Signs of the Times  Huge Billboards Invade Noho and Soho  The
battle over Times Square is being fought again. Only this time,
it's being waged about four miles south of 42nd Street. In Noho
and Soho, residents say they are being overrun with
megabillboards and advertising signs that are turning their
neighborhood into one huge, glittering, gawdy commercial.
"They're making this space into Times Square," says artist and
businessperson Marc Balet, who lives and works in a loft at
Broadway and Houston, where a new double-sided, 2100-square-foot
billboard sits, tabula rasa, awaiting an ad; the possibility of
another 6000-square-foot poster along his building looms. "I
don't think anyone cares much if my windows are blocked, but
there's a bigger question of turning this into an impenetrable
alley of advertising."  Community Board 2 chair Alan Gerson
conjures up an equally frightening image: "Pretty soon, we'll
all be staring at monster-sized Chiquita bananas, Snoopys, and
Cap'n Crunches," he says, a scene that so