Indians who used to inhabit this place, the local cotton economy and finally, the dam that used to be there before they blew it up.

The signs, which were in metal frames, were taken away for refurbishing, but the empty frames remained.

And they still remain. Empty. But not blocked by shrubs.

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Shrubs render many downtown Columbus map signs useless ."