Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Summer 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
A sign of the times.
A local Los Angeles artist, forty six years old Richard
Ankrom, who for some years was frustrated over a confusing
freeway sign, decided to do something about the situation.
He had been having repeated problems in finding the off
ramp to the 5 North Freeway which should have guided the
motorist to a smooth transition from the Harbor Freeway
to Interstate 5 North.
Richard worked for three years in redesigning the sign,
using a comparable California Freeway sign as reference
and was successful in duplicating the sign exactly.
He even went to the trouble of obtaining a transport department
worker's uniform and the obligatory hard hat, and proceeded
to install the sign.
He apparently was so successful in the execution of his
project, and made such a fantastic job of the sign and the
installation, that the California Transportation Board decided
to leave the sign in place and will not pursue charges of
trespassing or tampering with State property.
By the way, the sign had been in place for over nine months,
and so good was the workmanship that apparently everyone
believed that it was a legally designated sign put there
by the California Transportation Board. The outcome being
that everyone was satisfied.
The deception, (If you can call it that), would perhaps
have never been discovered but for a news report by a local
newspaper sleuth who through whatever means discovered the
story.
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