Politics & Government

Residents Say Political Signage Becoming Blight in Village

Numerous signs dot New Hyde Park landscape during campaign season.

With less than one month before the November elections, campaigns across Nassau County and Long Island are in full swing – much to the dismay of many New Hyde Park residents who are complaining over the plethora of campaign signs with which they feel they are inundated.

“I find it offensive,” said Diane McCarrick, a member of the architectural review board during the regular meeting of the New Hyde Park Village Board on Oct. 1 citing campaign signs for Nassau Executive Ed Mangano on top of vehicles for Ollie’s Taxi. “I don’t care if it is for Joe Schmo. Every dirt patch or the trees that are supposed to be beautifying New Hyde Park, all I’m seeing is signage for everybody political.”

Mayor Robert Lofaro stated that in regard to campaign signs which usually appear on lawns that “it has always been our policy that any political signage on public property be removed by the department of public works on their arrival the next morning.”

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He added that the village board had spoken to both the local Republican group and to Nassau Legis. Richard Nicolello, R-New Hyde Park, during the recent homecoming parade “and he was angry because of other political parties putting signage and he instructed his volunteers in the Village of New Hyde Park it’s not permitted on the public property.”

However, the mayor said that political signage could still pop up for a county-wide candidate where campaign workers come into the village to place signs without the administration’s knowledge.

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Signs on private commercial or residential property is allowed as per the village code, but is restricted so as to only be in place a certain amount of weeks before and after an election.

Superintendent of public works Tom Gannon said there were stipulations on political signage in the village code and that it had been updated and changed, requesting to check with attorneys on the matter for clarification.

“There might be some restrictions on our ability to related to campaigns and elections; stuff like that might be protected under some other code,” the mayor said.

Lofaro said that the change was made because “I for one was extremely insulted by... every candidate that chooses to put their signage all along New Hyde Park Road until you get to the railroad tracks and then they stop because they don’t want to put it in the Village of Garden City. I find that offensive.”

In addition to the area south of Jericho Turnpike, political signs are also very much present on the northern portion of New Hyde Park Road.

“New Hyde Park Road along the center median it gets to the point that there are so many signs that it’s just worthless,” Lofaro commented.

Campaigns have also placed signs outside the village on fences surrounding properties and on several abandoned properties on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City Park.

“We worked too hard to try to create a more aesthetically pleasing environment to have omnipresent signage that detracts from that,” Lofaro said.

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