A few thoughts on our business districts

Hamtramck’s old business signs.

There has been some talk in town about business signs.
Namely, whether to allow more powerful LED lighting, allowing metal security grates to be displayed outside of business doors and windows and why did Hamtramck’s old vertical signs go away.
Here’s our two cents on the issues.
LED lighting is gaudy. There we said it. It makes a city look like suburban blight where everything is bright and shiny and competing for your eye. And it makes everything look chintzy.
It’s the last thing our main business districts need.
Grated security grates covering doors and windows? Not again.
This was a big discussion in the 1990s when a new generation of urban planners and designers noted that the grates makes it look like you live in a crime-infested ghetto.
It can make people feel the street environment is unsafe. Hamtramck city officials at one time went through a big debate and ordeal to get them removed and replaced with security grates that are placed inside doors and windows.
That way, they look less intrusive.
We’re not aware of a crime wave where criminals are breaking into businesses left and right.
As for those old-timey vertical and horizontal business signs that you would see hanging in the front of buildings, they were done away with in Hamtramck starting sometime in the 1970s.
Let it be noted, we think they were cool.
But to some, it looked like urban blight, and too old school.
Instead, city officials at that time decided that they wanted a less urban look and a more suburban look.
What a shame. Not everything old is out of date.
That’s our thoughts on the matters, what are yours?
Email us at: news@thehamtramcknews.com.
Posted Sept. 27, 2024