They say the neon lights are doomed on Broadway:
The feds say many of Times Square’s huge and neon-lit billboards must come down or the city will lose about $90 million in federal highway money.
The edict comes from a 2012 law that makes Times Square an arterial route to the national highway system. And that puts it under the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which limits signs to 1,200 square feet. It took the feds until now to realize that Times Square was included, Kramer reported.
Blame lawmakers, not the current DoT administrators, says Marc Scribner of CEI:
This is a classic example of Congress passing stupid laws, ordering regulators to implement them stupidly, and then forgetting about them until unintended consequences spring up down the line.
10 Comments
Anyone who could consider Times Square an arterial route to anything should not only not be in a position of authority, they should be locked away somewhere for their own safety. Being that kind of stupid is dangerous.
The easiest way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it.
And why are the feds giving NYC highway funds to begin with?
No, the DOT is not asking anyone to take down the times square billboards.
“FHWA has been working with the New York State DOT and the New York City DOT for nearly a year to correct this unintentional consequence of extending the National Highway System (NHS). At no time has FHWA asked NYCDOT to remove the billboards from Times Square or threatened to withhold federal funds. FHWA and NYSDOT have discussed the possibility of removing the NHS designation from specific roadways, and FHWA stands ready to act if we receive that request from the state.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/06/how-the-federal-government-could-use-conditional-spending-to-force-the-removal-of-times-square-billboards/
So they’re giving millions in transportation funds when the road in question is not in compliance with the law? Is that any better?
Also:
You can’t say it’s not Obama’s fault if the law making Times Square an arterial was passed in 2012. He signed it. And if someone from the Transportation Department bad brought up this problem when the law was still a bill, I’m guessing Congress would have done something. And NYC could have done the redesignation years ago. Everyone involved has some responsibility here.
No, It’s not Obama’s fault. The law in question passed it 2012 did not designate Times Square an arterial, that is controlled entirely by NY state and NY city. What the 2012 federal law did was change what road categories are included in the national highway system.
Its unlikely that anyone in congress or the Obama administration was aware that the relevant streets in NYC were designated as Major Arterials. In fact the whole problem can by most easily fixed by NY state and NYC by redesignating the relevant streets as Minor Arterials.
Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Perhaps it’s due a corollary: “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”
“Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”
The only incompetence and/or malice (they aren’t mutually exclusive) here is on the part of the CBS New York reporters who created this non-story.
P.S.
I prefer the geeks corollary to Clarke’s third law.
“Any technology that is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced”
Well, the law did need to pass in order to find out what was in it. .
But this should not be a problem – after all, it is only evil, useless commercial speech, sponsored by corporations that don’t deserve the right to speak about anything, unless they inherited that right from some ancient ancestor who agreed with the progressive mindset. Maybe the NY Times(Times Square…) could put up educational messages in their stead, or images that have been approved by the government to transform NYC into a place that is more inclusive and caring. Let the transformation begin at the place where all received wisdom is disseminated to the faithful (All the news that’s fit to print)