by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Advertising on a public right-of-way is a big no-no today but legislation is in the works to amend the sign ordinance, allowing the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to entice outside companies to build bus stop shelters and finance them with advertising sales.
Nothing’s definite, says City Council member Art Shad. However, by waiving those advertising restrictions, the transportation authority would be able to get companies to install bus shelters which would likely have trash receptacles and protect JTA riders from inclement weather.
“I think we need to provide better services to the citizens who use our mass transit systems,” said Shad, who plans to introduce the necessary legislation by mid-June. “Right now we do a deplorable job of taking care of them and they deserve better than that.”
Shad said similar systems are already in place in many cities, including Tampa and Orlando.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” he said. “This is something that most major metropolitan cities already have. It’s not a new service. While we continue to go back and forth, we have literally hundreds of people sitting in the rain.”
But the idea of using advertising to finance the shelters does not sit well with Council member Suzanne Jenkins. She said there would be no way to monitor the ads’ content and copy.
“I’m sorry. I just can support something like this,” Jenkins said. “My biggest fear would be that we would wind up with some really disgusting messages at the shelters. I just think it would get out of control.”
“If we go back and amend our sign ordinance to allow JTA to do this, who’s to say that other people are not going to expect similar treatment. It’s like opening Pandora’s box.
“JTA has tried to do this for a long time and I guess they’ve finally found a sympathetic ear on the Council.”
JTA spokesperson Mike Miller said shelters would be too costly to build and maintain without the ad revenue.
“They are very expensive and, with a limited budget, we unfortunately can’t build as many as we’d like to,” Miller said. “But if we are able to partner with these companies who specialize in this and establish a source of revenue, it’s very possible that we could.”
And as far as the ads themselves, Miller said no other city has a problem.
“Numerous cities have done this and to my knowledge no one has had an objection,” he said. “It’s a very successful program.”
And though still awaiting word from the City’s General Counsel’s Office about whether the City could filter those advertisements, Shad said he doesn’t expect obscenity to be a major issue if JTA moves forward with them.
“We could ‘what-if’ this to death,” Shad said, “but I think the idea of a strip club buying an ad is pretty far-fetched.”
In the very least, Shad said Federal guidelines would likely insure that the ads couldn’t be anymore outrageous than any other billboard across the city.
“The government has parameters in place,” he said. “Yes, they’re liberal, but it’s not like someone would be able to come in and put whatever they wanted to on a bus bench. That’s ridiculous.”
If necessary, Shad said the program could operate on a trial basis in his district.
“We can try it in San Marco first if people would be more comfortable doing it that way,” he said. “But I just don’t see what the big issue is with this.
“More often than not I agree with Councilwoman Jenkins, but to pin your ears back and not be willing to look at the merits of doing this doesn’t make sense to me. Whatever issues there may be, we can work through them if it means doing something that will benefit a lot of people.”