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The Washington Examiner has an interesting report on the legality of billboards in the District. Interesting, in that no one seems to know whether any of them are legal or not. D.C. put a moratorium on new billboards in 1931, grandfathering in existing signs and preventing replacement if they were taken down, but around 1972, someone stopped updating the list of legal billboards. The Dept. of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has now started an investigation into signs around the city and promises removal of any that are illegally placed. If you suspect you've found an improperly hanging billboard, contact DCRA (including any info and photos you have) at signs.dcra[at]dc.gov.
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Does anyone know about the armed robbery on 13th NW last night in Columbia Heights? The helicopters
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I thought the only reason we put up billboards in DC was so that the Cool Disco Dan crowd had something to tag.
The District’s moratorium on new billboards took effect nearly 80 years ago. Signs in place as of Nov. 30, 1931, were allowed to stay, and most of those that were demolished or removed afterward were not allowed to be replaced.
Just replace that "1931" with "2031" and scrap every billboard standing. Problem solved. If they don't like it, they can just stand in line at the buffet at Junkpunchers and a server will attend to them.
If people don't like billboards in DC, they should just take Jim Graham's advice and take Metro so they don't have to look them.
It's legal if Adrian Fenty says it's legal.
Sounds like they have a burden of proof problem. Why the f*ck don't they consult their lawyers before they make statements like this.
Do you really want Peter Nickles involved in this? He'd suck your brain out of your eyesocket before retreating to his Fortress of Solitude (i.e., the fire extinguisher alcove in Chinablock). Why do you think he wants to keep the population unarmed? Not that bullets have any effect on him.
I'm a bit confused. Does it matter if list wasn't updated since 1972? The list should still be accurate as to which billboards existed in 1931. What am I missing?
Actually, reading it again, I missed that the grandfathering only extends to the billboard that actually existed in 1931.
In that case, I don't see any problem at all. It seems rather obvious which billboards are not from 1931.
Seriously. This can't be ascertained from a quick visual inspection? I don't think that billboard for Doc Johnson's Miracle Tonic has anything to worry about. Scion? Now that's another story. But I like how the policy ensures that the only ads we have to look at are ones for products and services that likely no longer exist. It's the worst of both worlds!
I'm just glad DC finally got around to tearing down those "Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge" election banners.
Now, if they could just take care of those "It's Chavous Time: DON'T BE LATE!" signs.
Boo. I like seeing the billboards in the city. Makes the area less sterile looking. The regulation of signs, etc., no matter what form they take is really stupid. Look at the debacle with the Georgetown Apple store to see how neighborhood groups can hijack the process. Look at Vienna, Virginia to see how sign regulations can make an entire town look dull, lifeless, and stepford wife-like. And look at the OXO Tower as a good way to say "eff you!"
Then look at LA where there are practically no billboard regulations and the place looks even more like a sh!thole. Billboards add nothing.
The OXO Tower is one thing. A great big honking Newport/WMAL/Hennessey/Trojan billboard in Georgetown or Adams Morgan is quite another. It may make an area less sterile - and much more tacky and vulgar.
While we're at it, let's just carpet the Mall and the White House lawn with those "College Hunks Hauling Junk" or "Single?" lawn signs. Now THAT'S class!
Yea, those examples certainly seem tacky. I just normally take the side of liberty and freedom in these kind of issues, but I can understand why others take the side of regulating taste.
Utah does a horrible job with this too. Never mind those those beautiful mountains in the background, I need to know if the next freeway exit has a Burger King.
Or how far you are from Rock City or Little America.
I'm still waiting for those 'I FOUND IT' billboards to come back. Better yet, my most favorite billboard signs in the whole wide world were by Johnny Walker.
It depicted 2 women looking wistfully at a man and one woman saying: "He likes my kids and he drinks Johnny Walker." I kid you not.
I hope DCRA doesn't forget about the huge ones on the sides of the Verizon Center...they *certainly* weren't there in 1931! Or, maybe mayor Fenty will okie-doke that too.
Oh, and waht about the new electronic billboards at 7th and H NW above the Metro entrance?
The DC Government has muddied the waters by funding billboard-murals through the DC Creates Public Art program. The decline of quality in this DCCAH program dates from the adoption of a panel format that eliminates or minimizes peer review by artists and the linkage to Great Streets and other boosterism efforts.
The problem with the billboards is not purely a visual issue. They provide a way for owners of vacant and nuisance properties to make money and keep the properties vacant forever. That's the motivation behind the effort to have them removed.
Consider some of the examples in The Examiner article. The Scion billboard at 11th and K is wrapped around a historic vacant mansion downtown. That ought to be put into productive use, rather than wrap it like a package until it deteriorates beyond repair. The 4th/P/NJ Avenue billboards (a set of 4) on on an empty lot used for illegal parking, vagrancy and worse.
Then there are the makeshift billboards up on the fences of vacant lots, such as at 9th and L NW, and used car/vacant lots, such as at 3rd and New York Avenue.
In the intervening years, the DC Council specifically authorized some billboards, such as the electronic billboards in Chinatown and, I believe, it very briefly lifted the moratorium, permitted several billboards, and then reinstituted the ban in 2001 (issuing permits for some of the current 32 billboards up around the city).
What also muddies the water is that the building regulations as to where billboards may be legitimately be placed, i.e. only so close to a residence, may have come out long after some of the older billboards, which are apparently grandfathered in forever.
I'm posting the full text of DCRA Director Linda Argo's explanation here:
http://theother35percent.blogspot.com/
While we are at it let's tear down the signs over the ESPN Zone.
While we are at it let's tear down the signs over the ESPN Zone.
Fixed that for you.
Thank you.
Where's my strike tag, you bastards?
Visit http://www.shawbillboardblight.org/ and protest the illegal billboards on P an NJ, NW
What makes those billboards illegal?
Um...no current permits as stated by DCRA...in violation of DC Code 3107.7.6 (the grandfathering code)... I could go on, but the link already has this info...
btw the (large) block is valued by the Tax Office at $47,000. Cranky - what's your land taxed at? Any one else getting a sweet deal like this? I certainly would like it, maybe I'll post some billboards myself...
The 1931 list actually says some billboards, like the ones at Fourth and P St NW, should have come down in three years...that means 1934. Check it out: http://www.shawbillboardblight.org/