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DON’T GET MARY Tracy started about those newfangled electronic billboards cropping up on the nation’s highways – that is, unless you have the time to talk.
The anti-billboard activist and founder of Philadelphia-based SCRUB – which bills itself as “the Public Voice for Public Space” – sees the flashing billboards as a bane to distracted drivers and the environment.
With changing messages flashed on these signs every few seconds, motorists have been known to slow while waiting for the next image. That’s a life-threatening risk at interstate highway speeds, notes Tracy.
Then there’s the obvious drain and cost of the electricity used to power these signs around the clock. Tracy says it would require planting 4,000 trees to offset the carbon footprint of these signs, in addition to the added cost of operating them.
What’s the likelihood that the views of this advocate will affect the national debate on electronic billboards? Well, it just got a bit better last week – with the announcement that Tracy has been named to run Scenic America, in Washington, D.C.
The national organization seeks to protect the nation’s highways from blight of all types, from signs to cell towers to wind turbines. The group lays claim to preventing “thousands of billboards from blighting our highways.”
Good news for Philadelphia: Tracy will keep a hand in SCRUB, dividing her time between the two organizations. There are fewer illegal signs around here today, but too many inner-city neighborhoods remain blighted by billboards.
With a track record of victories in fighting illegal signs as well as setbacks, SCRUB has fought the good fight. So Scenic America’s anti-blight efforts should benefit from Tracy’s neighborhood-honed skills as an advocate.