Billboards are everywhere.
In fact, so pervasive are the huge, picturesque
advertisements on the city’s urban landscape, their
presence may not fully strike the consciousness of the
passersby below.
But the billboards do exert an impact -- and often, a negative one, say the Pennsylvania Resources Council and the Society to Reduce Urban Blight and, otherwise known as SCRUB.
The groups jointly conducted a study to bring what they see as a nagging problem to public attention. The billboards proliferate a number of the city’s distressed neighborhoods. Many are illegal, and most, they say, are ugly.
SCRUB executive director Mary Tracy, in a news conference at City Hall earlier this week, reported that 89 percent of the signs in one survey area and 59 percent in another were illegal. The billboard owners did not have the necessary zoning variances. And with no permits, the companies that own them are paying no fees to the city.
The SCRUB/PRC survey covered the Belmont/Mantua and Bridesburg/Tacony sections of the city. One of the companies sited in the SCRUB/PRC study, Clear Channel Outdoor (formerly Eller Media), has a number of billboards in the Bridgesburg/Tacony area.
George Kauker, president of the Philadelphia Division of Clear Channel, said he disagrees with the contention that billboards cause blight and that his company is “law abiding.” He said he works closely with the city’s department of Licenses & Inspection to make certain that all paper work is in order. He said that some other companies might not follow the law, as they should.
Kauker countered that the vast majority of the Clear Channel signs are permitted and licensed and that some in old locations pre-date current ordinances. In some cases, he said, it is difficult for the city to locate the paperwork.
Calls to Licenses & Inspection resulted in a recorded message, which gave various costs for permits. The charge for “outdoor signs” was listed as $250. However, it was not clear whether this was a one-time fee or a yearly cost.
Donald Gadson, operations manager of Chesapeake Outdoor advertising, with headquarters in Union, N.J., said he is seeking an assistant to help maintain the 600 to 700 billboards the company has up in the city. He said he is presently going through his inventory to determine which billboards are legal and which are not. He, too, said that many of the signs he manages were “grand fathered in,” meaning they were erected prior to current licensing requirements.
According to SCRUB, “In the Belmont/Mantua, where nearly 40 percent of residents live below the poverty level, most of the billboards hang on the sides of buildings in order to attract the attention of neighborhood residents.
“In Bridesburg/Tacony, where residents were largely white and where the poverty level is around nine percent, large signs on pillars target drivers on I-95.
“The study suggests that billboard companies are illegally dumping their signs on stressed neighborhoods – areas whose residents are too busy dealing with other problems to oppose billboards,” Tracy said.
These signs are pervasive in Black communities and often display some type of alcohol or fast-food restaurant ads.
According to Dr. Denyse Hicks, billboards have a negative psychological impact on poor communities. They make a community unpleasant. They create an environment of “hopelessness and helplessness,” contributing to residents’ feelings that they don’t have the ability to change their community, Hicks said.
Patricia Imperato, executive director of Pennsylvania Resource Council, said, “Cities can be beautiful. The mayor (John F. Street) sees the need for good, clean and aesthetically pleasing communities.
“Aesthetically pleasing is not having commercial messages in your face all of the time,” she continued. “We understand the value of marketing, but we don’t think it has to be everywhere.”
Tracy and Imperato said that they did not think the companies whose products are being advertised are complicit in the billboard proliferation. However, some of the media companies are taking advantage of a situation in which the city does not adequately respond. According to SCRUB/PRC, approximately 700 companies have never paid a fee to the city to erect their signs.