Tucson could use some better billboards. Notice I didn’t say more billboards. And I’m not talking about the messages that are on billboards, either. Those value judgments are better left to the clients and the creative geniuses who designed them — all the while trying to stay within the generally accepted guidelines of not using more than nine words, at least one of which being an action verb.

No, what I’m talking about are the billboard structures themselves. Most of them around Tucson are owned by Clear Channel Outdoor. Most have also been around a good long time. They’re being maintained OK but they’re just so ... well, old.

Those of us who drive to Phoenix more often than we’d like can see an example of some state-of-the-art billboards on Interstate 10 between the Loop 202 freeway and Sky Harbor Airport. These LED electronic billboards are the same size as normal freeway billboards and, at first glance, don’t look much different, either. But look away and then back again and you’ll notice the message has changed.

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Now that’s what I’m talking about. The Phoenix billboards are clean, sharp — and worth a lot of money to their owners, the billboard companies. As a result they’re well-maintained. Also, because billboard companies can put multiple messages on each one, they’re are probably fewer of them. Not to mention the fact that timely messages can be put on them in an emergency.  

Contrast that to what we have in Tucson. Plain, old, static billboards. The City of Tucson has an ordinance prohibiting the use of any movement on a billboard. Even posting the time and temperature is questionable under the current ordinance.

In classic “do as I say, not as I do,” even the city knows the value of movement on billboards when it comes to its own pet projects, as was shown by this temporary billboard set up last month along I-10 downtown to promote the International Mariachi Festival.

How did they get away with it? Put the sign up and hope for the best. An Inside Tucson Business reporter was told the sign had to be taken down by city officials for being too close to freeway. This is all well and good, except the sign stood there for several days before anyone took action — and by then the Mariachi Festival was over.

Nevertheless, the precedent has been set. Tucson needs better billboards. Electronic billboards might even make us look more like a technically savvy city instead of adding to the impression that we’re a dusty backward burg.    

 E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.