So you want to get rid of glow-signs? Well, it sounds pretty good in concept, it would make things look a little nicer, a little more upscale. But, what effect would that actually have? Who would really be affected, and what kind of repercussions can we expect? I don't think the council has thought any of this through, because just a preliminary run through of these questions brings up some very scary answers.

First, lets tackle the question of: who would be effected by eliminating glow-signs and road-post signs from the CBRM? And the answer to that is:

• Small business owners

• The employees of the glow-sign businesses

• Small marketing agencies

• The consumer

Now, granted, those are only the people who will be affected in a negative way, but that's what we SHOULD be looking at, even if it isn't what we WANT to be looking at. First, small business has a hard enough time getting off the ground around here, it takes forever for any business to be recognized within our community and one of the best ways to advertise around here are road side signs. Now, granted, you could create laws that govern the visual standards of the signs, but that will drastically increase the cost of both implementation and labor associated with putting them together. Both of which will push an accessible form of advertising out of the reach of small business.

Which leads into the next group of people to be affected: the employees of the glow-sign companies. These individuals are working for a small, locally owned, company, trying to make a living at a job they can do and are good at. Implementing these bylaws will effectively put them out of work, no matter which way you wind up spinning this. Either, a more technical hand will be required to put together the sign due to higher technical standards, or the vocation of glow-sign implementation will disappear all together. Either way, another low income job will be eliminated and unemployment will once again rise in the CBRM. I'm pretty sure we want to avoid doing that, I'm sure the companies, as they are, will adjust and continue to exist, they will adapt to the new bylaws and market, they will keep on keeping on. But, is that really what we want; To force an entire industry to abandon the staff they have already trained, and to completely redesign their entire business model (which is expensive even if it is done in the least expensive way)? Do we really want to take a giant piece of the business puzzle out and toss it in the garbage? I mean, marketing firms are already having a hard enough time advertising our local businesses, so I'm pretty sure we should try to make it easier for them to get our business community off the ground, not harder.

And so, on to the next group of people our council apparently doesn't care about, small marketing businesses and consultants. I know it's hard to get the name of your small business to the ears of the public in Cape Breton, I have a great deal of first hand experience with this. For myself, I found social media to be the best way to go about advertising to the market, but this isn't the case for a lot of businesses, especially those in the construction and building trades. Why is it bad for them? Well, mostly because of the rating and commenting aspect of the platforms. It's bad enough for my business, with 1 star ratings because I left a fingerprint on a lens and the customer wouldn't allow me to look at the phone close enough to see that all I had to do was clean it off; I couldn't imagine what it would be like for a general contractor or electrician. For these types of businesses, and many more, road side advertising is the best possible advertising, and small business marketing consultants know this, and it is a great tool for them.

So, lets talk about the small marketing consultants and business a little bit. Without roadside advertising, these companies would basically be drowned out by YellowPages and google ad services, who offer social media and real media (for this area, basically just radio) advertisement management for bulk pricing, which would squeeze out the small firms in this area, if not for local, conventional advertising avenues. The whole thing just screams “ANTI-BUSINESS” to me, and I'm not happy with it, which leads to the last group affected by this, the consumer, who will have fewer ways to learn about new small businesses in the area. The fact of the matter is, any method that gets small business recognized before big box is a good thing, it helps grow the local economy, it helps keep our money in our community, it helps loosen the grip of the Wal-Marts and YellowPages from around the CBRM's neck.

Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't try to make our community a little more presentable over all, it will help with tourism and reduce emigration. However, unless the signs directly interfere with our communities productivity, it seems that they have more benefits than drawbacks, since the only negative thing I've ever heard about them is “They look tacky”. These “tacky” looking signs help drive small business, help stir innovation in marketing, and keep people employed, and maybe we shouldn't trust a group of city councilors who's only goal is to get re-elected. Maybe there is a middle ground, maybe we could allow them outside of the view of tourists, or away from the downtown area, or maybe it's beneficial for tourists to be able to see signs that direct them to the attractions, events, and businesses that are in our municipality. I don't really have the solutions to any of this, but I do know that destroying an entire local industry isn't any kind of real solution.