LED Billboards Coming to Bucktown

Despite community opposition, it looks like five LED billboards along the Kennedy Expressway are in Bucktown's future.

The signs are part of a privatization deal proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and passed by the City Council in a 43-6 vote on Dec. 12, according to a Chicago Reader report. The 20-year plan will lease public land to advertising firm Interstate JCDecaux to erect 34 digital billboards along the city's expressways.

Steve Jensen, president of the Bucktown Community Organization, sent a letter to Emanuel when the issue was up for a committee vote last week to voice his organization's opposition to the plan. His main concern had little to do with the political and financial ramifications of the deal, focusing instead on the ways he felt the signs would negatively affect Bucktown residents.

High on the list of grievances concerning the signs were the light pollution generated by them and the adverse effects they could have on local property values.

Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd) was one of only three aldermen to oppose the measure in the original committee vote and one of the six who voted against its passage on Wednesday.

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