Billboard-Size Rhetoric

The City Council on Wednesday made it sound as if billboards were as welcome in Los Angeles as Al Qaeda training camps. “Scourge.” “Destroying our city.” “Ruining neighborhoods.” That’s how impassioned the rhetoric got as council members debated the merits of proposals to ban new signs and beef up ineffectual efforts to bring down the thousands of illegal ones that make parts of the city so ugly.

Alas, it’s still too early to tell whether our leaders are finally getting serious about going after these eyesores or are merely angling for a good sound bite while keeping a hand out for the free ads and campaign bounty this industry so notoriously offers.

There is, however, reason to hope. This is not, after all, the same council that last summer dutifully passed billboard regulation that had, in essence, been dictated by sign company executives. Promising Angelenos that they would remove more than a thousand signs around the city, the outdoor advertisers sought the right to put up 70 billboards along local freeways--on sites that previously were off-limits.

The deal sounded much better than it was for people sick of seeing their streets forested with gigantic steel poles and in-your-face ads. In truth, companies would get to ditch their least profitable signs in exchange for new, humongous signs that would generate millions in revenue. The council obediently approved the plan and asked planners and the city attorney to draft an ordinance--a process that’s still going on.

What a difference an election makes. With eight new council members and public outrage rising with every new billboard that sprouts, momentum has shifted dramatically. On Wednesday, Councilman Jack Weiss presented his colleagues with a strong, simple proposal: Give city inspectors more muscle and spring for enough of them (four now oversee the city’s 10,000 billboards) to bring down the scofflaw signs. He’d pay for this with an annual permit fee on each sign.

Weiss’ measure nicely complements a motion that Cindy Miscikowski introduced last week to permanently ban all new billboards in the city, except in special districts like Hollywood, where some residents consider them part of the neighborhood’s character. Her measure comes before the Planning and Land Use Committee next week. It too should pass.

When Weiss’ ordinance came up Wednesday, council members fell over one another vowing to “crack down” on the estimated 4,000 illegal signs citywide. The ordinance failed by just one vote to get the required 12 unanimous ayes required to pass on the first reading.

When it comes back to the council next week, the proposal needs only a simple majority to pass. Between now and then, should any of Weiss’ council supporters have second thoughts, they might recall the hourlong parade of residents venting spleen about the signs looming over their homes and businesses. These folks vote, and there’s thousands more who think just as they do.