Monday, May 7th, 2007 ::: "Street Furniture"

This is part six of our look at Astral Media. We have discovered that Astral Media has been removing their nameplate from their illegal wall signs before re-erecting them. This comes after the Executive Committee on Monday passed motions that would require Astral to remove their illegal signs before entering into a contract with the City for the “street furniture” RFP.

Over the past few days, Astral re-erected illegal signs at 165 Avenue Road and 1944 Yonge Street. Notice that the nameplates have disappeared on both these walls.

1944 Yonge Street

This is what the sign looked like on October 9, 2006 when we took this photo:

Notice the Astral nameplate is unambiguously there, and the sign is advertising Stella. By January 24, 2007 the sign was removed and so was Astral’s nameplate:

A few days ago, the sign was re-erected. We took this photograph yesterday, May 6, 2007:

While Astral is operating this sign on an unattributed basis on the street, Astral continues to market this space to media buyers and takes credit for it on its web site.

This sign is illegal because it is operating under this mural permit, which allows only a sign to be painted directly on the face of the building.

165 Avenue Road

At 165 Avenue Road, a similar situation. We took this photo of Astral’s illegal wall sign on February 27, 2007:

MLS issued an order to remove the sign on March 23, 2007 according to this MLS spreadsheet.

We took this photo on April 30, 2007:

And yesterday, on May 6, 2007, the sign was re-erected and the nameplate was removed:

The sign was moved down to target pedestrian traffic as well as vehicles. This sign is illegal because it is operating under this mural permit, which allows only a sign to be painted directly on the face of the building.

There is another illegal Astral sign at 165 Avenue Road, a small backlit sign facing the Ave/Dav intersection. Astral has removed the copy of the sign but has not taken down the structure.

Meanwhile, at the Executive Committee on Monday April 30th, the Committee endorsed the selection of Astral Media for the “street furniture” RFP but City Councillors added the following two motions regarding Astral’s illegal signs:

Moved by Councillor Moscoe:

Moved by Councillor Rae:

These motions were referred to Staff, which will try to kill anything that threatens the RFP. The real fight will be in City Council.

Is Astral trying to duck responsibility by removing their nameplates from their illegal signs? If so, they have tons more to go.

Read our previous reports on Astral Media:

Astral Media: A Culture of Non-Compliance With the Law (Part One)
Astral Media: A Culture of Non-Compliance With the Law (Part Two)
Astral Media: A Culture of Non-Compliance With the Law (Part Three)
Astral Media: A Culture of Non-Compliance With the Law (Part Four)
Astral Media: A Culture of Non-Compliance With the Law (Part Five)