Upper West Side Hates LED Signs

LED sign at 79th and Broadway; Photo: NY Times

The Times reports that UWS residents have gotten rid of the LED signs at subway entrances on Broadway and West 79th and Broadway and 86th. Concerned residents rallied against the MTA for putting the 30" by 60" signs (developing a website, of course, stopmta, the newest critical tool in complaining) because they felt, as Assemblyman Scott Stringer said, "this was advertising pollution at its highest level." Of course, some residents didn't even notice them, while others vehemently hate them, as they signal as "Times Square" –ification of the Upper West Side (god forbid the UWS get a movie theater with stadium seating). The signs will be put somewhere else in the city, as they are part of a $15 million city contract with Clear Channel Entertainment, which includes 800 backlit ads; the new screens were recently rolled out, with 46 currently and 34 more to come.

Gothamist is no Luddite, but the signs truly don't work very well on the Upper West Side, with their schizophrenia. People live on the Upper West Side to have multiple babies and be liberal intellectuals. Lafayette and Houston, on the other hand, seems all right for the signs.

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By Jen Chung in News on December 12, 2003 8:12 AM

Comments [rss]

tiqtoq

don't forget that they have to have those multiple babies thrust along the crowded sidewalks at breakneck speed by a phalanx of overworked, underpaid nannies!

Chris

I hate those signs. Good riddance. (I'm also an Upper West Sider... although I first started hating them in midtown)

moges

I'm just waiting for the day these huge screens are defaced or destroyed...Who could resist? And Clear Channel did this? Double ew.

Jen

Right, liberal intellectuals who don't pay for books that they read at the Barnes and Noble.

dahl

but now, they can be liberal intellectuals with a newly expanded coach store.

tien

i remember watching an alarmist "news" piece on fox 5 when the signs first came out. they (or someone in the piece) said the signs were unsafe because they may cause accidents.

i remember thinking that it was really bright when i first saw it, but what can you do? wait, i guess you can start a website and write to your local political representative. so that does work!