Friday, July 20, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Photo courtesy of here.
Latest council actions move beyond street benches, threaten free speech rights of newspapers.
In today’s Enquirer, this story about Chris Bortz’s desire to get rid of bench advertising flirts with a couple huge issues that are being overlooked. Firstly, by trying to get rid of advertising benches placed in the public right-of-way, Bortz may be circumventing the constitutional right to free speech for the sake of curb appeal. But perhaps more disconcerting are the things it appears Bortz and co. would like to disappear from our City’s streets—as evidenced by a memo from City Manager Milton Dahoney to City Council.
First, here are some tidbits from today’s Enquirer that indicate how Bortz may be creating trouble for himself:
Bench Billboard, in business since 1959, sued the city more than a decade ago over its benches after the city declared some to have been placed without proper permits.
The company won a settlement in 1996 of more than $200,000. The city was ordered to return more than 200 confiscated benches and had to give the company the proper permits to install them.
The company, according to Enquirer stories written at the time, claimed the city violated its rights to free speech, due process and freedom from unreasonable seizure.
Now, Bortz said, the big question is what should replace the benches.
It is strange how Jane Prendergast glosses over the most significant issue here: the bench billboard company had previously won a suit against the City, claiming the move to restrict bench advertising placed in the public right-of-way violated free speech rights. The way the above excerpt is written, it’s as if Bortz thinks bench replacements are more important than free speech lawsuits.
Interestingly, Todd Portune is apparently trying to push for a different kind of bench advertising that will bring the City dollars:
Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune suggested the city look at products by Creative Outdoor Advertising, a Florida company whose seating and trash/recycling bins the county solid waste district has endorsed. The company installs them for free and splits advertising revenue with the jurisdiction where the bench is located.
This is starting to sound scandalous: threaten free speech rights by stopping a company from installing bench advertisements, and then contracting with another company to install bench advertisements so the City can split the profits. But it turns out that advertising benches are not the only target of the City’s new push. They want to get rid of newspaper street boxes, too!
Check out this report, with the subject line “Public and Private Elements in the Sidewalk Space Update,” dated June 26th. The first paragraph is particularly noteworthy:
The initial report on public and private elements such as advertising benches, news racks, bus stop shelters, and temporary signs and facilities located in the sidewalk space, was issued to City Council on March 28, 2007 (Document #200700363). Since then, work has continued on topics to be covered in the second report on this issue. The second report will provide best practices of other cities, discuss legal issues related to those uses of the right-of-way, identify alternatives, and provide guideline recommendations. Administration is working closely with Downtown Cincinnati Incorporated (DCI) to seek input and develop recommendations, especially regarding newspaper racks in downtown.
Downtown Cincinnati, Incorporated, is primarily concerned with promoting consumerism downtown. Their “interest” in newspaper racks causes me to fear that, once again, the City of Cincinnati is more concerned about shoppers than the United States Constitution. (See Samantha Brockfield’s story in the July Print Edition, page 4 - click here.)
Cincinnati has a history of violating protected rights for the sake of their own ill-conceived value judgments. I wonder wht will happen when Chris Bortz tries to abolish free speech access on public rights-of-way so Todd Portune’s choice of companies can split advertising profits with the City.
• Share This Article!
 Listen to this article
Help The Cincinnati Beacon Grow! Participate in Social Networking!
Members
Register
Tell us what you think!
Anonymous comments are allowed, but you can log in above to stamp your name and to avoid typing the anti-spam code.
|