Signs of the Times

Gothamist has often noticed while watching "Law & Order" that the street signs on the show don't always match up with reality. And now we know why. Turns out that the show buys custom street signs from the NYC's own custom sign shop in Maspeth, Queens.

We'd always thought that, like license plates, most street signs were made in prison, but we were wrong (kind of, only a couple thousand come from the Dept. of Corrections). In fact most come from the cities sign shop which, with 37 workers making over 70,000 signs a year, is the largest municipal sign shop in the country.

Beyond making all the "Stop" and "No Parking" signs the shop also has a self-sustaining custom sign operation that does about $300,000 a year in business. Started in 1995 to keep sign-stealers appeased, the shop will produce a personalized street sign for you for around $30. So if like us you still have nostalgia for the old dark green on yellow signs (so much cooler than white on green) you don't need to build a time machine, you just need to click here.