You can see for yourself by checking out the following list of the best and brightest neon signs, both new and old, currently in operation around the Valley. “When you put them next to each other, LED is going to be the brightest crayon in the box, but neon is known for its glow, which I think is what really attracts people, that glow that it emits, which you're not going to get from anything else,” she says. Local artist Sue Meyers of Bend-A-Light Studio, who has created signs for such downtown spots as Valley Bar and the Hotel San Carlos, says that neon has a certain appeal over lighting like LED. Over at Uptown Plaza at Camelback Road and Central Avenue, most of the restaurants and shops feature neon. Since 2014, a number of Valley businesses have re-embraced the art form and use neon signage, including a slew of spots in Gilbert's Historic Heritage District. Neon’s made a bit of a comeback in recent years. “So you had to have a sign that was bigger, bolder, brighter than your neighbors to attract the attention.” “Neon really encapsulates a certain era when cars were heavily on the rise, people were traveling faster than ever before, further than they've traveled ever before, and didn't know what was around them,” he says. It's a far cry from 70 years ago, Shore says, when neon signs were a staple of businesses along major thoroughfares and highways around the Valley (as well as in other cities nationwide) during the art form's boom in the 1950s, which coincided with the growth of car culture. “There are so few neon signs left now that it's become a scarce commodity,” he says.
And that number gets smaller every year, says local historian Marshall Shore. In fact, local preservationists estimate there are only around three dozen old-school illuminated displays still in operation around metro Phoenix. Vintage neon signs have become a rare and treasured thing in the Valley.