Among the unhappy consequences of the sale of the Mercury News and the Knight Ridder Company, there’s one that some people don’t consider one bit unhappy.
 
They think it’s just fine that the demise of Knight Ridder means the demise of the double sign that sits on the top of what was once called the Fairmont Plaza Building.

They think it’s just too ... big... too ... visible. It doesn’t fit the building it’s on, and it doesn’t fit the image of downtown San Jose.

You bet it doesn’t. There’s nothing sterile about that sign. It’s an exciting beacon that tells people they’re in a city, not on a college campus.

When erection of the sign became a condition of Knight Ridder’s moving its corporate headquarters to our city, the San Jose Council very reluctantly agreed.

One member of that council didn’t have to be persuaded. He had been fighting to allow owners of buildings in north San Jose to place their companies’ names on the tops of their new buildings. Imagine! Not down at street level, where their reflection of commerce would be limited, but up on top, where everybody would see them!

That councilmember’s name, of course, was Chuck Reed. I have a strong feeling that he’s not one of the haters of the Knight Ridder sign. And I’m certainly not either.