As a longtime lurker of e-democracy one of SPicy's favorite threads had been the discussion about where to get a good "juicy lucy" hamburger.   SPicy and SPousy have traveled the Twin Cities this summer in search of a "better than good" burger.  Last night we made our way up Saint Clair Avenue to the Groveland Tap.  Hamburgers aside, the highlight of the evening was passing the Clear Channel billboard at Saint Clair and Ayd Mill Road.  Low and behold the City of Saint Paul, after a lengthy political process and losing a significant lawsuit, has embraced the advertising power of the billboard.  

Como Zoo, Conservatory and "Como Town" are prominently advertised in all of the square footage that can only be achieved through a..... billboard!  Has the city had a change of heart or are billboards no longer the political hot potato they used to be?  After eating the juicy SPicy almost felt like maybe the city did not mean it after all and it would be o.k. to light up a smoke, no forget it.

SPicy wonders if the anti-billboard folks completely forgot about billboards in Saint Paul while they pushed their smoking ban, they are the same people you know.  Maybe they too realized the power of advertising. After SPicy  and SPousy parked the mini, we walked around the corner and saw a billboard on the bus stop promoting the virtues of quitting smoking.  This group must not know what to do with themselves.

Someone had better brief Erin Dady, the City's Marketing Director about all the billboard hubub we've had.  She thinks convention protesters might be trouble, wait until she gets a knock on the door from "Scenic St. Paul."  SPicy hopes they don't lay into her too hard.  After all, the billboard did remind SPicy that Como Zoo and Conservatory will be a good place to take the family when they come for a visit this summer. Job well done.