According to an article posted on www.philly.com, the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman looked favorably on allowing massive advertising signs and an inflatable bee on the Inquirer building to promote the upcoming animated film "Bee Movie." This despite the facts that there is no hardship involved and that the non-accessory signs are clearly not allowed under the zoning code. His reasoning, "you just can't have a staid, formal city where nothing happens" and that "the city should be helpful to the movie industry, which has spent a lot of money in Philadelphia in recent years".

In addition to the usual issue of no hardship being shown that should result in no variance being given, this raises the following issues and questions:

1. Unless you are in a ghost town or Atlantis, you cannot have a staid, formal city where nothing happens.
2. If Philadelphia is too staid for you, go visit an amusement park or Las Vegas.
3. The last time I checked, things happen in Philadelphia all of the time; some good, some bad, some boring, some exciting, but things do happen.
4. The connection between the movie industry in terms of producing movies here and supporting their advertising efforts has what benefits exactly? Is the movie industry really going to say, to heck with it we are not going to make our next movie in Philadelphia, they refused to give variances to allow some billboards to promote one of our movies last year?
5. The illegal drug trade has spent a lot of money in Philadelphia in recent years, let's be helpful to them and support their advertising efforts.

There is a great article in the Inquirer today by Inga Saffron about the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment and how it routinely ignores and does not care about the zoning code. As an urban planner who has witnessed this type of behavior for nearly two decades, it was good to see the matter addressed by the media. While zoning and the issuing of variances can be a rather boring matter to most people, it impacts the City significantly in that a building or parking lot of any size will impact, define and shape a street and neighborhood for decades after it is built. The more strategically located the building or parking lot, and the greater the granting of a variance deviates from the zoning code, the greater its likelihood for damage to the fabric of the City. Also, the actions of the Zoning Board of Adjustment is another part of the motif of incompetent/corrupt/pay to play/nonvisionary behavior that we have come to know as the status quo in many aspects of our political life in Philadelphia.

Inga's article has three key points: