PUBLIC SPACE

NY Times: The Town Square as Billboard

"This property for rent. That's what an increasing number of
strapped municipalities are proclaiming to Madison Avenue as they
make available for advertising, marketing and promotional purposes
an expanding range of public places - whether zoos, parks and train
stations, or museums, piers and beaches. And while you still may
not be able to fight City Hall, in some instances you can rent it
for an event. ... 'We call it the city-for-sale phenomenon,' said
Gary Ruskin, the executive director at Commercial Alert in
Portland, Oregon, an organization dedicated to fighting what he
terms ad creep. 'Every one of these is a victory of crass
commercialism over local values. Places like parks are intended to
be sanctuaries from the more noxious aspects of our commercial
culture, refuges from the hustle and bustle of marketing. Instead,
they're now degraded into huckstering, up for bid to the
corporations with the deepest pockets.' "
SOURCE: New York Times, June 23, 2003