Ban Billboard Blight Protecting the visual environment of Los Angeles

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, Supergraphic on Office Building Near LAX

(Update:  On April 2, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins denied the request for a restraining order against City Attorney Carmen Trutanich)

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the president of three outdoor advertising firms and a property rights group, also lists 15 “parties of interest”, including the building owner arrested last month and held for a weekend in jail on $1 million bail after allowing a huge unpermitted supergraphic sign to be put up on his Hollywood Blvd. building.

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

Will Amber Alert Signs on L.A. Freeways Soon be Showing Ads?

Maybe it could be called the idea that has nine lives.  Each time it comes up, a chorus of criticism arises from citizens and many public officials, and it gets shelved, only to reappear at a later date.  See Governor Gearing Up to Sell Ads on Freeway Electronic Signs.

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Posted under Arnold Schwarzenegger, Billboards, Freeway Billboards

Left, graffiti on freeway mural; right, signs erected without permits or inspections

What is the difference between those who spray paint gang slogans and other kinds of graffiti on public walls and companies that put up illegal billboards and supergraphic signs?  What is the difference, fundamentally, between graffiti and illegal outdoor advertising?   Both make a claim on public space, saying “Look at this!” without observing any laws or considering that citizens might deserve a voice in what they’re forced to see when they drive, walk, or otherwise experience their urban environment.
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Posted under Billboards, Freeway Billboards, Fuel Outdoor, L.A. City Government, Supergraphics

Three days after handing down a campaign finance decision that rocked the political world, the U.S. Supreme Court handed anti-billboard activists a major victory by refusing to review a lower court’s ruling that California could legally bar off-site commercial advertising along sections of the state’s freeways and highways.

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

Top, photo of supergraphic sign on 10 freeway taken Jan. 12, 2010; bottom, Google Maps street view from prior date

A company called Vanguard Outdoor began marketing the site of this sign alongside the 10 freeway at Robertson Blvd. last year, even though all new supergraphic signs were prohibited by action of the City Council.

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Posted under Billboards, Freeway Billboards, Supergraphics

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

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.

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Posted under Billboards, Freeway Billboards, Uncategorized

AEG's Philip Anschutz, billionaire owner of Staples Center and L.A. Live

In 1999 and again in 2006, the L.A. City Council adopted provisions allowing the owner of Staples Center, L.A. Live, and the new convention center hotel to avoid a key sign code requirement that billboards and other signs within a certain distance and visible from freeways be referred to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for traffic hazard evaluation before being issued permits.

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

One of Two Digital Billboard Faces On MTA Bus Lot at 16th & San Pedro Sts.

During last year’s debate on establishing a sign district to allow Clear Channel to put up digital billboards on an MTA bus lot next to a downtown freeway, much attention was given to fact that the sign district approval was tied to the sale of an MTA maintenance yard in South Los Angeles that the city wanted to buy and develop into a wetlands park.   Councilwoman Jan Perry, who led the charge to approve the sign district, repeatedly accused those opposed to the freeway billboards of trying to kill a park project intended to provide badly-needed recreational facilities in an area afflicted by gang violence and poverty.

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Posted under Billboards, Clear Channel, Freeway Billboards, L.A. City Government