Wrapped Up in Noncompliance

Yep - they get a ton of money. Remember the Dinosaur and then Arnold tht were illegally installed on the Glick-Davis building along the 101 in the Cahuenga Pass -they fought the City on that one for a long time. They got big money for it, and it was worth the fight as well as all the feet dragging. Orders to comply are issued, and the property owner can drag out the process - without being fined - for months if they wanted to. All along the way, they can get paid. It's sad, really.

It would be fitting, and be a solution to the demise of Los Angeles as "mural capital of the world", to still apply fines and use it to fund murals as public art.

Why's everyone so upset about this? Oddly enough, the other day as we drove past the store on 2nd and Spring, my girlfriend commented on "how pretty" it looked. I wouldn't agree that it's "pretty" but it sure as hell beats a boring old stucco building.

Call me an idiot, but I'd rather look at buildings encased in colorfull ads than drab faded paint stucco. It gives the city personality...

I say live and let live. We have enough Nimby-ism going on in LA arleady. :)

I love it .. gives me a happening city feeling.

I live next door to this building and actually like the ads. The building itself is kind of an eyesore on the neighborhood. I'd love to see the original facade restored, but it's probably too damaged underneath all that stucco. More importantly it says something very encouraging about the neighborhood: advertisers are starting to recognize and buy into the changing demographics and residential density of the area, and are backing that up with big media and creative dollars (those wraps are much more expensive to produce and install than a billboard).

If retailers follow suit, perhaps some of the empty spaces in that building can be filled, creating more of a connection between the Higgins, Douglas and soon-to-open Pan American buildings.

Eric, I think your criticism of the advertising plastered on the side of that building would strike a stronger chord in me if the area around it was very beautiful. But, quite honestly, that's certainly not the way most people would describe it. That's why such signage, in a peculiar way, actually adds some visual energy to the environment.

Yes, the ads are over the top when they inhale an entire building facade at street level - but I also think that a bright yellow or orange cell phone wrapping is a bit more interesting than a drab, deteriorated stucco wall also. Hey - it could be worse - you'd never see this in a place like Irvine - but since when did a place like Irvine inspire adjectives like "edgy", "interesting", or "out there"???

I got my fill of advertising when I was about, oh, four... so I'm no fan of this stuff. Still, it looks better than the garbage piled all over our edgy, interesting, out there streets every night.

"It amazed me that a building in the shadow of City Hall would put up the illegal advertising and it would remain up for several weeks before gradually coming down."

How about all that illegal activity sanctioned and condoned by the elites at City Hall taking place in Skid Row? Those illegal activities have been going on for decades. What's the priority here?