The Ugly Truth About Billboards

Both the Granada Hills South and Granada Hills North Neighborhood Councils have passed resolutions condemning billboards, which must have felt good. And I plan to spend a lot of blog space ranting about how much I hate billboards and why, because it makes me feel good too, for about a minute.

But if you want to keep feeling good about the war on billboards, stop reading right here.

Still here? You must be a glutton for punishment. If you want to do more reading, I recommend this award-winning L.A. Weekly article, but if you're more the video type, this KCET "SoCal Connected" special (click the photo at right) on the billboard issue in L.A. can't be beat.

The bitter little pill: no one can do anything to stop the billboard industry. Los Angeles City Council members have tried and rolled over in the face of jillions of dollars in campaign contributions and/or threatened lawsuits, and you're not on the city council. You're just some little guy who doesn't like billboards. So what can you do, within the legal channels? Nuthin'.

Even our local guy, Greig Smith has accepted bribes donations from the eyesore billboard companies. Everyone on the City Council has.

And if you really wanna get riled, get this: those newfangled electronic billboards use the equivalent of enough energy to power thirteen houses.

So what can you do about the billboard blight that plagues our town? Tune in tomorrow for the thrilling answer!

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