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by milancurcic 1074 days ago
Boca Raton doesn't allow billboards, car dealerships, or Walmarts. We don't normally notice it, but these things jar us as soon as we go to neighboring towns. It's a subtle improvement of outdoor experience (more architecture and green spaces) that percolates into quality of life. A good analogy of this may be browsing the web with ad blockers--pages with ads are busier, noisier, and load more slowly; yes, if the page content is bland, removing the ads will make it blander.
3 comments
Luctct 1074 days ago
The Web analogy is good to remind us that advertising has become some kind of war on the population. I remember when ads were relegated to the sides and corners of any Web page. Now they are inserted in between the paragraphs of what you're reading, some of them blink and there are also pop-ups. Some have an "x" to let you close them, but they come back just seconds later. More and more sites now will show you nothing at all if you disable ads or Javascript or even cookies. People use ad blockers because they don't want to see the ads, so it's reasonable to assume that they are not going to buy anything or if they do it's not abusive advertising that will determine their shopping decisions. But that doesn't seem to matter at all. You just have to look at the damn ad. Just look at the damn ad. Look at the ad or we will send an assassin over to your house! VIEW THE AD, DAMN IT! It's just insane.
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ajmurmann 1073 days ago
>Boca Raton doesn't allow billboards, car dealerships, or Walmarts How does the Walmart prohibition work? Is there a law that prohibits Walmart specifically? How about Sam's Club?
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milancurcic 1073 days ago
I don't know how it works exactly but assume it's in the city's zoning code. Thinking more about it, there's not a single superstore in the city. A Costco and several Targets are immediately outside of city limits. It's not even that small of a city--around 100k pop.
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jecel 1073 days ago
There is a Walmart Supercenter close to where West Palmetto Park crosses US 441. I don't know it that is outside the city limits.
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milancurcic 1073 days ago
Yes, the city limits are approximately at Powerline, with deviations here and there. Area to the west is unincorporated.
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endisneigh 1074 days ago
> A good analogy of this may be browsing the web with ad blockers--pages with ads are busier, noisier, and load more slowly; yes, if the page content is bland, removing the ads will make it blander.

A great example. If there were no ads, the web, and this site, wouldn't exist. Moderation in general is key. This site for example has a single advert which is the top banner, as well as job postings. Subtle and allows the site to fulfill its purpose commercially and create a venue for discussion.

Banning this site (which is really an ad, by the way) would benefit no one.

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kibwen 1074 days ago
> If there were no ads, the web, and this site, wouldn't exist.

This is quite untrue. There was a useful web long before advertisers got their grubby hooks in it.

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rbanffy 1073 days ago
It'd be smaller, more focused, and far less profitable.

I'd say it'd be a huge plus in terms of real utility.

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