The Morning Report
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It’s a far cry from burger flipping. You spend your work day outside, listening to an iPod, making up routines with a gigantic cardboard arrow.
OK, so that last part doesn’t sound so super-cool. But for a 14- or 15-year-old, condo sign-flipping makes for a pretty sweet gig.
A New York Times story takes a look at the spinners in Riverside:
As the housing market cools here in the exurbs of Los Angeles and elsewhere, builders are relying on the frantic motion of these young workers to catch the attention of a dwindling number of buyers. In some cities, it is common on weekends to see six or seven sign twirlers – “human directionals” in industry parlance – on a single street corner, pointing the way to sprawling fields of newly framed houses.
The story refers to a decision made by a handful of SoCal cities – El Cajon included – to ban the spinners because they “not only pose a traffic hazard by distracting drivers, but also create blight.”
I don’t understand how the spinners “create blight,” but here’s the mayor of El Cajon, on the ban:
“This got a little bit out of hand,” said Mark Lewis, mayor of El Cajon, a city in San Diego County that banned the practice earlier this year. “They’re very artistic in regard to swinging the sign around, and some people felt a little endangered.”