The Boston Guardian alerts us to a battle between downtown resident and business groups and a Winthrop company that wants to install a 25-foot-tall electronic billboard at Washington Street and Temple Place.
Downtown folks say Downtown Crossing isn't Times Square and doesn't need tarting up. Media Vision says its sign is hardly Times Square sized and besides, have you looked at the Paramount marquee recently? And adds: "Boston's a real city now," and that a video-like board would "bring vibrancy and light" to what is now a desolate looking area.
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Comments
OMFG!
By perruptor
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 3:30pm
When did THAT happen? Do all Boston neighborhoods *now* need to be lit up like the Ginza?
See?
By Saddlebrook7
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 3:31pm
We didn't have to host the Olympics after all.
"Boston's a real city now"
By anon
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 3:41pm
How obnoxious. What was it before? A hologram?
Times Square. Seediness
By anon
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 5:52pm
Times Square. Seediness included. FIX THE TRAINS.
"Boston's a real city now,"
By Suldog
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 6:24pm
Fuck them. That statement, in itself, should be enough to disqualify any entity that utters it.
Suldog
By gar you’re right!
By Marco
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 8:41pm
Seriously hard NOPE to lighting up the place with video billboards. Thats what the seaport is for...
Yeah, no thanks.. Seaport
By anon
Mon, 07/29/2019 - 12:56pm
Yeah, no thanks.. Seaport doesn't want that either
Tarting up...
By Friartuck
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 7:05pm
Thank you for that!
Downtown folks
By erik g
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 8:11pm
Not with that attitude it's not!
Pointedly ignores mass of grifters in DTX
Let’s be like São Paulo https
By thomas
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 8:31pm
Let’s be like São Paulo https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-...
Let's be more like Los Angeles
By Parkwayne
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 9:21pm
https://images.app.goo.gl/poYknSEyGTbchNuC9
Everyone's line in the sand is different
By Gary C
Fri, 07/26/2019 - 8:22am
Thanks for the São Paulo link. Fascinating!
I'm generally pro-billboard. I was a marketing major and I appreciate the marketing and entertainment value of many large signs. Ever been traveling in an unfamiliar area and found a motel, restaurant or attraction that you ended up using because of a billboard? Are there places in Boston with too many signs? Sure. Is this video board downtown going to drag the area down? On the contrary, I would expect it to become a bit of a landmark ("Meet me at the video board.") Build it.
I've traveled extensively and
By anon
Fri, 07/26/2019 - 12:12pm
I've traveled extensively and I can honestly answer your question, no. The billboards you see on the side of the highway in the country can be amusing and may have some potential draw, but the video billboards in many cities are just gaudy and never offer anything interesting to go see or do, in my opinion.
Think about the folks gathering to see.....
By Nowy Liberté
Fri, 07/26/2019 - 1:04pm
Let's start with the age old tradition of the Town Crier -- clearly Boston
Then there were the posted broadsheets with illustrations to accompany handbills about things like the Boston Massacre - Paul Revere was the creator of one quite famous example
Along came Marquee signs with headlines such as War is Over or Armstrong walks on the moon -- most of the newspapers had something of that nature
Everyone is familiar with the Time and Temperature Signs on Banks
This is just the latest technology for conveying information in public:
Latest technology?
By perruptor
Sat, 07/27/2019 - 8:31am
Have you heard about this Internet thing? Oh -- I see you have.
Nope
By Daan
Fri, 07/26/2019 - 9:27pm
Billboards are just more visual pollution.
categorically no
By Matthew Miller
Sat, 07/27/2019 - 1:20pm
There is a very low correlation between "has a billboard" and "somewhere worth patronizing". Maybe even an inverse one.