Debate heats up over San Jose plan to install electronic billboards

A plan to allow up to 90 digital billboards in downtown San Jose has some residents fired up, citing worries about aesthetics, safety and even bird health.

“The hazards of electronic billboards are manifold,” Puragra “Raja” GuhaThakurta said at a recent city meeting. “Some of you have brought up driver distraction and the damage it does to the lighting of the environment, what it does to animals and birds and their ability to thrive in this wonderful environment that we call home… there’s well documented evidence of the negative impacts on human health.”