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.
