Sign, Sign, Everywhere a (Campaign) Sign.

It is only a month until the Democratic Primary Election in Rochester, New York, and the pressure is on for candidates to get their names out there to the public.

Since Rochester is a one-party city, the primary usually determines the winner of the General Election in November.

There is a surfeit of Democratic candidates vying for five at-large spots on Rochester's City Council, not to mention those running for County Leg and School Board.

All of them are making the same empty promises; all of them are wearing out the words "transparency" and "accountability" in their propaganda.

Like all politicians, their manifestos consist of glittering generalities, sounding good and meaning nothing.

They are absolutely useless, since they are no longer the right size to fit the bottoms of standard size bird cages.

That was the only reason I kept them before, so my parakeets could do to them what their senders planned on doing to us if elected.

But what gets my goat are their lawn signs.

Not when they are are placed on private properties at the owners' request, but when they are illegally placed on public highways and public medians.

You'd think the candidates might have told their campaigners NOT to do that, since it IS illegal, but they clearly do not give a damn.

I saw a dozen of these illegally placed signs on Lake Avenue this morning. I'm sure that plenty more have already sprouted like toadstools along the expressway entrance and exit ramps, with more to come as the primary gets closer.

What's worse is that, when the vast majority of Democratic candidates don't win the available spots in the primary, those signs remain there until they are destroyed by the weather or removed by other people after the primary. Those who placed them there couldn't care less about removing them after the election.

In the meantime, they begin to resemble the garbage that residents complain about in the streets.

Apart from risking your life by stopping your vehicle in heavy traffic to remove the offending signs, the best way to handle them is to not vote for the candidates who advertise in this fashion. AND to complain to the Department of Environmental Services about them to have them removed.

As for me, I'm putting up an "Everybody Sucks 2021" sign in my yard.