Another recrudescence! Almost a year ago, a company called Outfront Media tried to circumvent the newly minted Sign Ordinance by proposing “Urban Entertainment Districts.” It is part of this blog from last May. By fall, the outsider effort had been renamed “Digital Arts Media Pilot Project” and was promising not only that revenues go to the Department of Arts and Culture, but that the digital billboards would be accompanied by permanent artworks stuck on the side of buildings or parking garages. A survey found 75% of people against the proposed pilot program, and a City Council hearing was delayed five times but then finally held last Friday and shockingly, voted forward.
Blade Runner, here we come!
What was most surreal about the City Council Planning and Community Development Committee meeting was the crazy reason the Council Members came up with to vote for it. Lighting and Public Safety. I kid you not. This is at least five kinds of stupid.
Stupid #1 – Lighting?
If downtown has a problem with lighting, shouldn’t it be solved by, I don’t know, streetlights? The “pilot” project will have up to two (2) billboards per district, and downtown is a maximum three districts. So, maximum six digital billboards, none of which stays on all night. Seven new streetlights downtown beats that nonsense.
See how the Crockett Hotel neon illuminates the Alamo?
Stupid #2 – “Pilot”
Even Centro, which was in favor of the “pilot” program, testified that if a pilot fails, you need to remove it. The media company said they would not, and our experience with the digital kiosks six years ago was the same. Once they go up, they stay up.
Even in front of the oldest unrestored stone church in North America
Stupid #3 – San Antonio
Not too disparage the cities that have taken up this craven combination of culture and advertising, but none of them (Denver, Cincinnati, Atlanta) have the two biggest tourist attractions in the state (the Alamo and the River Walk). None of them have World Heritage status. We have a concentration of historic buildings and sites that exceeds most cities and will be actively and financially harmed by having little Times Square wannabes blinking around the corner.
Move along, nothing to see here….
Stupid #4 – Revenue
The johnny-come-too-lately company proposing this is promising revenue sharing of up to 20% and screen sharing (for arts or city postings) of up to 20%. Again, like the kiosks. Word on the street is that Denver saw no revenue for years and when it finally came it was a fraction of the millions promised. Atlanta reported $760,000 in 2021 of which $330,000 went to artists and that is with 14 signs downtown. The revenue is not enough for a budget line in Cincinnati.
Stupid #5 – Art
San Antonio has recently added a lot of mural art to downtown, thanks to new technologies that allow you to do so without permanently affecting brick walls and the like – removable film. If you walk from Houston and Losoya two blocks west you will encounter three or four of these. I can’t imagine any of them not harmed by having a digital billboard attached to them.
JUNE UPDATE:
The lame duck City Council approved the pilot of up to 10 digital billboards last week in a 7-3 vote. Thanks to D1 Sukh Kaur, D5 Teri Castillo and D7 Marina Gavito for voting against this travesty. Now we will see what actually happens and where – since landmarks are off-limits and downtown will require HDRC approval. Maybe the digital demidemons will be limited to Port San Antonio and the Ferris Wheel/Alamodome district.