Katz signs off on pamphlet

It starts off like a Florida fairytale.

“Once upon a time, a jewel of a city was immensely blessed by wonderful weather, a picturesque bay and spectacular beaches.”

But there’s no “happily ever after” — at least not yet.

“Sadly, though, people extolled the jewel so much that they began to ignore the deterioration of its setting,” the next paragraph reads. “How did this happen? How was the blessing squandered?”

That’s the beginning of “The Signing: a Civic Horror Picturebook,” a 20-page pamphlet Temple Beth Israel Rabbi Jonathan Katz created earlier this year to show what he describes as “clumps of insipid signage” throughout Sarasota and Longboat Key.

On Wednesdays (his day off), Katz often hands out the pamphlets on Main Street in downtown Sarasota. He estimates he has handed out 250 booklets so far.

“Sarasota is this wonderful place to live,” Katz said. “You have all these natural assets. But when you have all these attractive attributes, it would seem to me that the people who live in the community would want something better.”

This isn’t the first community where he’s seen signs he considers excessive or out of place.

He first noticed the proliferation of billboards in his hometown of Cincinnati. Later, while working as a rabbi, he led a protest of signs in Fort Wayne, Ind.

One example of offending signs named and pictured in the pamphlet: Downtown streets such as Main Street and Cocoanut Avenue “are lined with heaps of unsightly signage.”

There’s “sign overkill” in many locations, including a South Tamiami Trail intersection where five “right lane must turn right” signs appear in close proximity to another.

There’s the view of the back of five signs that are visible from Gulf of Mexico Drive just after driving northbound over the New Pass Bridge.

“This dreary hodgepodge of sign backsides is found just after crossing the bridge to Longboat Key from the south. Is this a suitable gateway for a place locals refer to as paradise?” the pamphlet reads.

Then, there are those “Adopt-A-Highway signs. Instead of putting up another sign that promotes a person who or business that occasionally picks up litter, why not note their efforts in a newspaper ad?” the pamphlet asks. “Or, better yet, encourage people to sponsor public art.”

The pamphlet praises some local signage, including signs on the Bayfront Multi-Use Recreational Trail and in Siesta Key Village.

Katz believes signage impacts people in ways they don’t always realize. Many drivers aren’t even aware of the signs that have popped up all around them.

“When the community is devalued in this way, I think it leads to other forms of indifference,” he said.