Signs, Signs, Signs – Council Looks to Rush Kiosk Agreement Before the Election

It’s all been a lot of confusing language; kiosks, signage, way-finding, surveillance, data gathering, billboards, public space and advertising. All these terms have been a part of the argument both for and against adding a new kind of sign to the city’s landscape. 

In correspondence available through a Public Records Request, the subject of “Minimal Requirements for Kiosk RFP [Request for Proposals]”  a note was sent to remind Council member Goran Eriksson that  “if you were to recommend #3 and the council agrees, Kiosks will never come back for consideration prior to next November.”

So why the rush? 

The term used most often here – kiosk – is categorically defined as a “small, temporary booth placed in areas with high foot traffic.” It’s not accurate as to what the city is proposing as these installations are, first of all, not temporary. The kiosks that the council is discussing are large, permanent electronic signs used to display ads that have the added function of gathering data from passers-by. 

That they have been labeled as ‘way-finding’ is equally inaccurate; it’s not a map with a ‘You Are Here’ feature. It would be advertising – not signage – as signage is required to be related to the service or product being sold on site. 

That there are members of the City Council who are so totally in favor of going ahead with this enormous change to the city’s landscape is not a surprise, but the question lingers as to why. Is it about selling ad space? Or is it about surreptitiously gathering data? Or is it a two-fer?

The company doing the wooing in this courtship, Orange Barrel/IKE has kiosks in Miami, Houston, Atlanta and other cities, and sadly has a long history of poor ethics. 

 Orange Barrel/IKE’s proposal offers Culver City only two out of the eight slides displayed for public information, with the other six reserved for advertising. The proposal did not mention what share of the advertising revenue the city would receive, if any, even though the city would allow kiosks on public land at no charge.

With the Wende Museum about to open a new exhibit on Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency consider what a another layer of information gathering would do to the public landscape. Consider that we already have electronic license plate readers throughout the city, and ask why there is now a need to track info from people simply walking down the street? 

The Culver City Planning Commission held a lengthy meeting on September 25, 2024, focused on a “Study Session: Discussion of Citywide Sign Code Update.”  While the illustrations and the history were all intriguing – who is it that thinks we need to update the sign code? 

The people who want kiosks, with ads and interactive listening. 

On July 8, 2024 Council Members Eriksson, O’Brien and Vera voted to repeal the relevant parts of the sign code before a Request For Proposals for kiosks was even created.

As per the email to Council member Eriksson, the recommendation are to “1. Expand the scope of work for the Comprehensive Sign Code Update to include a discussion of necessary amendments to allow for a kiosk program; or 2. Pursue an amendment to the Sign Code to allow for a kiosk program on a separate track from the Comprehensive Sign Code Update; and 3. Consider creating an Ad Hoc Signage Subcommittee to address off-site signage relative to a kiosk program and other off site signage requests (i.e., Westfield). Such an Ad Hoc Signage Subcommittee could be helpful, as needed, during the Comprehensive Sign Code Update process.”

So, creating a sub committee as a means of keeping it out of the public eye as much as possible. Or removing it from the regulatory process altogether. Because if we don’t call it a sign, then we don’t have to follow the regulations for signage, right? 

That little note (i.e., Westfield) looks back to unique agreement that the then-city council in 2015 made with Westfield Mall to allow billboards as not-really-kinda-sorta- signage-but-sure-billboards. 

According to our friends at Wikipedia, “Historically, a kiosk was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward.” Maybe, when these proposed kiosks have been defaced, broken, spray painted, glass shattered and wiring gutted, we can plant some vines.  

Judith Martin-Straw

 

 

The Actors' Gang