They Bore Easily?
By Mitch Berg
A few years back, before secondhand smoke was the plague that was going to destroy all of us in Saint Paul if we didn’t get on top of it, billboards were the great scourge. A group of motivated, well-connected people devoted tons of time and energy to trying to ban billboards and their advertising in Saint Paul.
And I know what some of you might say; “you can’t compare the two issues; they’re different groups of people”.
No. In fact, the two groups were largely the same. But for the likes of the American Lung Association of Minnesota, the cast of players was nearly identical (and for all I know the ALAMN people may have been involved in some astroturf “American Visual Pollution Society of Minnesota”).
Anyway, the city (operating at the behest of the well-connected activists) tried to seize the billboards (they are private property), and fought and lost a lawsuit in pursuit of that niggling goal.
Saint Paulicy notes that times would seem to have changed:
Como Zoo, Conservatory and “Como Town” are prominently advertised in all of the square footage that can only be achieved through a….. billboard! Has the city had a change of heart or are billboards no longer the political hot potato they used to be? After eating the juicy SPicy almost felt like maybe the city did not mean it after all and it would be o.k. to light up a smoke, no forget it.
SPicy wonders if the anti-billboard folks completely forgot about billboards in Saint Paul while they pushed their smoking ban, they are the same people you know. Maybe they too realized the power of advertising. After SPicy and SPousy parked the mini, we walked around the corner and saw a billboard on the bus stop promoting the virtues of quitting smoking. This group must not know what to do with themselves.
July 25th, 2007 at 5:03 am
Hawaii has no billboards. There’s a law against them. It’s interesting how the law is phrased and enforced here, since the government of Hawaii very properly wants to allow _some_ roadside advertising to persuade tourists to spend their dollars here and there.
The billboards are one of the first things I notice when I visit Minnesota. God they’re ugly. Get rid of the billboards, please. No one will miss them.
Unless they are hiding some hideous piece of architecture.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:37 am
I would support a big reduction on rural areas. Look at the mess along 35 to Duluth.
But in the middle of a large urban area, billboards are as normal as freeway exit signs. I have no problem with them in St Paul.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I noticed on last weeks trip to Chicago, that there were areas without bill boards, and because of that, we drove past things that we would have stopped at, if we had had any warning that the restaurant / activity was at the next exit. While billboards can be annoying and ugly, they can also communicate good information to the traveller.