When was your last time you came back from Miami, New Orleans, or Boston? I’ve never guessed. So why does Tampa want to pollute his downtown with a big digital sign?
Tampa City Council is moving to allow digitally activated signs throughout the downtown core. Unlike traditional signs and electronic message boards, activated signs use colours and lighting to continuously change their appearance. Think of movie clips and animation cartoons. These are steroid billboards, with non-stop flashing colors to attract people’s attention. They are sticky and uncomfortable – and fortunately, they are banned in Tampa. However, a majority of the council appears to be open to changes in city codes. The debate will happen again at the council meeting on Thursday.
City professional staff opposed the idea in November, raising legitimate concerns that are falling in deaf ears. He said the signs could contribute to visual disruption, mild contamination and distracted driving. Downtown characters can change, and digital signs overwhelm the pedestrian atmosphere and reduce the “overall charm” of downtown. The move also could resume legal settlements on the sign, causing numbers to explode.
Despite these warnings, the council moved forward. In hopes of stopping the fallout, staff raised some limited options in January. This has limited the size, numbers and location of the new digital sign. It proposed that up to three signs be allowed in two areas further south near the Hillsboro River, the other, the Tampa Convention Center. Among other things, the proposal would limit the signage to 650 square feet and requires city council approval. But the council was still pushed back and called for more places, greater signs, and more aggressive plans to put many of them.
It’s someone else’s speculation that drives this. Certainly there is no broad cry of digital signs. Over the past few years, residents have been stuck at council meetings, hoping for basics like housing, storm drains, parks and fire stations. No one has asked for a process of approving mammoths, animated billboards, or virtually unconstrained ones in the city centre.
But forget about your motivation. Think about what this idea looks like. Even at 650 square feet, these signs can cover four or five stories of downtown buildings. And a few councillors call it restrictive. They want at least dozens of digital signs downtown. They also want to consider extending this bad idea to other parts of Tampa. The Council also wants to join the non-profit Tampa Downtown Partnership to process the license. It is a political shelter to allow council members room for the grief of holding public hearings on all signs.
This happens when politicians look at other communities and think that the same conditions apply here. But downtown Tampa is not Times Square in New York. Many streets are narrow and mostly empty. The set is tough and the perspective is bad. This means that most signs are packed into just a few areas. It will exacerbate driver visual pollution and distraction. Does Tampa really need another way to put pedestrians at risk, or another excuse to commercialize the outdoors?
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It can be difficult to enter the advertising business. Under the First Amendment, the government cannot regulate these messages based on their ideas or subject matter. Content-based restrictions are unconstitutional. If your strip club wants a digital billboard, be prepared.
The biggest problem here is that no one has said why Tampa needs these signs. Tourists do not need signs. People use their mobile phones in directions. The signs can generate revenue for the event, but downtown has already been washed away by the event. Council members also streamlined the move by complaining about the digital signs at Amalie Arena. please! Legally permitted signs are perfectly suited for fan experiences outside the arena.
Tampa has worked carefully for years to give downtown a sense of place. That’s what makes this campaign a reversed role for councils, and should protect Tampa’s unique flavour, rather than undermining it. Staff will ask council members on Thursday to establish the signage purpose and a “measured” approach to determining the number of signs, which size and where they can be placed. I hope they will eventually realize that it is an impossible task.
