Billboards

Five years after Gilberto Kassab, the mayor of São Paulo, Brazil passed the "Clean City Law", banning all visual pollution around the city, both citizens and businesses are thankful.

A new report focusing on the City of Philadelphia found that there is a statistically significant correlation between real estate value (as measured by sales price) and proximity to billboards.

Part of the trouble is finding language that will prevent billboards from proliferating, but planners finally have a draft for public review (available in the article).

As Los Angeles works to rein in billboard blight around the city, the Parks and Recreation Dept. comes out with a surprise request for permission to put up more off-site signage.

Critic Blair Kamin speaks out against Mayor Emmanuel's decision to allow advertising on Chicago's iconic bridges to make up a budget shortfall. Kamin calls the move "the uglification of the City Beautiful."

Michael McNeilly of SkyTag covered building sides across Los Angeles with multi-story advertisements, disregarding laws prohibiting them. The city is suing SkyTag for millions in penalties.

Gov. Jerry Brown will soon be asked to sign a bill that would loosen environmental regulations on a downtown L.A. stadium, which would also be smothered in LED billboards.

Vancouver wrestles with the potent form of advertising and its impact on the public realm.

Ed McMahon of ULI talks about an article he's writing that will make the argument that billboards and other outdoor advertising deserve to be eliminated.

The city's 10-year ban on construction of new signage is challenged as the local billboard industry asks to replace traditional models with digital technology.

A private company, working with the City Council of Nairobi, sells advertising space to fund streetlights in the city. Smart public/private partnership, or intrusion of advertising on public spaces?

Are billboards visual pollution, or valuable information source? Sao Paolo, Brazil banned billboards in the city in 2007 and is an interesting case study.

In an unprecedented move, L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has placed a business owner under arrest for posting an illegal "supergraphic" billboard.

A patent filed by Google in 2008 illustrates a process where ads could be placed on buildings, marquees and billboards in Google Street View.

The glow of digital billboards around Los Angeles is irritating residents, and after a recent court ruling putting a moratorium on new ones, locals are pressuring the city council to remove existing billboards as well.

Amidst sweeping new regulations, the Toronto City Council has also added a new tax on billboards that could bring in millions of dollars to city coffers.

The ban on billboard advertising in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is showing pressure cracks, as continued opposition to the citywide policy has some lawmakers considering a repeal.

That was the message of nonprofit San Francisco Beautiful in their successful campaign to stop Proposition D, which would have created a special sign district in the mid-Market area in hopes of revitalizing it.

A proposal to create a new outdoor advertising district in San Francisco has some locals anticipating a retail revival, while others dread the possible billboard blight.

In San Francisco, the mid-Market St. area has struggled for decades with blighted conditions. An area property owner thinks that digital billboards could solve the problem, and has put a proposition on the local ballot to get them built.