Screwing the Commons and All Things Civic

[peristaltor]

Just caught a piece of rage-inducing news: a Washington State House bill proposing selling naming rights to elements of public transportation to raise money. As he almost always does, I think Goldy says it best:

Personally, I'm opposed to selling the naming rights on state bridges and highways because I think it cheapens the commons and

Comments

[telemann]

They're doing this to subway cars now on the MTA. A company pays for the special decals and paint jobs necessary for the rights to do this. The MTA is strapped for money. That can raise a lot of thorny questions: imagine a contentious client wanting to buy advertising the MTA can't deny such advertising because in a recent court ruling, denying such ads is a violation of freedom of speech. I certainly wouldn't ride the Westboro Baptist Church subway car :P

[rimpala]

Next stop: GOD HATES DAY PASSES Station

[peristaltor]

We get ads plastered all over our buses and trains, too, but that doesn't really bother me. They are obnoxious but temporary.

By contrast, stadium rights pervade outside our area. Every ball game is broadcast with commentators; every commentator is required to proudly name the stadium (without snark). The stadium's name might not be popular to the locals, but increasingly sports broadcast has made even modest local games the subject of regional, national or even international broadcasts.

Even if every branch of a naming company were to close in the area surrounding the stadium, the naming rights would continue to do their work. A vinyl-wrapped train or bus, by contrast, only offends those who can see it, and only for a few weeks.

[telemann]

A vinyl-wrapped train or bus, by contrast, only offends those who can see it,

Well I use public transport all the time, it's everywhere in the city even when I don't use it, and I see it alot.

But it doesn't bother me either really.

[peristaltor]

I drive transit daily. There have been times I've been tempted to defer driving a particular bus based on the ads plastered thereon, but so far have resisted.

Actually, this point came up about a year ago with a local atheist bus ad campaign. Some of the drivers were threatening to not drive the offending coaches. One guy made the mistake of saying so in my earshot.

"Yes!" I said, "you should totally do that. If you do and get a new coach, I then get to refuse to drive all the [blankity-blank] Christer church bullshit buses. So, yeah, go complain!"

The next day, a memo was circulated telling all of us to shut the hell up and just drive the bus.