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Raptor56
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Username: Raptor56

Post Number: 820
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Thursday, March 19, 2009 - 8:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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?
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Defendbrooklyn
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Username: Defendbrooklyn

Post Number: 988
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 8:31 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

OUTLAW all BILLOARDS...They are hideous to the landscape...
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Raptor56
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Username: Raptor56

Post Number: 822
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 11:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Detroitnerd
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Username: Detroitnerd

Post Number: 3701
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 11:18 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Retroit
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Username: Retroit

Post Number: 1038
Registered: 04-2008
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 4:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Novine
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Username: Novine

Post Number: 1274
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 5:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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
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Raptor56
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Username: Raptor56

Post Number: 827
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 5:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Retroit
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Username: Retroit

Post Number: 1042
Registered: 04-2008
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 6:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What would those advertizings entail? Campaign signs? "Welcome to St. Clair Shores, home of the Super-Duper 1 Million Candle Power Billboard"?
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Novine
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Username: Novine

Post Number: 1275
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 6:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.

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