Dear Editor,
Regarding the October 14th article, ``Seoul to Remove Ugly Signboards," I'm concerned about the city's regulations because the government tends to overlook the important points under the reason that the city should be clean in all aspects.
First of all, removing all ugly signboards, even though they have been used for quite a long time, is a waste of money. Signboards are not disposable things such as paper diapers, cups, and so on. Shop owners who want to follow the regulations have to pay extra money to make new ones. If so, is there any person who wants to do that among all the shop owners? I don't think so.
It also means that the government is infringing on people's freedom of expression. Gauging beauty is so subjective that every person can have a different opinion. That is, no specific criteria can exist to measure the city's beauty. Therefore, people have the right to express whatever they want, even on signboards.
Finally, the uniformity and cleanness of signboards cannot give the city a better image. Suppose that we had signboards of the same size, color, font, etc. How tasteless the city would be! Ugly signboards can be a distinctive feature in Korea. Furthermore, places with many impressive signboards, can be famous tourist attractions like New York in the U.S.
I'm really anxious lest our signboards be considered ``monsters," which we should get rid of. Even though the government insists that we should standardize our signboards with regulations for the city's cleanness, we should keep in mind that they stand for ourselves and for our way of life.
Han, Joo-hee zzooiya@hotmail.com