Billboard battle: L.A. Weekly 1, Clearchannel & City 0

By Mack Reed
April 2nd, 2008 @ 12:26 PM Uncategorized

gavel.jpgIf L.A. Weekly editor Jill Stewart is gloating today, it’s for good reason:

Few court rulings over a Freedom of Information Act request ever come down tasting this sweet:

Apparently, when Weekly staffer Christine Pelisek asked the L.A. Dep’t. of Building and Safety to cough up a list of all 11,000 legal and illegal  billboards in L.A., the city balked. And then the bureaucrats snitched to billboard monster ClearChannel, Stewart blogs.

ClearChannel sued to block the request, saying it would reveal “proprietary information.”

But this morning, a Superior Court judge ruled that list is public information, since it comes through a public permitting process - and ordered the city to deliver the list by Friday.

Just one question: What do the Building Dept. bureaucrats have to gain by blocking release of that list? Can’t wait to read the continuing coverage. This oughta be good.

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  5. New Times Swallows LA Weekly

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7 Comments so far

  1. David Markland (markland) on April 2nd, 2008 @ 12:38 pm

    Congrats to the LA Weekly, although their ire should be more towards the City of L.A.

    How the hell would anyone in the city consider permits for billboards to be proprietary info? Heads better roll.


  2. Jason Burns (jasonburns) on April 2nd, 2008 @ 12:52 pm

    There will be blood.


  3. ruth666 on April 2nd, 2008 @ 1:16 pm

    Gee, let me guess - MONEY is involved?

    I can’t wait to see how many illegal billboards we have, and who owns them.

    Best of all I can’t wait to NEVER hear how much revenue was generated and/or that no punishment or fines will be levied for the infringements.

    Unless the Weekly (or someone else) stays on top of this I guarantee we’ll never hear another word on the subject. Too much money at stake, all of it ill-gotten.


  4. Mack Reed (mackreed) on April 2nd, 2008 @ 1:34 pm

    Count on results. Pelisek’s definitely a digger and a pro.


  5. EL CHAVO! (elchavo) on April 2nd, 2008 @ 10:22 pm

    I hope this leads to many billboards coming down!


  6. Lucinda Michele (la_michele) on April 2nd, 2008 @ 11:21 pm

    I feel so dirty right now.


  7. Alternative media wins big against City of L.A., big media « California Faultline (pingback) on April 3rd, 2008 @ 2:24 pm

    [...] [h/t Mack Reed at LA Metblogs] [...]



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