Uncategorized - Ban Billboard Blight

Outdoor Advertising Industry: Little Lies, Whoppers, and Disinformation

Digital Billboard Being Erected in L.A. Last Year (Dollar signs per artistic license)

The outdoor advertising industry is a formidable force in Los Angeles and other cities throughout California and the rest of the country. With a deep-pocketed membership it can pour millions into lobbying for favorable laws and ordinances, and it can mount lavish public relations campaigns on behalf of its view that billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising are necessary and highly beneficial elements of our visual environment.

This post was written by dennis on November 20, 2009

Turn Them Off? Let Them Stay? No Decision by PLUM Committee On Digital Billboards

l to r; Councilman Dennis Zine, CBS Outdoor vice-president Ryan Brooks, Garcetti aide Katherine Hennigan

What is the city of L.A. going to do about the 101 digital billboards erected pursuant to an agreement a Superior Court judge has found to be unlawful? The City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee took up the question this week, but decided to delay action on a motion to instruct the Department of Building and Safety to stop issuing any new digital billboard permits and evaluate whether permits for the existing signs should be revoked.

This post was written by dennis on November 19, 2009

Eyesore of the Week: Brought to You by CBS Outdoor

Continuing its quest for the crown of Eyesore Purveyor of the Year, CBS Outdoor presents this beauty on Venice Blvd. Or is it a witty statement about the Angels’ flop in the recent American league playoffs? In any event, the company reported a $35 million loss for the 3rd quarter of this year, so expecting it to comply with a sign code requirement that billboards without advertisements be covered with a clean, blank surface is clearly unreasonable.

Posted under Billboards, CBS Outdoor, Uncategorized

This post was written by dennis on November 11, 2009

Trees Illegally Chopped Down on 405 Freeway: Was It For Visibility of Billboards and Shopping Mall Signs?

405 Freeway right-of-way, left, Westfield Mall, right

Several weeks ago, the California Highway Patrol caught a person cutting trees in the 405 Freeway right-of-way adjacent to the new Westfield shopping mall in Culver City. The above photo shows the remains of two of those trees, which stood in the line of sight of the billboard affixed to a corner of the shopping mall, advertising a yet-to-be-released Disney movie. According to the California Department of Transportation, this blatantly illegal act is currently under investigation, along with six other tree-cutting incidents that may involve the issue of billboard or supergraphic sign visibility from L.A. area freeways.

This post was written by dennis on November 10, 2009

Judge Won’t Void Digital Billboard Permits, Says Citizens Can Challenge Them One-By-One

Digital Billboard Being Erected Last Year

L.A. Superior Court Judge Terry Green ruled today that the permits issued for 101 digital billboards will have to be challenged through administrative appeals, even though he threw out the 2006 lawsuit settlement that gave Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor the right to put up 840 of the electronic signs.

This post was written by dennis on November 5, 2009

Legal Wars: Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor Sue to Block Action Against Digital Billboards, Accuse City of Unlawful Harassment

Home of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles

[ Update: U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins has denied the request by Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor for a temporary restraining order against the city. ]

Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to bar the city from taking any action against their digital billboards. The lawsuit was filed less than 48 hours before a state court judge threw out the 2006 lawsuit settlement with the city that allowed the billboard companies to convert 840 of the their conventional billboards to electronic, with their brilliantly-lighted, rapidly changing ads that have angered residents of such widespread neighborhoods as Venice, Westwood, Hollywood and Silverlake.

This post was written by dennis on October 31, 2009

Fact or Fiction? City Council Made Clear That Ban on New Signs Should Exempt L.A. Live and Certain Other Projects

At the contentious Oct. 23 City Council meeting on the issue of L.A. Live signs, several councilmembers complained that the City Attorney’s office was ignoring the council’s intent to exempt that project and several others from the ban on off-site signs adopted on Aug. 7 of this year. One of the more heated of those complaints came from Councilman Richard Alarcon, who speaks in the following video clip about the August meeting and the issue of legislative intent:

This post was written by dennis on October 31, 2009

Judge Says 2006 Lawsuit Settlement Allowing Digital Billboards in L.A. is Illegal, Calls Agreement Between City and Billboard Companies “Poison”

This post was written by dennis on October 30, 2009

Eyesore of the Week: Brought to You by Michael NcNeilly and Skytag, Inc.

What will be next? An ad for a movie or TV show? A car? A video game? What will people living on this leafy street just off Wilshire Blvd. in the Miracle Mile area wake up one morning to see, brought to them by Mr. McNeilly.

For more, see the following:

FRAUD: Michael McNeilly, self-proclaimed artist and defender of free speech,

Sky Tag Seeks Permanent Injunction, Expansion of Supergraphic Sites

Posted under Michael McNeilly, Skytag, Supergraphics, Uncategorized

This post was written by dennis on October 29, 2009

Health Groups Go After Smoking Depictions in Film and TV: MTA Spreads Them Over Its Public Buses

Ad for "Californication" on MTA Bus on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles

Anti-smoking groups and health organizations have long complained of smoking being glamorized in movies and TV programs, and studies have suggested that these depictions can encourage some young people to take up the habit. So what is the propriety of a government agency selling ads with such depictions on its buses?

Read More…

Posted under Billboards, CBS Outdoor, Uncategorized

This post was written by dennis on October 26, 2009

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