Realtors Turning Scenic View From Road Into Ads Bonanza
To the Editor:

Few drives compare to the eastward ride on M-134 from I-75 to DeTour Village. Long referred to simply as "The Scenic" by locals, the 40-plus mile road is peaceful, often bucolic, as it hopscotches the north shore of Lake Huron. One of the last stretches of Great Lakes natural beauty, it remains unencumbered by ubiquitous mass development, overblown marinas, condominium clutter, golf resorts, vanity mansions, monster billboards, and the ultimate tax on stupidity, the casino craze. Miles of pristine

beaches, bays, natural estuaries, rocky shoreline, islands, and cedars interrupted only by the small-town charm of Hessel, Cedarville, and DeTour. Okay, maybe not so charming, but they are small.

Disconcerting, however, is the truly excessive use of real estate "For Sale" signs along the route. It is no secret that we have an economic downturn, an out-of-control war, statewide poverty, and fiscal policy weakness, wazoo fuel prices, and for several years now, a real estate "buyer's market." Watch the evening news tonight. Or any night.

Why not a single sign per parcel? Is it necessary or prudent to have three, four, five, or more placements? Ask your realtor, with three signs on a single small property, are you three times more likely to sell? For three times the price? Three times faster? Or does the realtor (a) Want to create listing envy among the competitors? (b) Want to substitute flimsy marketing for genuine salesmanship? (c) Believe the signage is more attractive than the natural beauty of the land? (d) Have a brother in the sign business?

Even worse, once a transaction has been successfully completed, the tradition is to paste on a "sold" banner and leave it standing for weeks, months, or even years. Yikes! One might assume that as respected members of commerce, ambassadors of charm and goodwill, their most valuable currency as professionals would be promoting the perception of desirability, an attractive area to live and work. Then again, they may view this critic as an altruistic buffoon.

Do they have a board or association that adheres to a standard of conduct or an ethic of reasonable decency, in innate pride in the area where they may also reside, or are repugnancy and greed allowed to become the code, the norm? The answer, my friend, is written in the wind, blowing the weeds that are overgrown around sign number four.

In Cedarville, across from the high school, a single small house and lot (three signs); at one end of

Hodeck Street, an aging commercial building (3); at the other end an old house and cottage (5); in downtown DeTour while waiting for the Drummond ferry, to the left, a postage stamp vacant lot (4); and to the right, a terminally ill saloon (6); and on and on and on...you can't make this stuff up. And don't drive up Lakeside Road unless you have [medication] to control the nausea.

Look, I'm not suggesting a private group should require public persuasion. Or even suggesting eco-terrorism, but in the militiaminded U.P., what might ensue is scary. Imagine tattooed balding men on bicycles sporting black Tshirts marked R.E.V.E.N.G.E. (Real Estate Vigilantes Erasing Needlessly Garish Exposure) armed with cans of Krylon spray paint and bent on retribution.

Reasonable people should be able to forge a policy against repulsiveness. Aside from turning off your TV. Multiple signage is ineffective and demeaning. Properties that have been for sale, some for years, provide a clue: it's not working.

A slave to the paraphrase, it reminds me of my own mother, Florence (1918-1999), who once said, "If you must serve leftover ice cream, don't reheat it." Or even the great Yogi, "It ain't over, until it's overdone." Or Reagan in 1989, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down these signs."

Please. You know you can. You know you want to. Your public will thank you.

Charles N. Spiher

DeTour Village