Political Machine: Say no to glowing orbs in Center City
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
You're strolling down Walnut Street when you turn onto Broad and you see it: A sculpture of a giant hand reaching out of the sidewalk, palming a massive glowing orb that is streaming a TV ad and barking at you to visit a Hyundai dealership in some South Jersey hellhole.
Artist rendering of proposed globe at 12th and Arch streets.
You’re strolling down Walnut Street when you turn onto Broad and you see it: A sculpture of a giant hand reaching out of the sidewalk, palming a massive glowing orb that is streaming a TV ad and barking at you to visit a Hyundai dealership in some South Jersey hellhole.
Across the street: A swirling hourglass-shaped screen with a digitized Mayor Nutter trapped inside is begging you to donate school supplies.
These aren’t really digital billboards, says digital billboard company Catalyst Outdoor — they’re “Urban Experiential Displays.” The “difference” is that part of the time, the display will be dedicated to news and public information. Catalyst hopes to install seven of these corny public art pieces within Center City.
No fucking way.
Philadelphians increasingly reject the false choice they’ve been offered between an aesthetically pleasant city and a healthy city budget. But try as a few determined Council members might, they can’t seem to actually ban the things.
Last year, 6th District Councilman Bobby Henon led a charge to ban new billboards, but by the time his bill emerged from the Rules Committee, the billboard industry and its Council allies had watered it down so badly that its original advocates don’t want a full Council vote. The bill would ban new billboards, but grandfathers in all 239 illegal billboards identified by the nonprofit advocacy group Scenic Philadelphia; allows companies to replace two static billboards with one digital one in some areas, and sets paltry license fees.
When the bill passed committee, a beaten-down Henon told CBS, “I think if we walk out of here with all sides not happy, I think we’ve done our job.”
Sorry, Bobby, but the job will be done when one side walks away unhappy: the billboard lobby.
Here’s a better idea: Allow new billboards — but only if they’re hand-painted. We’ve got plenty of out-of-work art students in this city, and a lot of prime blank wall space. This would be unquestionably legal, and it sidesteps Council’s central legal challenge of how to ban billboards without really banning them. Let’s put the kids to work.
