Illegal Billboard Crackdown

Perhaps spurred on by the H&M ad on the Flatiron building fracas, the City has revised the laws to remove the loophole that let companies challenge fines from the Department of Buildings. The new law will let the DoB give heftier fines of $25,000 but Gothamist wonders if that's a daily fine, because paying $25,000 to keep a billboard in a $250,000 ad space seems do-able, if annoying. And the NY Post says the illegal ad space at Manhattan bound entrance of the Midtown Tunnel went for almost $1 millon a month! The interesting thing about the law is that it will apply to areas near public parks and arterial highways, which we guess are the typical places where companies want to place ads... but what about Times Square and other busy roads, like Houston Street? Or does it not matter since there's so much clutter?

Photograph by Towleroad

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By Jen Chung in News on April 29, 2005 9:01 AM

Comments [rss]

S.D.

Rose, I figured you don't so I was just mentioning when it went down, nothing more.

Richie Boy

Oops, I was just making a dumb joke, it was not directed at anyone in the Comments area (except for H&M and whomever approved the ad). I hate the ad on the building. If a building has been declared a public landmark, can they interfere with how it's viewed? Or is that just structurally?

Rose

Hey, guess what? I don't pass that way ALL the time. And that was not my point.

Richie Boy

I'm happy they took the it down. That H&M outfit, was like totally too tight for the Flatiron building. It totally made it look like a skank.

bob denver

My head can't take the question about the fine points of advert. legislation until I've had another cup of coffee. All I know is that the flatiron building is different than other buildings - probably the best building in nyc along with the chrysler building, so it's tacky to stick advertising on it.

S.D.

Actually, it's been down since April 18th.

Rose

I love this approach to the Flatiron building and how it looks from that angle. I hate that damn ad and it should be taken down. I don't like having my mood and mind manipulated through an ad

interfering with the pleasure I get from looking at this building.

Shin-pei

I hope it still matters! I think Times Square has a special district designation that permits all those ads. Billboards in the city should all be about context.

And I agree, the fine seems miniscule and definitely not an inhibitor, just a cost of busines. At least the City gets a cut. Otherwise the profit from the ads go entirely to private companies (the property managers, the building owner, the company selling the product), though the public has to put up with it.