Business Expo to Bring Back Banners After Ban

Organizers of a black business expo Thursday were scrambling to get permission to rehang scores of promotional street banners that fell victim to a debate over who can use city property to advertise.

In the meantime, officials with the Los Angeles Black Business Expo & Trade Show worry that the disappearance of the banners, which hung for 11 days before their removal Wednesday, will send the wrong signal to would-be expo-goers. “We’ve gotten calls from people wondering if we’ve gone out of business,” said Isidra Person-Lynn, spokeswoman for the 11th annual event.

The expo is scheduled to run Sept. 10 through Sept. 12 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and 100 banners touting the event were hung on street light poles throughout South Los Angeles. Person-Lynn said organizers thought Pacoima-based Gold Graphics had received proper approval for the banners before they were raised Aug. 9 at a cost of $8,000.

On Wednesday, however, the city’s Street Inspection Division informed the group that their application lacked the signatures of Councilmen Joel Wachs and Mike Feuer. Officials in Wachs’ office could not be reached, but Person-Lynn said the councilman OKd the permit late Wednesday.

Feuer initially withheld approval because the city had enacted a 30-day moratorium on street banners Aug. 6 following complaints about a flood of yellow banners hung by ABC to advertise its fall TV lineup, said a Feuer aide.

The moratorium was intended to give city legislative analysts a chance to review the use of city light poles by for-profit organizations.

But Thursday afternoon, officials lifted the moratorium on banners put up by nonprofit groups, and the aide said Feuer plans to begin signing permits for those groups today.

That’s good news for the Black Business Expo and other organizations like the American Cancer Society that had lacked the means to get their message out.