The Revitalist

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the thorny issue of satelite dishes in Boston neighborhoods. The Boston City Council is considering restrictions to prevent a gaggle of dishes from making the neighborhood look crummy, but the Council in limited in their ability to do something by Federal legislation that protects access to the service. The dishes have to point south for reception, so often they are forced to be on the street front facade. The Council could require that the dishes be placed elsewhere unless necessary, but who is going to enforce that? Also, the dishes are owned by residents and often abandoned when people move, resulting in multi-dish building fronts where only one or two residents are actually using the service. The Council could pass a ordinance declaring these dishes abandoned after a certain period of time and require landlords to remove them. Seems like that would be a workable solution that would cut down on the eyesore quotient.