Just in time for the Super Bowl, Oracle has put up one heck of a banner on their high-rise in Downtown San Jose. Apparently they did this without getting permission from the city, which has ordinances against signs this large. However, Scott Knies from the San Jose Downtown Association is arguing that those ordinances should be relaxed for temporary world-class events like the Super Bowl. What do you guys think? Should we allow this kind of signage Downtown?
Source: The Merc
Ordinances imposed for the express consent of city beautification should be relaxed at precisely the time we're visible to the *world*? Like, seriously?
ReplyDeleteLike, seriously. It's not ugly. It looks like a business is actually proud to be Downtown.
DeleteAgreed. I'd like to see a relaxation of the signage laws. I am proud have companies like Adobe, Oracle, Apigee, Move.com, and Xactly downtown, and they should be able to show their pride-of-place.
DeleteIt's objectively ugly and that isn't the biggest problem.
DeleteIt's boring. It's tacky. It's a dopey and dated message and it's not what will draw people to downtown SJ.
Restaurants, events, cultural activities, interesting people: that's what makes people want to be in a city. Not tacky building wraps.
You think people go to "the city" because of the presence of giant, unremarkable tech companies (or giant ads for tech companies)?
I see no problems with it. That is the way a downtown should look like.
ReplyDeleteIt's awful. That said, I can get over it if it goes away after the SB.
ReplyDeleteI'm good with this. Tacky, cheesy, call it whatever we want, as long as Downtown is not synonymous with staid and boring, I'm all down for this.
ReplyDeleteIf people want staid and boring, they got the suburban parts of San Jose to kick it in. Let Downtown be Downtown, wild, crazy, tacky, cheesy, funny, emotional, etc.
Let Downtown Live!!!!
I saw them putting that up while entering downtown for a visit
ReplyDeleteI like the concept but hate the execution of the Oracle advertisement. Someone appropriately described the graphic as "PowerPoint-like" which hits it right on the mark. I do not want the city in the position to control the content of the super graphic, but would like to see more effort in the design of these highly visual additions to the skyline. In addition, I would not want these on all the buildings all at once. The city should control how many buildings and for how long these graphics can stay on the skyscrapers.
ReplyDeleteLet it stay. Who cares what they want to display on their building.
ReplyDeleteWe care.
DeleteI really like this. Makes downtown seem a lot more lively, not so sterile.
ReplyDelete