The Way to Calculus

El Cajon street signs mark the classroom of Rancho Bernardo High School teacher Bradley Johnson. Johnson's pre-calculus students passed the signs Thursday after class let out. Johnson bought the signs from the city of El Cajon.

For the person on your Christmas list who has everything except a street named after them, now they can have that, too

Well, sort of.

The city is replacing all street-name and regulatory signs, and the old signs are for sale.

"We have Stephanie Street, Ann Street, Mary Street - almost any name at all -  and they're going like hotcakes," said Drum Macomber, supervisor of traffic operations of the city.

Street signs cost $15 each, and regulatory signs - like stop, yield and one way - run $20.

Macomber got the idea for the city to sell its surplus signs when he happened across the San Diego city store, which does the same thing with city of San Diego property.

"When we were taking our signs down, people were coming up and asking us if they could buy them," Macomber said. "I didn't have the authority to sell them or five them away, so I submitted the idea to the city and (officials) accepted it.

"In the economic times we have, the city's income is own, so this seemed like a good idea - get a better return on the signs than just selling them for scrap metal," Macomber said.

"Before, a whole street sign might take in 50 cents," he said. "This way, by selling them, we put a little more money back in the city coffers."

The signs are being replaced with larger, more reflective signs. The funding it coming from a government grand, Macomber said. Signs become available from throughout the city as they are replaced.

About 1,500 street-name signs and 800 regulatory signs are available, Macomber said.

To buy a sign, call Macomber at (619)441-1658 and leave a message. He said he knows most of the available street names by heart because he put up most of the signs himself.

Bradley Johnson, a teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School, uses an intersection sign as a coat rack in his classroom. The intersection, of course, is Bradley and Johnson.

"My students think it's cool," Johnson said. "The first time they see it, they ask me, 'Where'd you swipe that?'"

Johnson was driving to Gillespie Field on school business last year when he saw the intersection for the first time.

"Ethically, I couldn't steal the sign," he said. "But luckily, a friend recently came to me and said the city could now sell me the sign. So I bought it and made it into a coat rack.