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Thu. August 2, 2007, 07:20am PDT
Constitutions Matter - Reasons City Council Should Enforce Billboard Ordinance by Erik Bjornson
Thanks to downtown attorney and KFnet friend Erik Bjornson for sending in the following post:
Just over 10 years ago, Tacoma passed the billboard ordinance to stop the proliferation of billboards throughout Tacoma which had spread into neighborhoods, downtown, and business centers. The billboard owners were given 10 years to recuperate their investment through this depreciation period.
According to a Tacoma City Staff report, approximately 143 of the 193 billboards are currently "non-complying." Rather than comply with the 10-year-old law, Clear Channel has filed a lawsuit against the city to try to overturn the billboard ordinance and waged a media campaign throughout the city by placing "Constitutions Matter" on billboards throughout the city.
Nothing destroys the distinctive character of our communities and the natural beauty of our countryside more rapidly than uncontrolled signs and billboards...
~ Scenic America
The public campaign makes me conclude that Clean Channel believes that the billboard issue is largely one of political will, not a legal one. Otherwise, why waste all of the advertising space for the "Constitutions Matter" message?
Here are reasons for the Tacoma City Council to enforce the billboard ordinance passed 10 years ago and persevere through litigation if necessary:
- Tacoma residents have expressed their will through the city council 10 years ago that they wanted most of the billboards in Tacoma to be removed. The current city council should adhere to the residents today, and 10 years ago, and make sure the law is complied with.
- There is no "constitutional right" to erecting billboards in cities. Zero. The states of Vermont, Hawaii, Maine and Alaska have legally banned billboards in their entirety decades ago.
- Billboards are well accepted being urban blight and most cities have taken action to reduce or eliminate them altogether. Tacoman's wish to be considered citizens and not just consumers. No city is known by its billboards. Photographers work very hard to avoid them in pictures for a very good reason.
- The billboards in Tacoma have infiltrated areas around schools, neighborhood business districts from 6th Avenue, Proctor, South Tacoma Way and Hilltop.
- Removing billboards is a cost-effective method for Tacoma to remove blight from the city. There are some 146 non-complying billboard signs. Each sign is approximately 236 sq. feet. Prevailing on the issue would allow the City of Tacoma to remove 34,492 sq. feet of blight that would be permanently gone which city residents would enjoy year after year. Unlike graffiti removal, the blight would be gone forever. Thus, the effort and cost to remove billboards is a wise investment.
- Cities are known largely for how they look. It is very hard to improve the image of Tacoma when it is so heavily inundated with billboards.
- Billboard are thwarting revitalization efforts in Tacoma. In many places downtown and in the mixed use centers, there are billboards where there should be buildings. Billboards make it economically more difficult to rebuild an area.
- Enforcing the billboard ordinance will give a permanent public benefit for future generations. States like Maine have been billboard free for 40 years. Maine reaps the benefits of their billboard ordinance year after year.
- If Tacoma backs down from enforcing the billboard ordinance, it will likely be stuck with a huge number of billboards forever. The city needs to look at the issue long term and not permit the city to continue to be saddled with an excessive number of billboards through the city.
- Cleaning up the blightful billboards will improve the image of the city and will change the very essence of the type of city Tacoma is. As James Kunstler explains in his presentation at the world renowned TED conference, a blighted cityscape makes "it's a place not worth caring about." "When you degrade the public realm, you will automatically degrade the quality of your civic life…"
Clear Channel has retained a Seattle based law firm who has filed a legal action against the City of Tacoma. No doubt this will be the first of many hearings on the issue. Clear Channel is asking for an injunction against Tacoma to keep the city from enforcing the billboard ordinance. A hearing has been scheduled in Pierce County Superior Court on August 10, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. in Room 2-A.
Thus, there is great pressure on the city council to "negotiate" and concede much of the billboard ordinance both before and after the hearing. If you have not done so already, please contact your city council members on the issue and encourage them to stand by the 10 year ordinance as the issue winds its way through the courts.
Erik Bjornson is a family law attorney practicing in downtown Tacoma. He writes frequently on urban planning and the health of cities in the Tacoma News Tribune.
Comments (23) | To Top
8/2/2007 @ 8:19am
Thanks for this post Kevin. If all goes well and justice prevails - that does still happen sometimes doesn't it - Clear Channel will have successfully shot itself in the foot. Their clever revenge campaign has allowed us all to see just how many billboards they own around our fair city. Looks like it's gonna be a fight though.
by Sharon S
8/2/2007 @ 9:21am
Lose the billboards Tacoma! Don't back down in the face of strong-arm tactics.
by Kristine N
8/2/2007 @ 11:52am
Great shots of the downtown. The billboard owners make the case for their removal stronger than anyone else could have.
by Erik B.
8/2/2007 @ 12:09pm
I'm in total agreement with all those reasons. Let's make Tacoma a place we can all be proud of an get rid of the billboards.
Here's my opinion: http://www.zastica.com/entries/my-take-on-billboards-in-tacoma/
by Dave
8/2/2007 @ 12:13pm
the city can fine them for everyday they are not in compliance... if Clear Channel delays long enough the city could take them down and not owe CC any compensation!
by RR Anderson
8/2/2007 @ 6:23pm
Why take them all down? If property owners are agreable, some spaces can be used for public art. We have an owner on 6th Ave who would be delighted if we used the board for art....
by Claudia Riedener
8/2/2007 @ 11:21pm
"Constitutions matter' -- whose, a corporation's? C'mon. LAWS matter. Respect them, CC. SCENERY matters. We want ours back.
I figured the billboards had something to do with that... it's just unclear WTF they're talking about. Successful marketing, guys, now follow the rules you've had a decade to comply with and get them boards out of our faces.
by TheDamnMushroom
8/3/2007 @ 7:22am
glad to see someone is handling this tacoma style:
by jules
8/3/2007 @ 7:23am
oop! the img. url didn't show up in my post: headless dude meets clear channel: http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h66/mfphotoshoot/tacoma/?action=view¤t=clearchannel.jpg
by jules
8/3/2007 @ 7:24am
hmmm. I was trying to post the graffitid billboard by headless dude but it didn't work so I guess you just have to look him up on myspace.
by jules
8/3/2007 @ 8:35am
More of the above Tacoma, please!
by KevinFreitas
8/3/2007 @ 9:24am
Great letter to the editor in the TNT today:
"Billboard company’s strategy backfiring
JOHN MILES; Tacoma
Published: August 3rd, 2007 01:00 AM
...
I looked down Tyler Street the other day and saw five huge signs in a row and thought to myself: “I never realized how many billboards there are around here and how big and ugly they are. There should be a law.”
Then I read that they were created by Clear Channel to protest Tacoma’s billboard ban. If the company is attempting to elicit public sympathy, it’s backfiring.
However, these signs’ political message probably brings the billboards into compliance with the ordinance, so I guess I can’t complain now. Ironic."
by Erik B.
8/3/2007 @ 9:24am
I agree that the billboards should go. They're unsightly, distracting to drivers (so making our roads more dangerous), and are not the most effective way of advertising. The money spent on billboard advertising would get better results through advertised sponsorships - people appreciate that more.
by Stephen Bowden
8/3/2007 @ 6:07pm
You are all freaks. Spend time on helping people, not fighting billboards. Look at the trash on the television, that should fire you up a little more than a sign, if you have a brain.
by Ni John
8/3/2007 @ 10:58pm
Freaks? Brainless? Nice.
If you don't like what's on TV, you can always change the channel.
This is an important issue, not just for the beautification of our city but to avoid setting a precedence to allow powerful corporations to overpower our local government.
We see this kind of thing enough in national politics, it doesn't need to happen locally.
Corporations should not have the same rights as citizens.
We need to take a stand when we can.
by Dylan M
8/3/2007 @ 11:34pm
If you have a brain, you're outside looking at scenery -- including billboards -- not watching trashy TV. Looks like that message backfired like "Constitutions Matter" -- though you are less likely to be tagged than the billboards, presumably. :)
I saw another billboard that got tagged but it looked to be a standard tagger signature, not a message. We need more messages.
SCENERY MATTERS.
by TheDamnMushroom
8/5/2007 @ 1:25pm
Now people should report the graffiti on the billboards! Tacomaservices.org (click citizen request)
by Jake
8/5/2007 @ 2:12pm
Yeah, they graffiti "artists" have hit them pretty well.
"Now people should report the graffiti on the billboards!"
How would one report it?
Blight sprayed on blight?
by Erik B.
8/5/2007 @ 5:19pm
I see that Tacoma's billboard fight is being viewed by more and more people from outside the city. Here's the link to a place call Pranks dot com.
-Erik
by Calling All Billboard Liberators!
8/5/2007 @ 7:16pm
And now, the article is picked up by some other "Billboard Liberation Group."
Hmm. Interesting. RR knows alot of media fringe groups.
-Erik
by BLF Billboard Liberation
8/6/2007 @ 7:25am
Hey, let's Googlebomb "Constitutions Matter". You can click over to my place to see my post on it.
by John Moltz
8/6/2007 @ 10:05am
I just can't believe that Clear Channel thought that this was an issue that they could appeal to the public about, as if there's some huge group of people that love billboards so much they're willing to start righting to city hall and showing up at council meetings. Go home Clear Channel, you've appealed to the mob, and the mob has spoken.
by Elliot
8/22/2007 @ 5:35pm
So, let's just tear up the Constitution since in your view it is a damn piece of paper. Hey, some things are unsightly - homeless, junk cars, poor people, people who smell and yes, people who protest the war all the while why TPD stands on patrol sucking down overtime pay.
I figure you won't post this comment, since your site only posts statements from people with similar viewpoints. Kind of Commie don't you think? Ouch, but then again you'd support the city council allowing an officer to break down a homeowner's door, tie her up (Frunz) and then leave and say "never mind." Now that is one city who is upholding their ordinance they were so proud to annnounce and proclaim to protest the Patriot Act. Think again, if your famed city council won the Frunz. v. City of Tacoma case, they'd have the right (precedence; stare decisis) to break down your door anytime they damn well wanted and say: NEVER MIND!
Yes, the Constitution does matter!!!!
by marco