$100,000 for a television, and $0 for Wellanders

As you probably already know, Welland's city council recently approved the purchase of a $100,000 TV screen to be mounted on the outside of our city hall. According to the Tribune, members of the council enthusiastically supported the idea, with one saying that it would make East Main Street 'a cool place to be.'

This is roughly akin to saying that you are going to make Port Colborne's East Village into a cultural hotspot. But in all seriousness, what exactly will Welland get out of this?

According to the Tribune article, the giant screen will be used "to promote city events, as well as display paid advertisements from local businesses and organizations" - which sounds nice, but only because it's been slightly spruced up to sound more appealing to the public. The more accurate version is that 50% of the airtime goes to Welland Hydro, who paid for 50% of the cost of the screen; while the other 50% will be given to the city to be used as they see fit. The city will then sell blocks of advertising to other businesses at their discretion.

To whom will that other 50% be sold? The focus almost certainly won't be on true local businesses, as in independent ones founded by local people. It'll be sold to whoever gets the city closest to earning their $50,000 back as soon as possible. We won't be seeing ad space given to the Black Sheep Cafe, the new CaribAfrica Specialty Store, or even the venerable Rex Hotel. Instead, my money's on McDonald's, Wal-Mart, and the like - companies that may operate locally, but are hardly 'local businesses' by most people's definition. (If the city proves me wrong on this one, I'll be very pleased.)

But even if the ad space DID go to small businesses, what difference would it make to most of us? The bottom line is that Welland just spent $100,000 - which according to our 2015 city profile is nearly three times what the average Wellander earns in a year - on a glorified billboard. Yes, in a world where we regularly pay just to avoid seeing advertisements, all 42,000 of Welland's taxpayers just paid $2.30 apiece to be inundated with promotions every time they drive by city hall. It's expensive, unnecessary, and if the comments from Tribune readers are anything to go by, it's unwanted. How many Wellanders would vote 'Yes' to such a thing, and voluntarily hand over $2.30 to support it, if they were surveyed right now?

Since this is written from a youth perspective, I'll end with one final point. Just over three months ago, the City of Welland announced that $413,333 in funding they had allotted for the construction of a new skatepark was being withdrawn. Why? Because the Federal government cancelled a $216,667 grant for the same purpose. $100,000 could have gotten us much closer to the goal - we could finally catch up to Port Colborne, Dunnville, and nearly every other town in our vicinity by having a nice recreational area for our teens. Instead, we now have a billboard expensive enough to make the Sunshine List.

That's $100,000 for a television, and $0 for the people of Welland. But hey, as long as Welland Hydro gets to advertise... whatever a hydro company needs to advertise, then it's fine, right?