Coming to Affluent Areas Near You: More Sidewalk Ads

The Los Angeles City Council acted Friday to remove roadblocks that have kept hundreds of ad-bearing bus shelters and other street furniture out of affluent areas of West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

The council voted to curtail the power council members have to block such things as bus shelters, kiosks and self-cleaning toilets from their districts.

Neighborhood activists from Westwood, Mar Vista, Woodland Hills and Pacific Palisades objected to the new policy, saying that it would lead to a proliferation of “sidewalk billboards.”

Viacom Decaux is installing shelters and other street furniture on city sidewalks under a contract that allows the firm to sell advertising to display on the sides. Los Angeles could receive a $150-million share of the profits over the next 20 years.

“This is really an embarrassing and repugnant and gross amendment because you have relinquished the obligation to control this to Viacom,” said Bennett Cohon, a Westwood community activist.

Under the current process, Viacom Decaux submits to each council member a list of proposed sites for street furniture in the council member’s district, and council members can reject a site and request alternative sites.

However, some council members have declined to act on requests, preventing street furniture from being installed for years. The program has been operating since 2002.

Of the 2,035 requests by Viacom Decaux, 1,300 have been approved.

The new policy -- which only applies to council districts where fewer than 75% of the requests have been approved -- requires each council office to respond to a request within 15 days.

If they say no, the council members must offer Viacom Decaux three alternate sites within 500 feet of the proposed location, or work collaboratively with the firm to find another site within 15 days.

Westside Councilman Jack Weiss was the lone vote against the change, arguing that neighborhoods shouldn’t be forced to accept the advertising.

Weiss said Viacom Decaux is concentrating its street advertising in more affluent districts. He said 15 kiosks were proposed for the 15th Council District, which includes Watts, and 11 were approved, while 126 kiosks have been proposed in his 5th District and 19 were approved.

Weiss said he is listening to constituents. “This is not a street furniture issue. We are talking about sidewalk billboards,” Weiss said.

Other council districts where fewer than 75% of the furnishings have been approved include Wendy Greuel’s 2nd District, Tom LaBonge’s 4th District, Bill Rosendahl’s 11th District and Eric Garcetti’s 13th District.

Councilman Greig Smith said he warned his colleagues a year ago in a memo that red tape and other glitches are costing the city millions of dollars because Viacom Decaux is not paying for furnishings that are denied.

One report in February said the city could have received $14 million since 2002, but had only received $9.7 million.

“We weren’t doing our job in moving them through the system,” Smith said.

The new policy will be conditioned on negotiations to get Viacom to pay Los Angeles all or part of the lost revenue.