LA Bus Stops & The Case Of The Disappearing Benches

Photo by Greg Lilly Photos via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

You're not imagining things. The bus benches are disappearing. Norman Bench Advertising, the company that has provided and managed approximately 6,000 bus benches around Los Angeles for the past decade, began removing them last week when they were not awarded a new contract, according to the L.A. Times.

The company had "recently come under fire from officials" for not disclosing the number of benches it actually has, and for not disclosing how much revenue it earns from ad displays.

Board of Public Works Commissioner Andrea Alarcon said Thursday that the company has been "a difficult partner" and that benches have been removed from stops in at least three City Council districts.

A new contract with Martin Outdoor Media is in the works and will go to council for approval on Tuesday. Officials say it "may be some time before the city is able to replace benches that have been removed."

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By Lisa Brenner in News on August 12, 2011 9:40 AM

Comments [rss]

David_Barron

Simple, benches being removed by company owner Bill Giamela, because the City didn’t renew his contract. Ms Alarcon is acting concern for the bus riders who are being impacted.   She forgot to include all the impacted taxpayers, who weren't getting their share of advertising revenue that was due the City.   Didn't she have a contingency plan to avoid missing bus benches?   Apparently, she doesn't have the experience to deal with collecting the City’s share of revenue from Giamela, just because he was, "a difficult partmer," and he didn’t submit financial records.   Is her dad going to have her run for his seat when he's done? This is just another, mishandled city department, missed by City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Perhaps this is a planned press release from city council to shore up the anticipated unanimous ‘yes’ vote to award the contract to Martin Outdoor Media, because Bill Giamela donated to candidate David Vahedi,  who ran against councilmember Paul Koretz?

If I was on the council, I would oppose any company to be awarded a monopoly on bus bench advertising for 10 years. Where’s the competition?  Even council members have to campaign every four years. With 15 council districts, we could have at least 15 bus bench advertising companies. Hey, that even equates to more revenue for our City.
Being forced to stand and wait a long time is the fault of our ‘mayor’ and city council. If they didn’t over-spend our taxes, they would be able to afford to increase the frequency of busses.

jennix

It would be ok if everything wasn't covered in advertising.

Hanno Barca

Well that sort of defeats the purpose. The benches were really a convenience offered by an advertising company as a condition of the advertising space.