Ban Billboard Blight Protecting the visual environment of Los Angeles

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.

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

Billboard directly across the street from an elementary school and charter high school in a neighborhood with active gangs

Back in 2005, protests by parents and community leaders in a gang-ridden area of  L.A. resulted in the removal of billboard ads depicting the rapper 50 Cent brandishing a gun in an ad for the movie, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”.  Five years later, billboards and supergraphic signs around the city continue to display outsize ads with such depictions, sometimes right next-door to schools and in neighborhoods suffering from gun violence.

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

The graffiti on the backside of this billboard  at 2520 S. Robertson Blvd. is in full view of the street, and has blighted its surroundings for at least a year, if not longer.  The billboard, which currently displays an ad for KIIS-FM on its face, carries no company name or other identification, contrary to the L.A. sign ordinance.  It would also seem that the unknown billboard company is in violation of the city’s anti-graffiti ordinance.

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

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

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.

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Posted under Billboards, CBS Outdoor, City Planning Commission, Clear Channel, Digital Billboards, Freeway Billboards, L.A. City Government, Lamar Advertising, Michael McNeilly, Supergraphics, Van Wagner, World Wide Rush

Leslie Moonves, CBS President & CEO

Leslie Moonves, president of the CBS Corporation, has sent a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urging him to use his powers to oppose any interference with the operation of the 101 digital billboards erected over the past two years by Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor.   In his letter, Moonves says that CBS advertises its TV shows “extensively” on digital billboards, calling them an “exciting, flexible and attractive platform” for such marketing.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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Posted under Billboards, CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel, Digital Billboards, Uncategorized

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.

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