New York City's billboards, those annoying, sometimes amusing signs that line highways and cover building walls, could soon become fewer and farther between.
The City of New York won a significant federal appeals court ruling today (Feb. 3) that held the city's law limiting billboards does not violated First Amendment rights of billboard companies.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the city was actually acting reasonably to reduce visual clutter and improve the overall appearance of the city.
"The fact that the city has chosen to value some types of commercial speech over others does not make the regulation irrational," the appeals court said.
New Yorkers have always had a love-hate relationship with area billboards. Even the city has only sporadically enforced the law since it was enacted in 1940 at the dawn of the highway age.
Some billboards are famous; some are merely annoying and many are visual eyesores.
The FBI recently unveiled a massive digital wanted poster in New York’s Times Square. It measures 30-feet by 40-feet and displays scowling fugitives wanted by the G-men. Love it or hate it?
Jilted lover YaVaughnie Wilkins recently plastered a giant billboard in Times Square to embarrass Oracle President Charles Phillips, who dumped her after an eight and a half year relationship.
It was quickly taken down.
And, who could forget Calvin Klein's hot threesome billboard in SoHo, featuring a topless model with two shirtless males, one unzipping his pants. Ahem.. they were selling jeans.
Love it or hate it?
How about the large neon Pepsi billboard aimed at Manhattan from nearby Long Island City? It has become a beloved cultural landmark.
Residents fought to preserve the sign after apartments replaced the Pepsi plant.
In any event, a lower court ruling was appealed by companies, including Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. and Metro Fuel LLC, that market hundreds of billboards. But the companies struck out.
"Allowing some signs does not constitutionally require a city to allow all similar signs," the three-judge panel said.
"The city's interests in aesthetics, preservation of neighborhood character and traffic safety continue to be advanced, even though limited and controlled advertising is permitted on street furniture."
Have a hated or favorite billboard in New York City? Let me know in your comments and I will publish the results.
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