By swapping one controversial black and yellow banner for another, Lamar Advertising continued its feud with the City of Pittsburgh Saturday.
Even for those lucky enough to have Mount Washington as their daily vista, it was difficult to spot the difference. And for those not following the year-long saga of the rusted-out former Bayer Co. sign that was draped with a vinyl banner for Sprint last May, launching a lawsuit and public relations war, it might be hard to appreciate its significance.
Saturday morning the Sprint sign that read “Pittsburgh WINS Black & Yellow” was replaced with another that reads “Connecting the City of Champions.”
“It’s awful, it’s still vinyl and it’s still illegal,” said Kevin Acklin, chief of staff for Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, without laying eyes on the new banner.
The acrimony dates back to some “good faith” discussions that Mr. Acklin said the city was having with Lamar in the spring of 2016 about what should take the place of the old advertising billboard. Back then, Lamar said it was hoping the city would approve an LED sign that it had worked on. But the city didn’t like that idea and talks fell apart when Lamar put up the Sprint sign on May 31, 2016, Mr. Acklin said, “which we think is tacky and illegal.”
Since then, Pittsburgh’s Zoning Board of Adjustment ruled Lamar didn’t have the right under its permit to replace the “nonconforming” 4,500-square-foot electronic sign with a 7,200 square-foot banner because “nonconforming signs” can’t be “enlarged, added to or replaced by another nonconforming sign or by a nonconforming use or structure.”
Despite the zoning board decision in February, Lamar refused to take down the sign and the city took the company to court. Lamar also is suing to appeal the zoning board ruling, which it has said was “for the express purpose of silencing Lamar’s commercial speech in violation of its constitutional rights.”
In April, a district judge ruled that Lamar didn’t enlarge the sign by covering it with a banner.
Litigation is still pending.
Mr. Acklin said that with the zoning board’s decision that Lamar didn’t have the right to change the permitted use of the sign means that the advertising company has forfeited its rights to it all together.
He’s urging a community discussion about what should happen to that contentious piece of advertising real estate.
“Pittsburgh is a city that values its hillsides and its vistas,” Mr. Acklin said. “Some folks are in favor of a Hollywood-esque Pittsburgh sign. Some want a green wall. Some are in favor of just demolishing the sign and letting mother nature take back the hillside.”
Sprint’s president for the Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia region, Mark Nachman, wrote in a blog post that the new sign kicks off a campaign where, until July 1, the company will donate $1 to the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania for every tweet dedicated to a Pittsburgher, with the hashtag #SprintPGHchamps.
“We know, no better way to show our Pittsburgh pride than to celebrate champions everywhere across this city — in our stores, on television, and even on Mount Washington,” he wrote.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455.
First Published: June 25, 2017, 4:00 a.m.