this story in today's Inquirer caught my eye ...

Ads to adorn Phila.'s new shelters, benches

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

It will be one of the Street administration's last acts: awarding a 20-year contract - likely the largest in Philadelphia history - that will change the look of city streets and pump millions into the city treasury. The subject is "street furniture" and no, it's not the kitchen chairs Philadelphians put out after a snowstorm to save their parking spot.

City officials are now weighing proposals from three companies to design, install and maintain - for the next two decades - hundreds of new bus shelters, newsstands, trash receptacles, public toilets and benches. In return, the winning contractor will get the chance to sell advertising in places that so far have been ad-less.

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news...furniture.html

__________________

REFLECTIONS OF A ROCK LOBSTER

Has no one posted this yet?

Inqy The pros:
-new benches, bus shelters, newspaper distribution boxes, newsstands, and public toilets, with cohesive design elements
-private (not city) maintenance of new street furniture
-new revenue for the city (thunda figures about $10 mil/year)

The cons:
-lots and lots of new advertising in the public space

Discuss!

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=40456

Someone did, wrong forum; I wish people would stop doing that, get out of their little comfort zones and use the appropriate forums. There, idiot board police hat off!

Read that article this morning. NYC AND Boston do it. They generate a lot of additional revenues for their cities in this way. Why shouldn't we? It may actually control some of the advertisements and clutter into areas better than what we have now. And I like the idea that near cultural institutions, there will be a sort of 'hand-off' approach to regular adverts. Private maintenance of these structures is probably a good thing to, since in the other cities they are required to maintain a 24-hr call line for problems.

I keep wondering what John Street's payoff in all of this will be, since it comes in after the point in his administration where he can be recalled or impeached, but that is another matter.

The con of this is definitely a con--more advertising, but maybe it will mean fewer of the lousy billboards.

__________________
Would you care for some cheese with that whine? PBers possess a gene to whine about everything.

WE'RE PHILADELPHIA, DAMMIT! GET IT? GOOD!

The key word here is "maintain." No public entity with facilities in Philadelphia seems to maintain them very well. If someone -- anyone -- is willing to put something up in Philadelphia and take care of it, I'm all for it.

I'd rather look at a movie poster than another crumbling chunk of infrastructure any day.

And not to mention the fact, don't bus shelters already have ad posters on them? It isn't like they are hitting virgin territory.

I say this is great. I would much rather have bus shelters and news stands (which are selling products anyway) with ads on them
and be neat and clean than have two story ad wraps on buildings.

We say we want less government intervention. Well, this is it. Let the private sector handle some of this without hitting our tax dollars.

Hell, let's lease out the subway stops to private ad companies if they promise to keep them clean.

I still agree with others (I believe ti was a topic with Illiniwek and myself). Best ad campaign for Clorox is with SEPTA: "Strong enough to clean a SEPTA subway stop."

__________________
Ward 29 Chairman - Republican

Sarah Palin: http://www.google.com/search?source=...=Google+Search
Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska ... read the link.

Why not? It's a win/win scenario. We get more public amenities and don't have to pay for them. It's also in the best interest of the private sector to keep then in good order. As far as advertising goes, I actually like the bus shelter advertising and don't like it when they're blank. In my opinion they add a bit of flair to the urban landscape. I particularly like it when local theaters and concert halls advertise on the shelters. Their ads lend the city more cultural panache.

__________________

I support this deal in theory 100%. I would have negotiated more agressivle with JC Decaux. For bus shelters I would have asked for substantial contributions toward the cost of implementing Next Bus.

For the rest of the street furniture, even more public toilets.

__________________
The Obama speech everyone is talking about. Watch it and decide for yourself.

It's still an RFP, and three companies have responded.

__________________
Would you care for some cheese with that whine? PBers possess a gene to whine about everything.

WE'RE PHILADELPHIA, DAMMIT! GET IT? GOOD!

OMG ... that NextBus thing makes me drool! Imagine it at every bus shelter on Market, Chestnut, Walnut, and JFK! Some cities have similar display systems for their subways, as well.

I stand corected. I hadn't read todays article I was responding quickly based on previous ones. Also Deceaux who manufactures the toilets and pioneered this stuff in Europe is not directly bidding but I think at least 2 of the American bidders would be Deceaux sub-contractors. From an older article I think I also remember reading that there is now competing self-cleaning public toilet as well.

My bad for posting without reading all the way through.

Yeah Next Bus is amazing. It might be nice to include it as part of potential negotiations.

__________________
The Obama speech everyone is talking about. Watch it and decide for yourself.