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I think that I shall never see, a billboard lovely as a tree. And indeed unless the billboards fall, I never shall see a tree at all. This little ditty, a takeoff on the famous Joyce Kilmer poem, ain’t funny in Gainesville.

You see, we have had a number of trees fall in recent weeks, so the trees will not interfere with the beauty of billboards. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the major owners of billboards in this country, think their billboards should be protected from trees.

If you are naïve, you probably believe that a city has a right to plant trees where it desires, in order to enhance the appearance of our so-call “tree city.” But that, of course, is not the way the world works.

Here is how it works. An industry sees itself at war with Sierra-club types, who want to stop progress by beautifying their fare cities. The Clear Channels of this world believe they are going to have serious problems if they try to make their case before the hundreds of city and county beautification boards, and hundreds of city and country commissions. That would be spreading their personnel too thin, and, anyway, they would lose before at least fifty percent of said city and county commissions.
How much simpler it is to lobby the members of the state legislature, and have them make a rule that says, “No one shall have the right to grow a tree in front of an existing billboard, if the billboard manager objects.” Our Legislature compliantly did just this in 2006. The new law prohibits the planting of trees or other vegetation in the “view zone” of existing billboards. In other words, cities like Gainesville cannot plant trees on their own property, as part of a beautification project, if the growth of the trees will prevent passing motorists from getting a good view of the billboards on private property behind the trees.

A month ago, Clear Channel Outdoor cut down four oaks in the 600 block of Northwest 13th Street, including two that had been planted 10 years ago. Billboard companies undoubtedly will cut down many more. The law is on their side.

Normally, legislators never have to take responsibility for the ills that they visit upon the cities that have elected them to office. However, in this case, the “protect-the-billboards-from-trees” law was passed just two years ago. If they voted for this law, the state legislators elected from this area should have to explain why the arguments of the lobbyists in Tallahassee were so convincing. Has anyone asked them, or will anyone ask them before the next election?

This is Radio Ralph with a comment at midweek for AM850.