No Deal on Billboards

I feel I must be missing something when I read that the City Council is bargaining with outdoor billboard companies to allow massive roadside advertisements in exchange for the dismantling of 2,000 smaller billboards (June 18). My sense is that most residents believe that billboards offer absolutely no aesthetic value to our city and that they contribute to the ongoing advertising assault during our drive times. Why are we bargaining at all? The council should tell the billboard companies that not only are they not getting the massive new billboards on our freeways, but that the 2,000 smaller billboards are also coming down. If council members want to bargain, how about: They follow the will of the people or they get voted out of office.

Rex L. Altman

Los Angeles