If Rae Gabelich and Val Lerch have their ways, pretty soon you will need to have a business license to sale your car in Long Beach using a “For Sale” sign.

Come again? Yes, I read this right. I usually like both council members for their active involvement in our local environment but I couldn’t help and stop at the words they used to describe the “For Sale” signs: “can be traffic hazards, and are often blight in the neighborhood when several cars are lined up for sale.”

I guess it proves to show you can never argue tastes. Blight, though, isn’t that a little too strong? Maybe I haven’t seen the neighborhood where cars line up to be sold. Sure, Livingston and 2nd Street have their share of one or two cars with for sale sign, but I hardly consider it a blight and even less a traffic hazard.

I guess the real question is, is Long Beach looking for yet another way to make money on people trying to sale their cars? I am sure some make a business out of it. But since I did hear the city is paying someone close to $40,000 a year to drive around to make sure people don’t have more than two yard sales a year, couldn’t that person do the same with cars and for sale signs?

I feel, instead of restricting people to do things, why not just regulate those who abuse and not penalize those who don’t? Or maybe open up one of those desperately empty and ill frequented parking lots near Granada at the beach for people wanting to sale their cars for a modest fee? It’s something to think about.