City losing millions from billboard ban

Amid a budget crisis that means trimming emergency medical services and scrimping on library books, the city of Los Angeles will lose as much as $3.3 million this year by rejecting mini-billboards and other stand-alone advertisements.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Under a controversial contract approved in 2001, the city agreed to let CBS/Decaux install 3,200 bus shelters, kiosks and mini-billboards throughout the city in exchange for $150 million over 20 years.

But some communities have been inundated with requests and residents don't want to see their sidewalks cluttered with advertisements.