Tag Archives: taxes

Selling ad space on city property is not “creative”

By Steve Lambert | Published: July 2, 2012

Proposals of selling ad-space on things like firetrucks and are often framed as “getting creative” by the city councilmen that propose them. In fact, it’s not creative – it’s poorly thought out, and shortsighted. These proposals are bad deals that don’t solve fiscal problems (at best, they’re a drop in the bucket). Real creativity would [...]

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Smart License Plates: A Very Dumb Idea?

By Steve Lambert | Published: June 25, 2010

via Ban Billboard Blight Do you think the idea of California license plates than can show electronic ads is: 1.  A great idea, about time. 2.  Possibly questionable, but let’s study it. 3.  One of the top ten worst ideas of all time. If you answered yes to #1, don’t bother reading further.  If you [...]

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Consumer Reports: California considers ads on car license plates

By Steve Lambert | Published: June 24, 2010

Facing a $19 billion deficit, California is seeking creative solutions to its budget shortfall. The state legislature is considering a program that would allow advertising on license plates, according to the Associated Press. The bill would require new, digital plates, with ads appearing in the space currently occupied by the familiar numbers and letters. The [...]

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Corporate Sponsored Pothole Repair!

By Steve Lambert | Published: March 28, 2009

Guest post from AAA Reader James Ewert: A certain greasy chicken franchise is adding another item to its menu: pothole patching. In Louisville, KY and potentially in a town near you, what was once a city service paid for by tax payers might become another avenue for advertising. The fried chicken restaurant extended an offer [...]

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Demand a Read/Write City

By Steve Lambert | Published: October 3, 2008

This is graffiti: it’s spray paint it’s done without permission on someone else’s property it’s illegal politicians hate it It’s the expression of a citizen (or small group of citizens) in public space speaking to fellow citizens. Anyone, willing to take the legal risk, can do it. This is advertising: it’s printed vinyl it’s done [...]

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Sorry Amber, for Calif. Republicans you’re just not as important as this precious, precious money.

By Steve Lambert | Published: October 3, 2008

The L.A. Times is reporting Clear Channel has its eye on 674 state owned digital billboards on California Highways. The billboards were installed to alert drivers to road hazards and for Amber Alerts providing “urgent bulletins in the most serious child-abduction cases.” But now the state is listening to Clear Channel. Apparently California needs money. [...]

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Advertising wont solve economic problems for NYC

By Steve Lambert | Published: September 16, 2008

Another bad deal to trade public space for money from The New York Sun: Council Member David Yassky of Brooklyn is calling for the city to begin allowing advertising on municipal trash cans and suggested that such a move, which he estimated could bring $2.5 million in revenue, would help during difficult economic times. “We [...]

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In Florida, Billboards Trump Trees : NPR

By Steve Lambert | Published: September 10, 2008

excerpted from – In Florida, Billboards Trump Trees : NPR Highway 192 used to be exceptionally plain. It was lined by weed-filled ditches, with no sidewalks and poor lighting. It was drab. So the property owners voted to tax themselves $29 million to make the roadway safer and prettier. “Look at it today,” says Lizasuain. [...]

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New York City’s Struggle to Take Down Illegal Billboards

By Steve Lambert | Published: August 25, 2008

from the Village Voice with IllegalBillboards.org‘s own Jordan Seiler. City government and citizen vigilantes wage a losing battle against Clear Channel and illegal ads By Elizabeth Dwoskin Over the past seven years, Jordan Seiler estimates that he’s taken down hundreds of billboards, posters, and other signs to replace advertising in public places with his own [...]

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With billboards, cities are facing the digital decision

By Steve Lambert | Published: March 29, 2008

By Patricia Lowry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ah, for the good old days, when billboards were merely a blight you could avoid, sort of, by averting your eyes. Now the outdoor advertising companies have us right where they want us: stuck in traffic or at a red light, facing a digital sign that changes about every seven [...]

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The Golden Gate Billboard

By Paul S. | Published: August 27, 2007

There was an article in the NY Times today discussing the possibility of getting some sort of “sponsorship” for the Golden Gate Bridge. You know the idea of slapping advertising on everything has gotten bad when people are seriously discussing slapping ads on national treasures. What’s next? I giant “Monster.com” sign below the Mount Rushmore [...]

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NYT: Pay Phones Turned Mini-Billboards

By Steve Lambert | Published: August 17, 2007

An excerpt from Aug 17 New York Times: There is a reason for their survival: Public telephones are one of the stranger cash cows in city finance. Not because of the coins that are fed into them, but rather because of the millions upon millions that companies are willing to pay to put ads on [...]

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