Signs and portents

Sci-fi fans may recall scenes from the classic 1982 movie Blade Runner depicting a futuristic city's exasperatingly gaudy collection of brightly flashing billboards of all shapes and sizes, propelled through the air and secured to depressing structures. Could that be Philadelphia one day?

While that may be a stretch, there is reason for concern about recent decisions giving digital billboards a prominent presence near the historic district, close enough to some Center City residents' homes to make them fear the luminous displays will reduce their property values.

There was little regulation of billboards in Philadelphia until the 1970s. By then, there were so many nonconforming signs that more than a thousand escaped a purge initiated by the city when it began fining billboard companies $150 a day for every illegal sign.

In 2005, the city cracked down again by charging a $650 licensing fee for each billboard. Steen Outdoor Advertising, Clear Channel, Keystone, and CBS Outdoor Advertising subsequently challenged the fee in court as an infringement on free speech. The case was settled when the city agreed to drop the fee to $50 and the billboard companies removed hundreds of small, wall-mounted signs called "eight-sheets," which added to the blight in poor neighborhoods.

Since that court fight, the city and the billboard companies seem to have grown fonder of each other. Some political pundits attribute the cozier relationship to significant political donations by the billboard industry. While no such quid pro quo has been proved, bigger, brighter billboards have become a reality downtown.

In fact, the city has created a Market Street East Advertising District in which such billboards are encouraged. Taking advantage of the new designation, the owners of the former Lit Bros. department store made a deal with the city to spend $10 million on improvements to the building and another $10 million on the subway station underneath it in exchange for permits for two giant rooftop LED displays.

Only one of the 70-foot billboards is up, but its bright lights, exploding through the windows of nearby condos, have residents complaining about a novel type of pollution. Instead of offering them relief, however, city officials appear ready to approve the next outdoor advertising innovation: 3-D billboards, known as "urban experiential displays."

A bill before City Council would allow three "UEDs," located near the Academy of Music, the Convention Center, and the Reading Terminal Market. The legislation calls for a portion of the advertising revenue to be donated to civic organizations, and when the signs aren't advertising products, they are to feature public-service announcements or the work of community groups and others.

Council President Darrell Clarke has been a big fan of nontraditional means of filling the city's coffers, and the new billboards seem to fit that description. But if Council and other city agencies hope to do a better job managing electronic advertising than they did with old-fashioned billboards, maybe they should download Blade Runner and take a good look at what they ought to avoid.