Ban Billboard Blight Protecting the visual environment of Los Angeles

Will this.......................................Become This?

On July 9, the L.A. City Planning Commission will be asked to approve more than 50,000 square feet of advertising signage on the L.A. Convention Center, the majority of it on the long façade that directly faces the confluence of the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways, one of the busiest and most complex freeway intersections in the city.

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Posted under Billboards, Digital Billboards, Freeway Billboards, L.A. City Government, L.A. Convention Center, Uncategorized

Christine Pelisek (right), with friend Deb Vankin at Press Club Awards

Congratulations to Christine Pelisek, whose L.A. Weekly article, “Billboards Gone Wild,” won this year’s L.A. Press Club Award for best hard news story in newspapers of more than 100,000 circulation.  This article that focused on the woeful job the city has done controlling illegal billboards brought the issue to widespread public attention for the first time, and helped spur the city to start a billboard inventory, adopt a billboard moratorium, and rewrite the sign code to make it legally defensible.

L.A. Press Club Awards

L.A. Weekly:  Billboards Gone Wild

Posted under Billboards, Digital Billboards, Freeway Billboards, L.A. City Government, Supergraphics

For anti-billboard activists, the end of Rocky Delgadillo’s eight years as L.A. City Attorney couldn’t come a moment too soon.  Getting elected with the help of free billboard advertising, allowing himself to be publicly feted by a major billboard lobbyist, brokering a disastrous lawsuit settlement with the same companies that plastered his face around the city-all reasons to say good riddance and await the imminent dawning of a better day.

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Posted under Billboards, Clear Channel, Digital Billboards, L.A. City Government, Uncategorized

From time to time, someone will take offense at our activities on the grounds that advocating for protection of the visual environment from an onslaught of commercial advertising is a trivial cause compared to fighting poverty, or global warming, or gang warfare, or any number of other social and environmental ills.   In other words, “Can’t you find something more important to be bothered about?”

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Posted under Outdoor Advertising

A predictable sight at the seven public meetings held to date on the new city sign ordinance has been billboard company lobbyists at the speakers’ podium, all arguing that the proposed ban on digital signs and the limitations on the height and size of billboards and other signs will impede business activity and cost jobs.   While they have offered scant evidence to support these predictions, one thing is clear.  The process of revising the sign ordinance has provided plenty of employment for lobbying firms that have also raised significant amounts of money for the campaign coffers of city politicians.

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Posted under Billboards, Clear Channel, Digital Billboards, L.A. City Government, Lamar Advertising, Supergraphics, Uncategorized

One or more of the billboard companies with pending lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles have apparently made an offer to settle, because City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is requesting a closed session with the City Council to transmit a “settlement proposal letter.”  The request lists five active cases to be the subject of discussion in the closed session, which has not yet been scheduled.

Following are summaries of the five cases, and their current status:

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Posted under Billboards, Digital Billboards, L.A. City Government, Supergraphics, Uncategorized

City Councilwoman Jan Perry has introduced a motion asking the council to force the Department of Building and Safety (DBS) to issue a permit for a 100 ft. high, double-sided electronic sign on the west side of the 110 freeway downtown. The department has refused to issue the permit on the grounds that the municipal code prohibits signs within 2,000 ft. of a freeway if they are primarily visible from the roadway. The department also claims that  the 1,100 sq. ft. sign proposed for advertising events at USC’s nearby Galen Center would violate the current moratorium on new off-site digital and supergraphic signs.

Rendering of Sign

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Posted under Billboards, Digital Billboards, Freeway Billboards, L.A. City Government, Uncategorized

The crew was out in the middle of the night on Overland Ave. in West L.A., installing this five-story ”inflatable” supergraphic sign that’s part of a $100 milllion-plus advertising campaign signaling McDonalds’  foray into the upscale coffee market dominated by Starbucks and a handful of other chains.

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Posted under Supergraphics

Think about it for a second… Thousands of beach goers relaxing at the beach, looking towards the ocean. Just offshore, a Billboard Boat slowly passes by with your name on it… Your message will be read, and it will be remembered.—www.coastalad.com

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Posted under Outdoor Advertising

The El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd. opened in 1926, and was the site of many star-studded events, including the world premiere of “Citizen Kane” in 1941.  It later fell on hard times, but in the late Eighties the Walt Disney Co. and Pacific Theaters teamed up to do a complete restoration, and it has since been the venue for premieres of Disney feature films.

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Posted under Supergraphics