  Raptor56 Member Username: Raptor56 Post Number: 820 Registered: 05-2007 |
What is the deal with the current boom in billboard construction around town? They have built 5 billboards (2 digital) along the stretch of I-94 from Masonic to 14 mile (with the curves in 94, that’s only ¾ of a mile of road. I was just watching the Saint Clair Shores City Council meeting and Lamar was petitioning to build another sign along the 94 around the SCS\Eastpointe boarder. Every time I drive through Detroit to go to Columbus, OH for work, I notice new signs popping up. To my surprise, the SCS Council Members were disappointed that the sign was not going to be a digital LCD display (I think they are crazy and someone should build one of those digital boards in their backyard as they did in mine). Did billboards suddenly become increasingly more profitable, or are land owners increasingly more enticed to give up their land for these advertizing eyesores? | ||
Defendbrooklyn Member Username: Defendbrooklyn Post Number: 988 Registered: 11-2005 |
OUTLAW all BILLOARDS...They are hideous to the landscape... | ||
Raptor56 Member Username: Raptor56 Post Number: 822 Registered: 05-2007 |
Seriously though, what gives? I mean I can understand a board here and there, but they are sprouting up all over, and there seems to be no regulations on the bright digital boards. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3701 Registered: 07-2004 |
I think it could be that people are increasingly desperate for revenue and are allowing their land to be used for outdoor display advertising. And, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association, "Digital advertising is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing areas in the outdoor advertising industry." You don't pay full freight for the space, and you get to share your ad with 8-10 others. Also, maybe with TV in flux and newspapers in trouble, outdoor is a safe bet: People are going to be driving for the conceivable future. Lady Bird Johnson was among the first sponsors of reigning in billboards, supporting the Highway Beautification Act. Of course, they really only enforce that act when grass-roots groups set up billboards, in my opinion. | ||
Retroit Member Username: Retroit Post Number: 1038 Registered: 04-2008 |
Would those billboards happen to be built on public property? If so, the city may be looking at this as a money-making venture, like they do for cellphone towers. My advice: round up you neighbors and complain at every Hearing of the Public at every City Council meeting. I agree with Defendbrooklyn. Billboards are a blight upon our cities and upon the bright, blue, God-given skies that they obstruct. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 1274 Registered: 07-2007 |
The state passed a law a couple of years ago to put a cap on the number of billboards in the state. No sign that it's having any positive impact. http://www.mecprotects.org/MER /07winter/billboard.html | ||
Raptor56 Member Username: Raptor56 Post Number: 827 Registered: 05-2007 |
One other thing I found interesting while watching the Lamar representatives being questioned before the St Clair Shores Council was a tactic they use to help appease concerned council members. They brought up an instance of how in Taylor they allowed the city to have some advertizing space on a new digital board in the city for some Taylor city festival. According to the Reps, the City of Taylor’s council sent them a very glowing thank you letter. The SCS council's ears perked right up on that one, and they began to ask what kind of benefit they might get out of this new sign. A few members of council even started pressing the Lamar reps as whether they had a plan to eventually turn this new sign into a digital one, instead of your typical static sign. | ||
Retroit Member Username: Retroit Post Number: 1042 Registered: 04-2008 |
What would those advertizings entail? Campaign signs? "Welcome to St. Clair Shores, home of the Super-Duper 1 Million Candle Power Billboard"? | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 1275 Registered: 07-2007 |
94 just skirts the northern border of SCS and cuts through the SW corner of the city. The city leaders must not care if they trash up the areas adjacent to other cities. |
