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October 1, 2008
Fighting LA's Billboard Blight
Photo by edmundv via Flickr
The LA City Council is back from a small recess and today's meeting will not be a light one with two motions being introduced that will address the proliferation of electronic billboards in Los Angeles.
Eric Garcetti will ask the City Attorney to review the terms of a settlement between the City of Los Angeles and major billboard companies that resulted in the city allowing the companies to convert traditional billboards to electronic billboards. Additionally, he will ask that the council vote on officially opposing Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to turn Amber Alert boards on freeways into digital billboards for advertising when alerts are not in progress.
Billboard blight has become an issue over the past year. In April, LA Weekly estimated some 4,000 billboards in the city are illegal. And lately, the conversion of standard billboards to digital ones and supergraphics have been hot issues.
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We dealt with a similar issue in 2000 when I was living in Missouri: There was a ballot measure (Prop A, I believe) to seriously restrict the construction of new billboards in the state. The measure failed, but the unintended consequence was an almost doubling of the number of billboards in the state--Everyone rushed to construct them so that if the measure passed, they would be grandfathered in. So, be careful what you wish for (or put on the ballot).
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Market solutions: Stop flat-out restricting the number of billboards allowed, just charge higher prices for the permits/licenses and charge monthly or yearly fees to keep the license. Result: The number of billboards go down and revenue to the city goes up. Win/Win for constituents.
Second solution: Similar to carbon credits, have billboard credits and auctions. Only allow X amount of digital billboards at a time, and auction off the rights to have those billboards. Then companies can trade and buy and sell the billboard credits between themselves. All the while, paying renewal yearly fees to the city for owning the credit.
These aren't tough concepts people. Someone get me elected to city council.
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I'm not sure how any legislation will help. The companies are notorious for taking advantage of loop holes and misunderstanding in their contracts.
I would like to see the new digital bill-boards have a dimmer function installed for night-time displays. Right now they project at the same level of brightness 24/7. Some of those ads are damned near blinding at night. I think this is potential dangerous near freeways.
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Yes, those digital billboards are blinding and awful - they need to go.