I disagree. Tourists heading for Florida and its attractions have road maps and are perfectly capable of finding their desired destinations. Billboards advertising new homes and subdivisions are meant to attract people to move to Florida or to invest in real estate or properties. Nobody mentions the persistent and ever increasing problems of sustainable potable water sources, overcrowded schools and roads and the proportionally diminishing qualities of Florida life.

Conversely, the landowners who rent out land to billboard-erecting firms have every legal right to do so and to benefit from the transactions, but I fail to see how that translates into any gain on my/our family's part.

I researched the -- admittedly thorny -- issue of "vegetation control" and "right-of-way maintenance" and learned that federal law has passed the enforcement of the original Highway Beautification Act on to the states. This means, for example, a tree planted on a right-of-way, if federally funded, may not be cut down in order to serve commercial interests. Unfortunately, it appears this rule has not been enforced, and litigation to that effect would be a lawyer's delight or nightmare, depending which side the lawyer represents.

I do recall when I lived and worked in the original part of Boca Raton back in 1982 that billboards were banned; small business signage of a certain (and quite tasteful) type was permitted. Boca Raton had class, and real estate sold like hotcakes even without billboards. I found on the Internet other localities where billboards are either banned or strictly curtailed, and thus far the sky has not fallen in there either.

On the other hand, I found, again on the Internet, that there are lobbyists of every stripe at work in Tallahassee (it appears to be an industry of its own) so it does not take much imagination to draw certain and definite conclusions. Billboards are useless if they are not in wide-open view from the highways, so the industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep the highway's right-of-way clear of trees possibly obscuring the billboards. (Basically, these trees on a right-of-way are taxpayer's property, but who cares?) And then, most of these billboards today are made of structural steel, set in concrete footings, to last for decades.

One final note: I would truly love to see irrefutable proof that "an overwhelming majority of Floridians do not consider billboards to be eyesores and recognize . . . their value to the economy," as the letter writer stated. I am a Floridian too, but I have never heard a statement to that effect. To the contrary, I have heard quite a few people objecting to billboards, wishing a strong hurricane would blow them all to the ground.