One week after the San Francico local elections, a few thousand stray ballots have yet to be counted, but it is nevertheless clear that Prop K, the "No New Advertising in our Public Spaces" policy declaration has won overwhelmingly! As of today, November 13th, the vote count is:
MEASURE K
YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 81,035 61.76%
NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,170 38.24%
This vote sends a strong message to San Francisco's policymakers that city residents are not willing to give over our public spaces to the billboard industry, especially Clear Channel Outdoor, who stands to gain the most from commercial advertising on bus shelters and other "street furniture".
Clear Channel spent a reported $175,000 on "No on Prop K" advertising, including direct mailers (lame graphics, riddled with half-truths and a sorry waste of many trees) and, of course, billboards across the City. I honestly think this is what assured us the win - their campaign definitely back-fired on them. San Franciscans are not stupid. They know that when the bottom of the mailer says "Paid for by Clean Channel Outdoor', that the the billboard company is attempting to protect its own bottom line, not the citizens of San Francisco. Voters recognized that Prop K would not threaten their MUNI service, as Clear Channel maintained, but would show our city leaders that we STILL do not want commercial advertising covering every conceivable inch of space in our uniquely beautiful city.
This vote reaffirms the Prop G vote in 2002, when over 79% of San Francisco voters approved the measure to stop all new billboards from being built in the City.
What next? Should San Francisco follow Sao Paolo's lead and ban ALL billboards in our city? That would be a difficult law to pass, as state law (put forward by the billboard industry, who else?) mandates that billboard owners have to be paid for the LIFETIME VALUE of any legally permitted billboard that is removed. That's a chunk of change in a city where many billboards are valued at millions of dollars each. And yet, it's an interesting idea, perhaps worth pursuing.
What are your thoughts? Let us know!
Dee Dee Workman, Executive Director
San Francisco Beautiful
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3 comments:
Congratulations to all who worked to get Prop. K passed and a big thank you to all those who voted yes! San Francisco's public spaces will be better for it.
Fantastic! Congratulations from the Quesada Gardens Initiative to SFB for leading the way. And congratulations again on the new blog!
Let's scrap billboards and plant trees
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