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Comment by ulzeraj | Hacker News Reader

Paulista here. This clean city law or wathever is translated into destroyed our beautiful Japanese neighborhood (“Bairro da Liberdade”). Besides we are in dire need of economic freedom therefore this is just another hassle among 1000 regulations we have to follow to open up a simple bakery or emporium.

I’d rather have our cheerful city back than this trashy version of dusty “there was a banner here 2 years ago” marks all over the place.

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Paulistano here too, and nikkei (so pretty much every weekend went to liberdade and sao joaquim).

I find it easier to walk around Sao Paulo now. And Liberdade is still a special place with the asian lanterns in the lamp posts, the Bradesco building, and there are stores with Noren and signs.

Only difference is that the signs are now proportional to the store facade.

And we still have grafitti that helps to keep the city interesting, as well as our Portuguese stone pavement and other little things that make Sao Paulo beautiful even without all the billboards and ads.

> beautiful even without all the billboards and ads.

Rarely do I hear the absence of ads framed as a challenge to beauty. So rarely, it only happened twice - your post, and the post you replied to.

people often think that what they're used to is beautiful. If you lived somewhere your whole life and all of a sudden it changed drastically, it's pretty easy to see how the old way could be thought of as beauty.

Fair enough. There are probably some that liked the other way. I find Tokyo city centre amazing with all the ads/signs/etc.

Paulista too. _"Destroyed"_ is a term totally out of proportion here. You might have a subjective vision that the neighborhood got uglier with the ban (I completely disagree); but it is still a vibrant and touristic neighborhood to this day.

> destroyed our beautiful Japanese neighborhood

How?

Though even if what you say is true, it must be balanced by the many more neighborhoods destroyed by ads.

I conjure an image of Chinatown / Japantown sections of a large city, where the signage is a huge part of what sets the area apart, and a very significant cultural display.

I think in a way, it's a little sad that over-zealous advertising is seen as a cultural 'feature' to be cherished.

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