Billboard companies are parasites on the taxpayer. We build the roads and public spaces and they use them for their own profit. They pay rent to the private property owners on whose land they put them; that's frequently themselves, not to the taxpayers whose space they are using.
Parasites on the taxpayer?!?!?
I don't follow you. They pay property taxes. They pay income taxes on the money generated from the signs. There are all sorts of miscellaneous fees and such. They have to pay other businesses to come and change out the advertisements.... They're far from parasites.
I get that you don't like billboards, but just because you don't like them doesn't make them blight or parasitic or anything more than something that you don't like.
Not that I would expect out city to take an initiative, but why not try modeling the laws to allow them, but create financial obstacles for them to be. Use those finances in ways that benefit the public. Eliminate the loopholes that cut everyone out of the picture except for the advertisers themselves.
