Digital Billboards - Ban Billboard Blight

Digital Billboard Goes Dark In City Council President’s Neighborhood, Others Stay On

Clear Channel digital billboard at intersection of Silverlake Blvd. & Effie St.

The digital billboard in Silverlake that caused a community uproar when it first appeared two years ago has been turned off—at least for now. The electronic, jumbotron-like sign is in the district of L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, who has publicly stated in the past that the intensely bright, rapidly changing ads are out of place in the small commercial area closely surrounded by single-family homes and apartment houses.

This post was written by dennis on February 4, 2010

The First Annual Ban Billboard Blight Awards

Since there are plenty of year-end awards given to people and organizations doing good works, we thought we’d start an annual (for 2009, anyway) list of those in the world of outdoor advertising here in L.A. whom we believe to be particularly deserving of recognition for less than felicitous deeds.

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Posted under AEG, Billboards, CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel, Digital Billboards, Freeway Billboards, L.A. City Government, Supergraphics

This post was written by dennis on December 21, 2009

2009 In Review: The Good, the Bad, and the “We’re Not Sure Yet”

Good: L.A. Superior Court Judge Terry Green isn’t an expert on toxic substances, but he performed an expert analysis on the city’s noxious 2006 lawsuit settlement that allowed Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor to put up 840 digital billboards by declaring the agreement that denied the public any voice “poison” and sending it to the shredder.

This post was written by dennis on December 21, 2009

L.A. Digital Billboard Wars: Court Documents Show About Face by Billboard Attorneys

In 2005, attorneys representing Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor tried to block a city lawsuit settlement with a third billboard company, claiming that it was illegally reached in closed-door meetings and violated the public’s right to hearings on changes in city ordinances. Fast forward to Nov. 4 of this year, when a Superior Court judge threw out a 2006 lawsuit settlement with Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor, citing those same reasons for voiding the agreement permitting the two companies to put up 840 digital billboards throughout the city. Facing public demands that permits issued thus far for 105 of the digital signs be revoked, those same billboard attorneys who argued in favor of the public interest four years ago are now arguing that because they relied on their own settlement in good faith it would be grossly unfair to force them to return the billboards to their prior, conventional state. Read More…

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

This post was written by dennis on December 6, 2009

L.A. Zoning Officer Rules that Digital Billboards in Westwood Violate Zoning Regulations; Permits Should Not Have Been Issued

Digital Billboard at 1333 Westwood Blvd.

More than a year after three neighborhood groups and the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight formally appealed the issuance of permits for three digital billboards in the Westwood area, the city’s office of zoning administration has ruled that two of the signs violate local zoning regulations and that the Department of Building and Safety improperly issued permits for converting them from conventional to digital.

This post was written by dennis on November 28, 2009

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

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: