Billboard Compromise Seems Absurd

So the L.A. City Council has tentatively approved a plan to erect billboards facing freeways in exchange for taking down existing billboards (June 6). Are these “existing” billboards the same ones that didn’t even exist just a few years ago, until the recent explosion of new billboards? I know of at least 10 new billboards in my own Westside neighborhood that have gone up in the past few years, many the new, massive-size ones. The most recent new billboard went up about two weeks ago (its first ad was for our new city attorney). Am I the only one who sees the absurdity in this? (Unless you favor billboards, in which case it’s brilliant!)

Steven Coker

Los Angeles

Excuse me, but don’t all the citizens of California actually pay for the construction and maintenance of the freeway system? Just what gives the city of Los Angeles the right to authorize placement of advertising billboards along these freeways that are a visual blight, as well as a driving distraction? Perhaps with the new mix on the City Council, wiser heads will prevail and assert all citizens’ rights not to have unsolicited and unwelcome advertising screaming in our faces during our already perilous daily commute.

Brenda Anderson

Santa Monica