Xref: utzoo misc.consumers:27113 alt.activism:10469 talk.environment:2215 comp.org.eff.talk:1492 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!ogicse!unmvax!ariel.unm.edu!nmsu!opus!dtasman From: dtasman@nmsu.edu (TASMAN) Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.activism,talk.environment,comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Advertising is bad Message-ID: Date: 16 Feb 91 23:53:13 GMT References: <992@organpipe.UUCP> <6VD1H1K@taronga.hackercorp.com> Sender: news@NMSU.Edu Followup-To: misc.consumers Organization: NMSU Computer Science Lines: 48 In-reply-to: peter@taronga.hackercorp.com's message of 12 Feb 91 23:40:49 GMT In article <6VD1H1K@taronga.hackercorp.com> peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: > When I first came to the United States, from Sydney, I was quite > overwhelmed by the billboards. For me they will always represent the > basic vitality of the country... I can't imagine a U.S. city without them. Scottsdale, Arizona. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hilton Head, South Carolina. Granted, these are tourist towns, but part of their attraction is their visual environment. Billboards have their place in large cities, entertainment districts, and the like, but the scenic beauty of a lot of places, like the American Southwest, is ruined through an overwhelmong amount of billboards, placed during the region's rapid growth. Now cities are beginning to realize what a mess they are. Houston, Texas, hopes to rid itself of most of the city's billboards through a proposed zoning ordinance. El Paso, Texas, on the other hand, is reported to have more billboards per capita than any other city in the nation. I-10 through El Paso is one of the most unattractive strips of Interstate in the U.S. > Now the city of Sydney doesn't allow billboards visible from the harbour, > and the lower reaches of the harbour are a place of great scenic beauty. > But higher up the Paramatta river a few ads to cover up the shipyards, > naval facilities, and (let's face it) occasional slums would do wonders > for the place. > > True story: when the Queen was visiting, they built huge burlap barricades > to keep the Queen from seeing the run-down parts of Redfern from the train. > A few billboards and nobody would ever have to avert their eyes. I would like to see a few zoning ordinances from Australian cities, and see how they regulate outdoor advertising. Seeing that Australia is a suburban, automobile-based society (correct me if I'm wrong) like the United States, I would suspect the regulations would be similar to that of many United States cities... > > -- > (peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com) > `-_-' > 'U` > Dan Tasman New Mexico State University, USA dtasman@DANTE.nmsu.edu City of Las Cruces Planning Department "I think that I shall never see, a billboard as lovely as a tree... Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all..."