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Old 01-15-2015, 01:48 PM
 
2,541 posts, read 4,012,305 times
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This is great news. I wish more organizations would boycott them. I'm calling out UH, UHCL, MFAH and HMNS on this (the ones I happen to have noticed, repeatedly). It may be a great way to promote your organization, but it adds to the visual litter and devalues our city.

City eyes deals on billboard eyesores - Houston Chronicle
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Old 01-16-2015, 06:39 AM
 
Location: Foster, TX
1,179 posts, read 1,897,923 times
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I would love to know the history of billboard legislation in Houston, as well as defenders (do any exist besides the billboard owners themselves?) of these eyesores and what it was like in the 70s/80s when it was pretty much a free-for-all (from what I've read, billboard proliferation was stopped sometime in the 80s).
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Old 01-16-2015, 06:48 AM
 
Location: Non Extradition Country
2,165 posts, read 3,744,138 times
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That's funny because I just signed deals at two of my locations to put up new 14' x 48' billboards for clear channel advertising.
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Old 01-16-2015, 07:10 AM
 
Location: ✶✶✶✶
15,218 posts, read 30,401,995 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NTexas2010 View Post
I would love to know the history of billboard legislation in Houston, as well as defenders (do any exist besides the billboard owners themselves?)
Probably not, but in strict business terms and disregarding regulations, billboards are pretty much a license to print money. That's why those people will defend it. It's a way to get return for very little capital investment. Ted Turner's media empire started with billboards.

Houston began passing restrictions on billboards in the 1980s, but they did little but prevent new ones from going up. State law requires local governments who require existing billboards to be taken down to compensate their owners for lost revenue, so this amounts to paying out a lot of money.

They're not all bad. A properly placed billboard can add positively to an urban environment. They're on Canal Street in New Orleans. There's one across 610 from the Galleria (visible southbound) that I think is nicely done, set against one of the highrises. It's the endless boards on giant pegs as far as the eye can see along the freeways that are bad. This is made worse in a way in Houston because of the flat landscape, and perhaps the feeder road system which facilitates clutter development on the freeways.

Aside from other deals struck with Clear Channel and other billboard operators, they're generally not allowed to be replaced if they come down for any reason. Hurricane Ike took down a few.

I've covered this here before. If you hate billboards, pray for a giant hurricane.
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Old 01-16-2015, 08:24 AM
 
18,041 posts, read 25,061,271 times
Reputation: 16721
Quote:
Originally Posted by houston-nomad View Post
This is great news. I wish more organizations would boycott them. I'm calling out UH, UHCL, MFAH and HMNS on this (the ones I happen to have noticed, repeatedly). It may be a great way to promote your organization, but it adds to the visual litter and devalues our city.

City eyes deals on billboard eyesores - Houston Chronicle
What happened to "Let the market decide"?
We don't need the government to come here and tell businesses what to do
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Old 01-16-2015, 09:57 AM
 
134 posts, read 131,567 times
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Yes we do. They're eyesores.
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Old 01-16-2015, 02:39 PM
 
Location: Foster, TX
1,179 posts, read 1,897,923 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jfre81 View Post
Probably not, but in strict business terms and disregarding regulations, billboards are pretty much a license to print money. That's why those people will defend it. It's a way to get return for very little capital investment. Ted Turner's media empire started with billboards.

Houston began passing restrictions on billboards in the 1980s, but they did little but prevent new ones from going up. State law requires local governments who require existing billboards to be taken down to compensate their owners for lost revenue, so this amounts to paying out a lot of money.

They're not all bad. A properly placed billboard can add positively to an urban environment. They're on Canal Street in New Orleans. There's one across 610 from the Galleria (visible southbound) that I think is nicely done, set against one of the highrises. It's the endless boards on giant pegs as far as the eye can see along the freeways that are bad. This is made worse in a way in Houston because of the flat landscape, and perhaps the feeder road system which facilitates clutter development on the freeways.

Aside from other deals struck with Clear Channel and other billboard operators, they're generally not allowed to be replaced if they come down for any reason. Hurricane Ike took down a few.

I've covered this here before. If you hate billboards, pray for a giant hurricane.
Thanks for the insight. I can understand a property owner being incentivized by the potential income (similar to land owners leasing out property for O&G wells), but at the same time such monetary gains come at a non-monetary price. All I know is how much more pleasant driving on 59 is once you get out of Harris County and into Fort Bend (Stafford and Sugar Land).
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Old 01-16-2015, 04:23 PM
bu2
 
23,855 posts, read 14,634,641 times
Reputation: 12644
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfre81 View Post
Probably not, but in strict business terms and disregarding regulations, billboards are pretty much a license to print money. That's why those people will defend it. It's a way to get return for very little capital investment. Ted Turner's media empire started with billboards.

Houston began passing restrictions on billboards in the 1980s, but they did little but prevent new ones from going up. State law requires local governments who require existing billboards to be taken down to compensate their owners for lost revenue, so this amounts to paying out a lot of money.

They're not all bad. A properly placed billboard can add positively to an urban environment. They're on Canal Street in New Orleans. There's one across 610 from the Galleria (visible southbound) that I think is nicely done, set against one of the highrises. It's the endless boards on giant pegs as far as the eye can see along the freeways that are bad. This is made worse in a way in Houston because of the flat landscape, and perhaps the feeder road system which facilitates clutter development on the freeways.

Aside from other deals struck with Clear Channel and other billboard operators, they're generally not allowed to be replaced if they come down for any reason. Hurricane Ike took down a few.

I've covered this here before. If you hate billboards, pray for a giant hurricane.

The law required non-conforming billboards to come down in a certain period (17 years I think). The idea was they would be economically amortized over that time. There have been lawsuits ever since and lobbying with the state (state passed a law allowing billboard owners along SW Freeway to relocate when they did construction).
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Old 01-16-2015, 04:25 PM
bu2
 
23,855 posts, read 14,634,641 times
Reputation: 12644
Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc05 View Post
Yes we do. They're eyesores.

Compare the drive on the South Freeway to that on the North Freeway.

When the South Freeway land was acquired, it was designated as a billboard free zone.
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Old 01-16-2015, 05:15 PM
 
Location: ✶✶✶✶
15,218 posts, read 30,401,995 times
Reputation: 10846
They're certainly less noticeable on the little miniature version of Dallas' North Central Expressway which is 59 roughly between Shepherd and Main which runs , even though they're there.

rush hour by jfre81, on Flickr

(this of all things is the most-viewed image on my Flickr and has appeared randomly in people's blogs across the internets in posts about traffic, freeways and whatnot)

Then there's this on Canal Street in New Orleans, which I mentioned earlier. It doesn't distract nearly as much, what with being on top of a building. Also, not running down the pedestrians going in and out of the French Quarter either are your primary focus, or they should be:

IMG_0730 by jfre81, on Flickr

Properly regulated and placed, there's no problem. But in Houston, it's one of the more visible manifestations of the lack of zoning, where most anything goes up anywhere. Combine that with the feeder road system that brings development right up to the interstate and you get the scenery of I-45 in Houston going both ways. Sure, there are billboards and commercial clusters here in Dayton off I-75, but it's not continuous and perhaps it helps that you have this little Appalachia scene with the hills going. That's not the case on the coast of Texas.
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