What’s in a City Brand? University City Retreats from New Logo

This past week I noticed University City workers replacing a weathered "Entering (Leaving on the others side) University City" sign with a shiny new blue and green "Entering the Neighborhood to the World, University City" sign. Other than being new, the sign was awful. "Neighborhood to the World" is just an odd phrase. While the claim shows that small municipality boosterism isn't dead (and that's fun), I don't think a city slogan should force one to contemplate what it means (apparently it's meant to celebrate diversity).

For the past week as I walked past the "Leaving..." sign I asked myself, if I am leaving the neighborhood to the world, am I in fact passing into the world as I pass this sign? Then there are real problems with the design of the sign itself. It's legible enough for someone walking down the street, but someone driving past won't get to the bottom of the sign, where you know, the actual name of the city sits, somewhat smaller than the slogan. I really disliked it, even joking on Facebook that I'd found my signature issue (and campaign song) to catapult me into U-City political office: Signs, signs, everywhere bad signs...