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Front Page » Opinion » True: Nothing Says Miami (government) Like Billboards

True: Nothing Says Miami (government) Like Billboards

Written by on November 29, 2022
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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True: Nothing Says Miami (government) Like Billboards

Those of us who mistakenly thought our big local needs were things like affordable worker housing and transportation upgrades missed the biggest need of all: more and bigger billboards closer together on our skyline.

While the rest of us snoozed, our thoughtful commissioners knew that what every Miamian wants to see is advertising towering overhead on billboards and buildings, bigger and brighter and ever more intrusive.

Besides, commissioners knew that the visitor industry was hungering for a year-around Art Basel effect with public art everywhere: the great outdoor art known as billboards plastered on every public building, filling parks and towering over highways. What a great attraction for visitors bored with beauty, nature, fine architecture and the landmarks that now fill our vistas.

In fact, the new rules are creating a great tourist lure with its own slogan for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau to promote globally: “Nothing Says Miami Like Billboards.”

And the wonderful thing is that three elected officials got the brilliant idea of more and bigger brilliant billboards at almost the same time. It must be coincidence, because none of those who have slipped this idea into law or are near doing so ever mentioned the high-powered, deep-pocket billboard lobby that has had politicians in its pocket for years. Just coincidence – but it’s catching, like the flu.

Sure, almost everybody must want bigger billboards nearer home because only two county commissioners voted no when outgoing Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz in his last day of many years on the dais pushed through billboard legislation last month.

Certainly, nobody from the public spoke against it. Maybe that was because the vote had been scheduled after a Dec. 22 public hearing but was quietly pushed up to Nov. 15, as the commission suspended its own rules that required committee review and a hearing first and waived the requirement that municipalities get a four-week to six-week notice before the action.

Mr. Diaz was right, of course: if people got proper notice they’d have screamed about raising the legal limit for billboards along highways 20 feet higher and allowing the billboards 200 feet nearer estates and single-family homes. Just make sure they aren’t there to object and ram it through.

In the City of Miami, two commissioners simultaneously dreamed up their own legislation “independently.” It’s catching, and again purely coincidence based on the evident public need to blot out the sunshine with the bright lights of digital billboards.

First out of the box was former mayor Joe Carollo, who has been watching out for the public for decades and knew that we were missing digital billboards in our bayfront parks. These billboards would give mom and dad the chance to tell the kids to put away their ever-present cellphones and get out to our great open-air parks without missing a digital minute.

He must have been right because he faced only one no vote, from Manolo Reyes, who doesn’t know digital beauty when he sees it because he asked how these billboards “would impact the environment and city residents.” What could he possibly be thinking? Or maybe he just hasn’t been talking with the right lobbyists. Former Miami commissioner Marc Sarnoff, for example, once said he wanted to make Miami more like Times Square. Looks like he’ll get his wish.

While Mr. Carollo’s plan would get billboard art into three parks, he apparently didn’t go far enough. Competing legislation by Alex Diaz de la Portilla calls Mr. Carollo a piker and says he’ll up the ante, allowing billboards three times the total area of the biggest highway billboards and up to 10 stories tall on all government lands in the heart of Miami. Now there’s a sport.

Again, only Mr. Reyes vote no in the first round. “This opens every single city property for one of those signs,” he complained. Yes, and every other government property too. And more than one sign, because there are no limits.’

Well, there actually are limits: at 10 stories, the sky is the limit.

In the county, Mr. Diaz suspended the rules to pass a billboard bonanza without having to face annoying public comments. In the city, Mr. Diaz de la Portilla got the rules changed so the commission-appointed Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board can’t slow the billboard steamroller with annoying questions. Just another coincidence, no collusion.

Final city votes are upcoming in what will be billed as a revenue-generating tool for billboard fees. When times are bad that claim is a good cover for bad legislation. But the city is awash in tax revenues and expanding staff.

No, the real sales pitch for towering billboards changing digital messages every eight seconds just has to be their natural beauty. Just like putting lipstick on a pig.

Truly, Nothing Says Miami (Government) Like Billboards.

8 Responses to True: Nothing Says Miami (government) Like Billboards

  1. Richard R-P

    November 30, 2022 at 11:42 am

    Miami could be so much more than it is with better leadership. Such a shame.

  2. DC

    November 30, 2022 at 11:54 am

    It’s sickening. What ever happened to the law Miami Dade once had against these ugly things?

  3. Jose Lopez

    December 2, 2022 at 8:39 am

    Visual pollution. Billboards are disgusting and LED billboards are the worst. And billboard lobbyists like Marc Sarnoff, Joe Carollo, Alex Diaz de al Portilla and Christine King are raking in “billboard money”. And as Michael Lewis writes, the City does not need the money. The City already takes in over $1.5 Billion per year in taxes and fees.

  4. Truth Hurts

    December 2, 2022 at 8:53 am

    Michael Lewis speaks the truth, again. Michael Lewis told his readers elected officials were forcing the taxpayers to pay over $3 Billion for the Marlins Stadium. Lewis was right. Now Lewis points out billboard companies and their lobbyists, like disgraced ex-Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, are ruining how Miami looks.

  5. Garland Merritt

    December 2, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    The City of Miami faces so many problems why are these elected officials spending so much time pandering to out-of-state based billboard companies who want to install more LED billboards? Why are elected officials demanding the City Legal Department draft legislation and find loopholes to get these disgusting LED billboards approved asap?

  6. Clarence Darrow

    December 5, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    Billboards are so ugly. Why are Joe Carollo and Alex Diaz de la Portilla SO aggressive pushing this crap on the public? Are they being paid by billboard companies? Should ex-Commissioner Marc Sarnoff be registered as a lobbyist?

  7. Mark Scharnitz

    December 7, 2022 at 1:17 pm

    I wrote this email to ALL City of Miami Commissioners in October. I received NO REPLIES!
    Hello,

    I am writing as a concerned property owner who lives at 1040 Biscayne (Ten Musuem) and owns numerous properties in and around the Biscayne corridor.

    The proposed plan to allow lighted billboards/advertisements on gov’t owned properties comes with many issues.

    I, along with the majority of my neighbors are adamantly against this proposal!

    I reside in a front unit at Ten Museum my balcony over looks the Frost Museum and beautiful Biscayne Bay.

    At night depending what colors the Frost Museum is illuminated the glare from certain combination of colors glare into my living room. I can not imagine the affect from lighted advertisements in the dark park.

    If this proposal is approved the parks that are intended for green space and enjoyment now become like Time Square.

    The obnoxious floating ocean billboards sailing on Biscayne Bay already take away from the beauty of our bay. It looks desperate and tacky. When is enough enough.

    If you want desperate and tacky advertise in your neighborhood.

    Have you ever stayed in a hotel in NYC? The glare from lights on the billboards placed on the buildings seem to always find a way into your room even with black out shades?

    I do not understand how the majority of properties downtown and the surrounding areas consisted of single family homes and/or single story warehouses, not more than ten years ago.
    Now hundreds of new condominiums with 100’s of units have replaced those single dwellings bringing in millions of new tax revenue. Not to mention property taxes have increased 14% the past year.

    Now the people we elected are voting on a proposal to litter our parks and living rooms with garbage advertisements to bring in more revenue.

    Few years back I tried to get a billboard on my property on 7th ave. I was denied, Why, I want more revenue as well!

    Where is all this revenue going. Biscayne Blvd & 11th constantly gets flooded, lighting in the parks are not sufficient, homelessness is rampant, crime is rampant, 911 system is broken, the time it takes to get a cop out on a scene of a crime or accident is unacceptable (if they show up), schools and roads are in disrepair. I can go on and on.
    We need to work on enhancing the lives of the people who pay taxes and live in Miami, not enhance corporate greed and Miami political greed.

    Things need to change but not by the way of selling the soul of Miami.

    Elected officials need to work with the residents not against.

    I pay an exorbitant amount of property taxes. As a resident in Miami, I am not happy in the direction the elected officials are taking this city!

    This is Miami 2022, not Miami 1980.

    I did not even go into the effects of the sea life!

    Think about your constituents before you vote because we will next time we vote!

  8. Save Our Views

    December 19, 2022 at 4:57 pm

    Why do Miami’s elected officials love visual pollution? Billboards? It is because billboard companies give them money for their campaigns.

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