So the Mid-Market billboard fight begins: opponents of Prop D, a plan to allow signage along Market Street between 5th and 7th streets, have launched a new ad that's viewable on YouTube. The ad depicts billboards blanketing San Francisco from Golden Gate Bridge and the Painted Ladies to the Transamerica Pyramid and... the moon. The point comes across loud and clear, if a bit deceptive, and no doubt slippery-slopists will agree with its implication. The SF Examiner also points out a seven-minute video produced by the city taking Prop D from both angles. In the video, a proponent says the measure will "bring people back to Mid-Market," which will inevitably bring businesses back, creating an "exciting, vibrant environment" and a "seamless connection along Market Street" from the Civic Center to the Ferry Building. Opponent? "Private commercial interests" will come in to dump ads on Market, giving a "large Times Square-esque feeling to a historic arts neighborhood."
UPDATE: The SFBG talks a little about the community benefit money the billboards are supposed to bring to the area. The Central Market Community Benefits District will handle the cash as well as regulating the signage, but opponents see danger in handing control of such things to what's ostensibly a private entity. For his part, the main guy behind Prop D, David Addington, says he's "not afraid of signs."
· Anti-billboard ad hits the Internet [SF Examiner]
· Mid-Market's Man With a Plan: So Crazy It Might Work? [Curbed SF]
· Mid-Market Buzz: Foreign Cinema Sibling On Its Way, Plus Ballot Measure [Curbed SF]
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