Sign ordinance is a positive step

By the time you read this, the Custer City Council will have passed the second reading of its new signage ordinance that, among other things, states that T-shirts cannot be permanent signage. We support the city council in this effort.
The city has to walk a fine line between the property rights of owners and keeping the town looking nice and welcoming, both for the locals and for the visitors who come to town. Part of that is regulating signs. And it’s not just T-shirts. The large vinyl signs, banners, etc., that can also get tattered, sun-bleached, ripped, etc., can also start to become an eyesore, just as the T-shirts can be. By and large people have the greater good in mind, but there are always going to be outliers, and that’s why regulations are needed in virtually every aspect of society.
When it comes to the T-shirts affixed to the exterior of buildings, it’s an issue that has been brewing for quite some time. As more and more T-shirt shops pop up on Mt. Rushmore Road (whether there are too many of those is a conversation for another day) the number of shirts stuck to the sides of the building also continues to grow. Residents of the town begin to complain, as do other business owners in the community. It came to a head a few months ago when a pair of business owners came before the city council imploring it to do something about the shirts, calling it tacky and saying it was a bad look for the town. We agree.
When we posted the most recent story about the city council’s sign ordinance, one of the commenters on the story compared the look of downtown Custer to a “carnival midway.” And no, that’s not a compliment. The majority of the town seems to think it’s not a good look, so the city had to do something about it.
We imagine owners of shops who are being told what they can’t put on the outside of their building are none too pleased, and we can’t say we don’t understand why. They want people to see the merchandise they have to offer, and apparently they feel the best way to do that is to affix them to the exterior of the building. There are other ways to display their wares, as many other businesses have outdoor displays during the course of the day. The difference, of course, is they bring those displays in at closing time. They aren’t left outside for days, weeks—and in some cases—years on end.
Custer isn’t the only town going through this. This issue has popped up in both Hill City and Keystone, with residents and board members complaining about the volume of shirts outside, and in some cases, the content on the shirts. Regulating what a shirt can say is an extremely slippery slope we don’t support going down, and it might not even be legal. Having said that, let’s remember families bring kids to town, and not everyone who comes here is a Republican. It might not be a bad idea to have the more risqué shirts somewhere they are a little more difficult to read.
We applaud the council’s decision, and hope all businesses can thrive while allowing the downtown area to maintain a clean, welcoming look we all enjoy.