For PlanPhilly
A message from SCRUB:
Councilman Frank DiCicco Introduces Legislation that Strips Neighborhoods of their Right to Enforce Billboard Laws
Billboard prohibition and removal has enhanced revitalization efforts in every corner of the city for 20 years but DiCicco's proposed legislation, Bill 100013, removes key language from the current law that validates the regulations. The proposed law, intended to dramitically increase digital, vinyl and billboard advertising signage on Market Street, destroys the billboard code that has protected every neighborhood in the city.
WHAT: Non-accessory billboards, digital signs and vinyl wall wraps of unlimited size and height on structures located on Market Street between 7th and 13th Streets. In order to do this, DiCicco has deleted critical language from existing outdoor advertising zoning codes 14-1604 and 9-602 removing protections that will AFFECT EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD in the city. This means you will have no protection from billboard companies.
WHERE: Every neighborhood in this city will be negatively impacted because Bill No. 100013 removes the language containing the legal basis for regulating billboards and non-accessory outdoor advertising signs in Philadelphia.
WHEN: Bill No. 100013 was introduced last Thursday. Hearings for this Bill have not been scheduled.
HOW: Section 14-1602 has protected Philadelphia from billboard saturation since 1991. The use of brackets [] in Councilman DiCicco's bill means that sections are intended to be deleted. Therefore, the Councilman intends to remove all of the language in both Section 9-602 [(1) a thru (m)], and Section 14-1604 [1(a) thru (m)], eliminating public policy statements that validate the laws. Click here to read copy of bill. As a result, laws that have prevented or removed over 1,075 billboards in Philadelphia neighborhoods will be eviscerated.
WHY: Neighborhoods and communities throughout the city will be stripped of their rights to enforce billboard laws in order to benefit select landlords and the billboard industry. We can only guess the motivation behind this nefarious bill.
TAKE ACTION:
- Write and phone District Councilmembers, Councilmembers-at-Large and the Mayor
- Volunteer at SCRUB. Contact us to see how you can help
- Join SCRUB and make a donation today
Comments
I understand and support SCRUBs efforts to fight "guady and shaby" looking billboards you may see attached to a side of someones row house in North Philly but there are some tasteful outdoor advertising that defines an area as feeling exciting and happening. If SCRUB really cared about "urban blight", SCRUB would change their focus to include all the blight and decay you see on your way from Southwest Philly or the blight you see coming down Second Street right before Erie Avenue. Or the blight and smell of the subway concourse in Center City. Instead SCRUB is on a "one track mind" mission to stop every type of outdoor advertising no matter if it is tasteful or not all at the expense of having places like Market East from 7th to City Hall look like a ghost town instead of a vibrant "City" which Philadelphia is last I checked. Every sign can't and should not look like a little mom and pop store sign in Mayberry. Market East in from the 40's to the 70's had bright signs like the hugh G on the Gimbel's building at 9th and Market or the big Kidie City sign. If groups like SCRUB want to keep their lobbying power they should at least let one little section of the city look and feel like a city that's vibrant instead of a city that shut down when the sun goes down.
I bet if a vote went on the ballot asking: (Should "special interest" groups like SCRUB be allowed to defind signage laws, lobby for their idiology, and protest signage bigger than four feet by four feet on private property at the expense of passing up revenue streams that could help enhance services, create a real entertainment district and nightlife and pay for street furniture that all Philadelphians and visitors could enjoy?) I guarantee you Philadelphians would vote NO in a landslide!
Sometimes groups like SCRUB that starts out with good intentions become too powerful and begin to become a part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
Philadelphia, the city that get in it's own way and restricts itself everytime it get a chance to, with love Philadelphia.
Philadelphia lacks real leadership. Places like Market East is a treasure waiting to bloom. But Philadelphia never lives up to it's full potential because as the above post states special interest groups seem to bully their opinions and infuence development or in Philadelphia's case step in the way of progressive development.
Philadelphia as a whole can never move forward if some special interest groups prefer Philadelphia as a whole to hold on to it's past.
In this case the argument SCRUB use to try to make their point is to advance healthy, vibrant and beautiful public spaces throughout Philadelphia. I'm for that 100% and would support their efforts if that entire statement was 100% accurate.
Is SCRUB really trying to advance healthy, vibrant and beautiful public spaces throughout all of Philadelphia or is SCRUB just some overzealous group that has a disdained hatred for any type of commercial marketing? Sometimes I feel as if groups like SCRUB were sent here from ofther cities just to keep Philadelphia from being competitive. It's just unreal to see how we seem to get in our own way all the time.
Overzealous special interest groups are the reason Philadelphia lacks real leadership and never seem to live up to our full potential. Instead of real leadership looking at the big picture by shaping rules and laws that encourage a healthy commerce cycle that benifits Philadelphians, special interest groups seem to works tirelessly to lobby the very people that should be our leadership in goverment into shaping laws that benefits these overzealous group's special interest.
I commend Councilman Frank DiCicco for having a progressive vision for trying something that has worked in other cities to spur economic development. If you read the bill Councilman DiCicco introduced you will see that it does not change our existing restrictive signage laws for over 99% of Philadelphia. Councilman DiCicco's bill only ease the restrictions for a small stretch of Market Street from Seventh to 13th Streets.
It's obvious that the stretch of Market East centered around 10th and 11th and Market has the potential to be a destination and gateway for shopping and entertainment if laws are in place to shape market driven development.
Our current uniformed restrictive laws make all of Philadelphia shopping corridors look bland. Bland is ok in most cases where shopping cooridors are married to residential neighborhoods and most of the patrons are form the local neighborhood. In that case our current restricted laws can yeild some benifit.
Market East is in the middle of Philadelphia's central business district and is the heart of our transit hub. Anyone would be hard press to call Market East a residential neighborhood in the same context one would call a cooridor outside of the central business district of the sixth largest city in the U.S.
Thousands of people from the tri-state area work in Center City. Tourist who visit tourist attractions, conventions, company meetings or leisure and shoppers from the surrounding area visit and pass thru an underwhelming Market East everyday considering Market East is in the heart of the sixth largest city in the country.
Easing laws for this small stretch of Market Street ,which were originally designed to protect residential neighborhoods, would allow Market East the ability to market itself and develop into a destination that would spur Philadelpia's economy and create a real vibrant area that promotes shopping, dining and entertainment.
Like all cities, Philadelphia evoled over the years. This evolution would not have happen if overzealous special interest group would have stood in the way and demanded that Philadelphia stayed nothing but woods and swamp land or tiny two and three story row houses or cobble stone streets or no building taller than City Hall.
High Street evoled into Market Street because of the development of the outdoor markets in the 1800's which became a destination for Philadelphians. Why not let Market Street between Seventh and 13th evolve into the 21st century? This is a small stretch that does not disturb the fabric of Old City or the fabric of our historical tourist attractions or for that matter the current fabric, both good and bad, of over 99% of the City of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia will never move forward unless our elected leaders start leading by doing what's right and fair for ALL Philadelphians instead of being lobbied by overzealous special interest groups who say they speak for all Philadelphians.