Oakland acts on billboard limits

Strict ban on liquor, cigarette ads is near

By Renee Koury

Mercury News Staff Writer

OAKLAND The city of Oakland is poised to adopt one of the nation's most
sweeping bans on billboards hawking liquor or cigarettes, forbidding them
anywhere in town, as it battles the problem of kids who drink and smoke.

The city council approved the strict ban in a 51 vote this week, capping
years of emotional pleas from parents, teachers, clergy and even students
who say the advertisements appear to target youth from poor neighborhoods,
using glamorous depictions of people enjoying cigarettes and beer. The
council is expected to approve a final version Nov. 18.

``People here strongly believe that the way these products are promoted on
the billboards in our community is basically disgraceful,'' Councilman Nate
Miley said, ``particularly when they proliferate in the lowincome and
minority communities. We need more positive messages conveyed, rather than
`get high and be cool by smoking.' ''

But officials took the bold step acknowledging they could be in for a long
and costly legal battle with the powerful billboard and alcohol industries,
which may sue claiming an infringement on their freespeech rights.

``We recognize and respect the sincerity of the community activists who are
trying to address problems of youth smoking and drinking,'' said George
Broder, spokesman for Eller Media Co. of Phoenix, which owns about 800 of
Oakland's approximately 1,500 billboards. ``But you don't solve community
problems by censoring advertising. Censorship isn't a solution to any
problems.''

Broder said his company and the billboard industry nationwide voluntarily
restrict the placement of liquor and tobacco signs so they are at least 500
feet from any church, playground, park or school. He said that means about
300 of his company's 800 Oakland billboards are always free of the booze or
smoke ads.

``It's a balance, a stewardship of the billboards, that still allows us to
provide ads for a legal product that's made for adults,'' Broder said.
``Billboards are a part of a metropolitan urban environment. We don't live
in Turlock.''

But the Oakland council said that wasn't enough. ``Five hundred feet is
like a block and a half,'' said Deputy City Attorney Mark Wald, who is
drafting the ordinance. ``It doesn't deal with the fact that kids walk to
and from school and playgrounds. These are gigantic signs, and the kids
still see them.''

Oakland's law probably would rank among the most rigid in the nation, and
it mirrors one passed just last week in Compton, in Southern California.
That city became the first in the state to ban tobacco and alcohol
billboards, giving companies two years to get the signs down.

Oakland wants to go even further with the billboard restrictions. The
council on Wednesday will consider a ban on new billboard construction and
may try to get billboards removed from residential areas regardless of what
they say. The aim is to improve the looks of the urban landscape.

In San Francisco, the board of supervisors is considering an ordinance
banning publicly visible tobacco advertising not just on billboards but
even in stores where the cigarettes are sold.

Oakland got a boost of confidence in deciding to pass its billboard law
when the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year refused to hear a challenge
to a milder ban in Baltimore. The high court let stand a federal appeals
court ruling that upheld Baltimore's law, which prohibits the giant signs
in residential areas but allows them in industrial sections and along
freeways. Chicago passed a similar law last month.

Oakland also had considered allowing the offending billboards in industrial
areas and along the freeways. But even those areas are laced with housing
units.

``If we were going to protect all the children from seeing the billboards,
we had to go for the whole citywide ban,'' said Joe DeVries, an aide to
Miley. ``It wasn't possible to really make exceptions.''

In the Baltimore case, the federal appeals court ruled that the city had a
right to curb the tobacco and liquor ads to shield children from potential
harm. In Oakland, officials say they can cite evidence to show youngsters
need protection from the largerthanlife ads.

>From 1995 to 1997, Oakland police logged 124 incidents in which underage
decoys were able to buy liquor in Oakland.

The proposed law also cites a 1996 statewide California tobacco survey that
found that young black males, young Hispanics and youth with low school
grades are the fastestgrowing group of smokers in the state.

Eller Media's Broder said that of the 800 billboards the company controls
in Oakland, the number sold to tobacco or liquor companies varies from 50
to 140 during any given month.

``They are a significant client, but any time a government is dictating
that we can't provide legal advertising for a client that provides a legal
product, it's an issue,'' Broder said.

Several activists in Oakland contended the advertisers appeared to target
lowincome and minority youth with billboards concentrated in the Oakland
``flatlands'' but not in the hills where wealthier people live.

``These ads certainly seem to be targeting lowincome areas,'' DeVries
said. ``You don't see them in upscale neighborhoods, where they have ads
for Mercedes, Volvo and real estate. That says something. In urban areas,
there are poorer people, and poverty brings depression. The billboards send
the message that alcohol is an escape.''