By Dennis Hathaway
The Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) board will consider a proposal Tuesday (18 November) by a private company to operate a free shuttle vehicle in the Coastal zone area of Venice. These shuttles are supported by advertising and are essentially rolling billboards with ads for beer, fast food, designer clothing, and other products and services that might appeal to people coming to Venice to visit Abbot Kinney or the Boardwalk/beach.

I’ve sent the attached letter to the VNC board, outlining some reasons that this shuttle will just mean more sales pitches in our public spaces and shouldn’t be approved. I hope you will read it, and if you agree, send an e-mail to the board with your comments at Venicenc.org. And if at all possible, attend the board meeting Tuesday night and comment. Meet is at Westminster Elementary School, 1010 Abbot Kinney, starting at 7 pm. It’s agenda item 12-A, which is estimated for 8:30 pm.

Many of you have helped efforts in the past to get rid of illegal signage and stop new billboards and other signs from going up in Venice. This is just one vehicle, but could just be the beginning of allowing more and more advertising in our public space without fulfilling any critical need.

The following is the letter:

Board Members:
I am a Venice resident and president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight, a non-profit organization representing more than 50 homeowner’s associations, civic groups, and community organizations citywide. Our mission to advocate for legislative and legal actions to limit blight created by billboards and other forms of commercial advertising in the city’s visual environment and outdoor public spaces.

It’s clear that the purpose of this proposed shuttle vehicle is to display commercial advertising to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists along its route. In essence, this vehicle would be a rolling billboard occupying the publicly-owned space of our streets for the benefit of large corporations marketing such products as alcohol, fast food, clothing, and other commercial products. Over the past decade, our organization, with the vital help of the VNC and many Venice residents, has succeeded in reducing the amount of commercial advertising in the community’s public spaces. Most notably, this has included getting rid of illegal supergraphic signs draped across sides of buildings and the Fuel Outdoor “movie- poster” style signs that were put in twos and threes on all of Venice’s commercial streets, and stopping the city’s plan to allow thousands of commercial ads on the Venice Boardwalk. This shuttle proposal represents a step backward from that achievement in helping preserve public space from the domination of branding and marketing pitches at every turn.

There is no demonstrated need for this shuttle vehicle. There are no facts and figures to support the assertion that it will help reduce traffic and parking congestion. In fact, its presence where ads will get the most exposure means it is likely to create more congestion. The fact that it’s electric-powered doesn’t mean it’s emission-free, because the electricity needed to charge its batteries is generated by pollution-emitting facilities. In other words, while its touted community benefits are illusory at best, the cost in further commercialization of public space is clear. Communities in the Los Angeles area, in other parts of California, and across the country have reaped significant economic and social benefits from treating their visual environment as a valuable resource to be protected, not turned over to commercial interests for advertising corporate products and services.

Please vote no on this proposal.