Scenic San Diego
  • Home
  • Issues
    • No to Digital Kiosks
    • No to Digital Billboards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Get involved
    • Contact your reps
  • About
  • Contact

News

Press Release: Scenic America and Scenic San Diego Oppose Approval ofDigital Advertising Kiosks

6/7/2023

0 Comments

 
Pam Wilson, Scenic San Diego
​​FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Scenic America and Scenic San Diego June 7, 2023. Download this press release (pdf).
JUNE 7, 2023, WASHINGTON, SAN DIEGO - We are disappointed and disheartened at the San Diego City Council’s 7:1 vote to approve up to 75 new digital advertising kiosks in downtown San Diego yesterday. Labeled “wayfinding kiosks” by supporters, these sidewalk billboards will add visual blight, distraction, and confusion to our scenic community beginning in three years.
Not to mention, this program is counter to San Diego’s longstanding outdoor advertising laws, which have kept our community nearly free of such visual pollution for four decades.
San Diego was the first to take a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, establishing its legal authority to limit outdoor advertising clutter in the 1981 case Metromedia v. San Diego. The city then became a nationwide leader when it froze the number of billboards at those existing in 1983.
By approving these kiosks, the City Council has opened the door for advertising companies to file for similar exemptions. It cannot be overstated that the Council’s ruling could devastate the scenic character of our community.

Among the 10 largest cities in the nation, San Diego is unique in its relative absence of outdoor advertising. This hard-fought legacy deserves preservation. But elected officials are looking only at dollars promised by ad agencies, ignoring what will be lost if our urban environment is transformed into a visually blighted one like those of Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
Similar to San Diego, we have seen the proliferation of these digital “wayfinding kiosks” in other major cities. In California alone, there have been changes to city and municipal code to allow for digital sidewalk displays in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Santa Monica. Similar amendments have also been approved in Houston, and more cities may continue to follow suit if allowed.
In San Diego, rumors are rampant at City Hall that the ad screens are just the tip of the iceberg. Next will be a wholesale dismantlement of sign limits.
The kiosk ordinance will be brought before the City Council again before Mayor Todd Gloria must choose whether to sign it into law. New outdoor digital advertising is currently outlawed in San Diego, and we intend to do everything in our power to keep it that way. We join the Sierra Club and the Save Our Heritage Organisation in direct and full opposition to this move to add hundreds of thousands of rotating outdoor ads to our sidewalks.

Mark Falzone 
President Scenic America

Pamela Wilson
Director
Scenic San Diego
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About

    Scenic San Diego is an all-volunteer coalition of concerned citizens and organizations who favor strong sign ordinances and oppose billboards and other advertising sign proliferation.

    Archives

    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    October 2022
    May 2022
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    August 2012
    June 2011
    February 1997

    Categories

    All
    Action Alerts
    Digital Billboards
    Digital Kiosks
    In The News
    Press Releases
    Sign Laws
    Sign Ordinance 101

    RSS Feed

Home | No Digital Kiosks | No Digital Billboards | News | Contact your Reps | Get Involved | About | Contact
©2004 - 2023 Scenic San Diego. All rights reserved. admin
Fair Use Disclaimer: This website contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of the outdoor advertising industry and public policy issues pertaining to it.  This constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this message is distributed.  If you wish to use copyrighted material from this message for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
  • Home
  • Issues
    • No to Digital Kiosks
    • No to Digital Billboards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Get involved
    • Contact your reps
  • About
  • Contact