Photo: Bob Mack
“It’s back to the drawing board for Clear Channel and other outdoor media owners in St. Johns County after the company withdrew its bid last week for a digital billboards pilot program along Interstate 95…
Clear Channel formally backed out Friday via a letter sent to commissioners…”
— Jake Martin, The St. Augustine Record
Read entire article here
Photo: Leah Powell
Bill Brinton has spent a lifetime as a protector of unspoiled views. He has successfully battled local, state and national forces bent on visual assault caused by installation of outdoor advertising and other unsightly intrusions.
He believes in the power of citizens to take a stand for the irreplaceable resources that matter most. Because of his foresight, you can be part of a mobilized citizenry that ensures our scenic surroundings for generations to come.
Bill chose to mark the 30th anniversary of the successful Jacksonville City Charter Amendment banning new billboards and removing more than 1,400 existing billboards with the creation of the Scenic Jacksonville Endowment to Protect and Enhance Scenic Beauty in Jacksonville.
When fully funded, this endowment will enable Scenic Jacksonville — also celebrating its 30th anniversary — to continue its vital work to preserve the breathtaking views we cherish and provide support for new projects that enhance our much-loved home.
It is Bill’s vision to raise $300,000 for the endowment, which is held at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. His dream is to see it provide perpetual funding for the things he holds most dear: civic engagement, advocacy, and education.
He’s eager to involve the next generation by sponsoring photo and essay contests to instil a love of our natural surroundings in young citizens.
There is so much more we can do together if we rally around Bill’s visionary leadership and ultimate victory over unsightly signage.
For more information about the fund, please contact Nina Waters, President, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida at(904) 356-4483 or nwaters@jaxcf.org.
To contribute to the Scenic Jacksonville Endowment to Protect and Enhance Scenic Beauty in Jacksonville, go to jaxcf.org/donate and enter Scenic Jacksonville into the Search box.”
Save the Date: May 17 for a Celebration in Jacksonville
Visit the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida
–Scenic Jacksonville
Photo:Foxnews.com
“Some women in North Carolina apparently don’t ‘appreciate’ a new billboard.
A billboard appeared last weekend on a highway connecting the city of Winston-Salem to Greensboro that reads, ‘Real men provide. Real women appreciate it…’
Molly Grace, a boutique owner in Winston-Salem, said she sees the sign as an attempt to silence women who want to be seen as equals to men.
‘It’s absolutely, absolutely insulting to single mothers, to women who have careers whether they are small careers or big careers,’ Grace said.
Grace is organizing a peaceful protest, through Facebook, slated for Sunday that will take place under the billboard.
‘We are protesting patriarchy and sexism, and that this antiquated way of thinking about women exists at all,’ a post on the Facebook page reads. ‘We are protesting the implied demand that women be silent and appreciate, regardless of whatever circumstances, their role as non-providers…’>
Not everyone is up in arms about the billboard’s message. One man told WHNT-TV he thought the message was accurate.
‘Being a married man myself, I think my wife really appreciates the fact that I can provide for a family and take some of the stress off her.’
The message’s origins are a mystery. The billboard belongs to Whiteheart Outdoor Advertising, and owner Bill Whiteheart said the organization that bought the space does not wish to be identified.
Whiteheart said there will be an announcement soon about the billboard. He did not elaborate…”
— Foxnews.com,The Associated Press contributed to this report
Read entire article here
“…Last month the city Environmental Protection Board approved a $103,000 proposal from Greenscape and Public Trust Environmental Legal Institute of Florida for a citywide tree survey. The measure must be approved by the City Council, which could take three or four months.
‘The biggest reason to do this is that it creates a baseline,’ said John November, executive director of Public Trust. ‘It gives us data about where trees are and what could be planted. This will help the city make sound strategic decisions about where to plant trees that will have the greatest impact’…”
Calculate how much a tree saves you using the National Tree Benefit Calculator:
Calculator: http://treebenefits.com/calculator. >
You’ll need to know the species and its diameter.
To see how much pollution a tree can process, check out www.itreetools.org.
— Lilla Ross, Resident Community News, Inc.
Read entire article here
Photos: Lance Gerber Studio
“Visible Distance / Second Sight is an art installation by Jennifer Bolande for DesertX. The temporary artwork can be found along the Gene Autry Trail near Vista Chino (33°50’41.70”N 116°30’21.02”W), where a series of consecutive billboards have been replaced by perfectly aligned photos of the landscapes they are blocking.
From the DesertX project page:
Each photograph is unique to its position along this route and at a certain point as one approaches each billboard, perfect alignment with the horizon will occur thus reconnecting the space that the rectangle of the billboard has interrupted.
In the language of billboard advertising this kind of reading is referred to as a Burma-Shave after the shaving cream company of the same name who used sequential placement to create messaging that could be read only from a moving vehicle.
Within the desert empire of roadside signs, Bolande chooses to advertise the very thing so often overlooked. Looking up at the billboards our attention is drawn back to the landscape itself, pictured here as a stuttering kinesthetic of real and artificial horizons…”
–TwistedSifter.com
Read entire article and see additional photos here