Needed: MORE billboards in LA - Say What???

LA City Councilman Herb Wesson has decided that what we need in LA is more billboards. Never mind that in 2002 the city passed a law banning billboards.

A Los Angeles city councilman has proposed the creation of a new billboard district in Koreatown, one that would run 17 blocks from east to west and take in major corridors such as Wilshire and Olympic boulevards.With a separate downtown billboard district scheduled for a vote next week, the proposal by Councilman Herb Wesson has alarmed anti-billboard activists. They said the city should not allow any more outdoor signs until it can show that it is cracking down on the illegal ones.

There are several problems with thinking about our neighborhoods as purely commercial spaces: The proliferation of billboards in these parts of our community creates inescapable immersive advertising that is beyond our control. While Councilman might think about Koreatown in terms of it's night life, many thousands of kids live in this community, and many more walk and drive through it daily. Once those billboards go up, we are for ever after subjected to the whims of the owner, whose community standards are also beyond our control. How can parents "Just say no" to 360 degree images on view through the window of a car or bus?

Need an example? Here are a couple from Hollywood billboard zone, aka across the street from my son's school, over the past few weeks: There was this images from the Joe's Jeans advertisment. Yes, I mean the one where you can pretty much see up this woman's butt.

And all pre-teens and teens struggling with their body image love those ubiquitous Sara Marshall ads "You Do Look Fat in Those Jeans, Sarah Marshall." (Think of an eight year old girl reading that sign, a thirteen year old boy- what message are they getting?)

Wesson said of creating a billboard district in Koreatown "It brings a pop and flash to a certain area." I would rather have a little less pop and flash and billboard blight in my fair city.

See the article by Dennis Hathaway in City Watch about this issue.

My question for Councilman Wesson is, how much money have you received from our friends at CBS, Clear Channel, etc.? Billboard's best friend, Rocky Delgadillo has set a great example on this..

Delgadillo's relationship with Clear Channel dates back to the 2001 election,when the company was one of several entities that spent $425,000 to promote his candidacy on billboards. The Los Angeles Ethics Commission later fined Clear Channel $30,000 for failing to promptly disclose its role in backing Delgadillo and council candidate Wendy Greuel.

Alarmed? Concerned?

Let your LA City Councilperson know.