[sustran] Re: Sao Paulo bans outdoor advertising

[Walter Hook]

Well, I am all for knowing the dirty details, but its hard to get good
things implemented, and easy to criticize.  The velib program is perhaps the
most important thing to happen in cycling in a long time.  

In nyc my local activist friends on the 'privy council' killed a similar
Decaux deal in NYC swapping add kiosks for public toilets.  Their campaign
was hilarious, but naturally they (and others) killed the add kiosks and we
still don’t have any decent public toilets. (i think there is one left in
herald square).  Is it impossible to out in decent public  toilets without
billboards?  Of course? Does it happen? No.  why?  Because its probably a
pain the bureaucratic ass and who wants to go through all the hassle unless
there's some big carrot there?  

Probably you don’t have to have a lot of public billboards to have a good
bike sharing program, but on the other hand, the fact remains that to date
the largest scale bike sharing program in the world was linked to this
advertising deal, and those projects not linked to similar deals did not
reach the same scope and scale as quickly.  Sometimes to make things
successful the scale and scope of the project has to be bulked up to attract
big firms able to do a big scale project.  

Should we be upset if Bechtel starts building BRT projects?  I think,
rather, it is the surest sign that we are winning.

Personally, not all adds bother me equally. In the scheme of things, is this
sort of visual pollution really something to get our knickers in a twist
about?  Was worth it to see Sting on a bike, no?  What is New York's times
square without the adds?  Maybe I have kind of trashy taste, what can I say.
I sort of go for that Blade Runner look.

w






-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
Of Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 4:15 PM
Cc: deboulonneurs.paris at no-log.org; Jana Krcmárová; Dave Holladay; 'WCN
list'; 'Global 'South' Sustainable Transport'
Subject: [sustran] Re: Sao Paulo bans outdoor advertising

Hi Walter,

Walter Hook wrote:
> It has been a largely popular move in sao paulo, though i personally feel
it
> is another example of what frequently happens in politics where instead of
> setting up some optimal and sensible regulatory structure the govt goes
from
> one extreme of no regulation to another ezxtreme. 
CAN you please tell me how a place free of advertising is "extreme"?

>  same mayor may pull down
> trolleybus wires because of visual pollution but with less savory impacts
on
> other types of pollution. 
GOOD point, but there are solutions for getting electricity or power 
from things besides overhead lines, for trams... and buses.
>  Velib deal w Decaux supposedly cut down the total
> number of billboards by some percentage, making the remaining ones more
> lucrative.
LESS of bad thing, if that is true.

>   TransMillenio as an agency now earning half its money from add
> revenue.  
>   

PLEASE refer to Lloyd's email from the other day about public financing 
and don't forget to take your anti-pragmatism/pro-solidarity vitamins.

- T

p.s. Could someone confirm Lloyd's estimate of Velib costing EUR 1 
million to install in Paris? That figure seems low, but, if true, it is 
about half of the price of ONE new tram or light-rail vehicle.

p.p.s. For perspective, this 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FAC_kfir_flight.jpg> is a Colombian 
Air Force Kfir fighter bought used from the Israeli Air Force. The price 
new was 4.5 million dollars.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
> [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
> Of Lloyd Wright
> Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 3:17 PM
> To: 'Global 'South' Sustainable Transport'; 'WCN list'
> Subject: [sustran] Sao Paulo bans outdoor advertising
>
> Given the recent exchange regarding Paris Velib's proliferation of
> outdoor advertising, I thought the following article might be of
> interest.
>  
> http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9963268
>
> Outdoor advertising
>
>
> Visual pollution
>
>
> Oct 11th 2007
> >From The Economist print edition
>   
[...]

-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

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Czech Republic

Skype: toddedelman
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edelman at greenidea.eu
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