This work isn't about liking or disliking outdoor advertising. It's about celebrating real places and preserving a sense of identity in a nation that is morphing into a giant strip mall surrounded by exec-u-boxes and townhouses named for the natural features that used to be there.
Where would we be without Lady Bird Johnson's courage in taking on the outdoor-advertising industry and lobbying for the 1968 Highway Beautification Act? Her work established a framework for regulating outdoor advertising and led to state- and city-based controls we rely on to protect our neighborhoods.
As Ed McMahon, founder of Scenic America, used to say, "Billboards have their place, but that place isn't every place."
The outdoor- advertising industry sees it differently. Any surface is a potential revenue- generator. They aggressively push for gigantic wall-wraps, bus wraps, electronic billboards, benches, kiosks, toilets, trash cans, and anywhere else a pair of eyeballs may land for a moment. This excessive advertising diminishes our experience of place.
It's in the hands of the Society Created to Remove Urban Blight, in Philadelphia, and more than 40 such groups across the country to keep Lady Bird's work alive. In Philadelphia alone, the tenacity of SCRUB and our neighborhood partners has prevented or removed more than 450,000 square feet of outdoor advertising.
Lady Bird Johnson wanted Americans to see and connect with the inherent beauty of this country. She had the vision that Vermont ought to look like Vermont and Texas ought to look like Texas. And, surely, that Philadelphia ought to look like Philadelphia.
Mary C. Tracy
Philadelphia
The writer is executive director of the
Society Created to Remove Urban Blight, a
Philadelphia nonprofit.