Sunday 22 January 2012

Residents rally against invasive light from digital signs outside BC Place

This article in the Globe and Mail tells how the three giant video screens at BC Place have sparked hundreds of emails and letters since last fall from downtown residents who properly assert that light from the flashing, beer-advertising sign has invaded their living rooms by day and their sleep by night.  The story goes on to explain that BC PavCo’s recent tinkering with the screens demonstrates that they’re not at all listening to residents’ concerns.  Concerned and directly affected citizens alike have been rallying for four months for the standard application of due process and have demanded that BC PavCo be made to comply with the city’s sign by-laws, laws which were precisely designed and have been successful at achieving the proper balance regarding appropriate signage throughout so-called ‘entertainment districts’ in the Vancouver downtown core.  Finally, the story reminds readers that CBC (recalling that CBC is a Federal government entity, a level of government superior to the Provincial government), when seeking to erect a screen at CBC Plaza at 700 Hamilton Street in 2008, followed the standard billboard permit application process as do all Crown corporations when looking to implement projects which are generally described and governed by Vancouver’s city by-laws. 

– Feeling the pressure mounting, PavCo CEO Warren Buckley has chosen to run and hide and has left BC Place assistant general manager Kathy Delisser all alone to make outlandish statements, such as trying to shrug-off responsibility by saying that BC Place isn’t free to do exactly what it wants with the sign due to ongoing sponsorship negotiations. …It’s becoming increasingly obvious to even the least interested onlooker that PavCo’s actions regarding the three screens at BC Place Stadium are marred with irregularities and that the erecting of the three screens is a complete deviation from any and all accepted procedures considered appropriate by all levels of civic and provincial government.

(Please click the following link for full story in the Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/residents-rally-against-invasive-light-from-digital-signs-outside-bc-place/article2307488/