Outdoor Advertising

A judge said Friday that he plans to invalidate a 2006 settlement between the city of Los Angeles and two companies, CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor, that allowed them to convert 840 conventional billboards to a digital format. Former City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo negotiated the agreement with the two companies after they sued the city over its 2002 billboard regulations. Digital signs soon began popping up all over Los Angeles, infuriating homeowner groups and becoming a key issue in this year's city elections.

Re "Big bright blight," Opinion, Jan. 7 Michael Woo's commentary on ways the city can get a grip on billboards misses one obvious way to eliminate these ugly, energy-gulping beasts: starve them. The billboards run on electricity, often supplied by the city's Department of Water and Power. How much is it costing the city utility to generate additional energy for this new use? And with much electricity coming from coal, the new load from electronic billboards means the amount of greenhouse gas emissions just jumped.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission postponed action Thursday on a proposed ordinance regulating new billboards and commercial signs in the city. Anti-billboard advocates, community groups and business representatives all urged the delay during a four-hour hearing in City Hall, saying that the proposal was fraught with problems and that more public comment was necessary. The measure would outlaw new billboards, including digital displays, and supergraphics that are hung along the sides of buildings.

For almost a year, 65-foot-tall billboards resembling beer cans towered over four neighborhoods in Boyle Heights. The Bud Light signs sparked concerns of parents who said the billboards sent negative messages to children walking past them on their way to school. Jesse Ramos, a parent at Second Street Elementary School, said children saw "that ugly beer sign and [thought] it's all right to drink."

Fred Hosseini has carved a profitable niche out of industrial upheavals. When some big banks merge, for example, Hosseini's AdImpact agency hires on to create signs--hundreds of them--for the new corporate entity. They range from the tiny logo on parking decals to 13-foot-high lettering atop high-rise banking headquarters.

Los Angeles bus riders would get the benefit of at least 6,000 new benches under a controversial plan that was being boosted Wednesday by Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson. The plan is expected to draw protests because the city would have to allow the private company that is offering the graffiti-resistant seats to sell advertising on them.

Los Angeles bus riders would get the benefit of at least 6,000 new bus benches under a controversial plan that was being boosted Wednesday by Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson. The plan is expected to draw protests because the city would have to allow the private company that is offering the graffiti-resistant seats to sell advertising on them.

L.A.'s newest alternative rock station may alter its quirky advertising campaign because of publicity hounds in Paramount. The City Council is considering making September "Y107 Month" in honor of 5-month-old Y107-FM (107.1). In exchange, the station has agreed to embrace Paramount as it's kind of town.

Fred Hosseini has carved a profitable niche out of industrial upheavals. When some big banks merge, for example, Hosseini's AdImpact agency hires on to create signs--hundreds of them--for the new corporate entity. They range from the tiny logo on parking decals to 13-foot-high lettering atop high-rise banking headquarters.