MAS has been involved with signage regulations since the turn of the 20th century, when the New York Times noted that one of the City’s famed retail districts had become a “frightful spectacle, made so more by the wilderness of discordant and shrieking signs.”  MAS even introduced a revision of the building code in 1908 that would regulate billboards for the first time. The problem of signage pollution continues to impact New York’s streetscapes, but recent litigation has affirmed the City’s right to regulate outdoor advertising in favor of traffic safety and aesthetics.

The Southern District of New York held today that New York City may enforce its arterial highway advertising ban, regulate the registration and permitting of existing outdoor arterial signs, and restrict the locations of internally illuminated signs throughout the City.

A number of New York City’s signage regulations were challenged by Plaintiffs Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc., Atlantic Outdoor Advertising, Inc., Scenic Outdoor, Inc., Troystar City Outdoor, Inc., Willow Media, LLC (together, the “Clear Channel Plaintiffs”) and Metro Fuel, LLC. Continue Reading>>

The glow of outdoor lighting that has followed urban growth has overwhelmed our view of the stars.  This light pollution does not provide any useful light, wastes significant amounts of energy, harms surrounding ecosystems and contributes to carbon dioxide emissions.

The problems of this light pollution can be mitigated by using outdoor lighting that is efficient and designed to illuminate the ground and not the night sky.  It is probably impossible to create a fully dark sky here in NYC, but we can help the situation by simply installing lighting only when and where needed and by always directing it down towards the ground. Billboards can be lit from the top down rather than by shining a light on them from the bottom up.  Parking lots and ball parks can use fully shielded fixtures that shine the light on the playing field rather then the sky above. Continue Reading>>

The New York City Council will hold a public hearing next Monday, January 26, at 1:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall on Intro. 623 which proposes to allow advertising on sidewalk construction sheds for a yet to be determined permit fee. The Municipal Art Society will testify against this ill-conceived plan. [Read MAS press release here.] Download our testimony, here.

Outdoor advertising and sidewalk construction sheds blight our city’s streetscape. The City wisely seeks to regulate outdoor advertising with strict zoning regulations and imposes design guidelines for sidewalk construction sheds, but the City Council now wants to combine these two eyesores with a permit that would allow outdoor advertising companies to advertise on sidewalk sheds in manufacturing and commercial zoning districts. Read coverage of this issue in Metro NY, January 27, 2009. Continue Reading>>

Both Moscow and Los Angeles are tackling serious billboard problems. In Los Angeles bright LED screens shine across neighborhoods, intruding into homes and distracting drivers. In Moscow, the historic areas around the Kremlin are marred by endless billboards. Both these cities are taking aggressive action to remove and slow the encroachment of these ads. One unique approach in Moscow is the city’s strategy of phasing in the restrictions and compensating the ad-industry for losses on unexpired contracts with their billboard clients. Ad companies will be compensated for each surface that is removed.

Here in New York City, when the Buildings Department finally issued rules for city for billboards in 2006 to a new law regulating outdoor advertising passed in 2001, the city was promptly sued by an outdoor advertising company and the city has failed to enforce regulations while the lawsuit is pending. Once the lawsuit has been resolved, we hope the city will start using the effective regulations that are in place to curb an industry that is rapidly overrunning our city.

To advertise for its Mobile Art Pavilion, being constructed in Central Park this fall, Chanel has draped an illegal fifteen story billboard onto its 57th street facade; Vanessa Gruen, Director of Special Projects at MAS commented on the ad in the New York Times blog.

In other news, the New York City Economic Development Corporation has purchased three more parcels of land in Willets Point nearly doubling their land acquisition to date but leaving the City far from owning the entire site (Crain’s New York Business).

The new TKTS Booth in the center of Times Square has opened and can remain so throughout the winter (New York Times). Continue Reading>>

amNew York reports today that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is considering putting advertising on New York City buildings and vehicles, such as garbage trucks, to add up to $10 million to the City’s budget in these meager times; Vanessa Gruen, Director of Special Projects at MAS comments stating that eventually, the City will hit a saturation point with outdoor advertising.

The Gowanus Lounge reports that the City’s Economic Development Corporation has purchased park of the Deno’s Wonderwheel site in Coney Island – a parcel that would be part of the amusement park in the proposed rezoning (see also New York Post).

In an ironic twist, Glacéau Vitaminwater’s new ad campaign that boasts about obeying the law – “Legally, we are prohibited from making exaggerated claims about the potency of the ingredients in this bottle,” says the label on an oversized, silhouetted reproduction of its dragonfruit drink, is actually illegal due to its placement on New York City lampposts reports (The New York Times). MAS has been fighting illegal advertising for years through its illegal signage campaign.

In other news, The New York Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to put wind turbines on New York City shorelines and bridges to diversify the City’s energy resources. In open space issues, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle follows democratic hopeful for the 25th State Senate District, Daniel Squadron, who is presenting a new vision for Brooklyn Bridge Park . Continue Reading>>

Have you noticed that advertising on sidewalk construction sheds, hawking everything from beer to banks to cell phones, has started to disappear? Advertising signs on sidewalk sheds have always been illegal, and now the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) is cracking down on these brazen violations of the law. Continue Reading>>

The advertising sign pictured to the left was illegal and it was removed. After protests from concerned New Yorkers like you and from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Doubletree Hotel (Lexington Avenue at East 51st Street) did the right thing. This fine example of international style modernism by Morris Lapidus is now free from an inappropriate advertising blanket. Continue Reading>>

Has your local deli or bodega — that friendly neighborhood place where you grab your morning coffee and newspaper — been replaced by a chain drug store? Or is that new building under construction down the block going to displace the small local shops you depend on with two more bank branches? Continue Reading>>