Residents complain 'suggestive' billboard too close to kids' ballfield
Looming over westbound I-90 Tollway near Des Plaines, a woman's head tilts back, her arms and shoulder bare, as she entices drivers to visit an Elgin area strip club.
Thousands of drivers pass it each day, getting a one- or two-second exposure.
The view from the ball fields at Seminole Park in Des Plaines, however, is more pronounced.
Seminole Park, at Scott Street and Halsey, is home to the Devon-Higgins Little League. Five- to 16-year-old boys play baseball there all spring and summer, said Lori Aponte, who has three kids in the league.
The billboard, while facing the tollway, is in full view of the park.
"I find it very offensive, actually suggestive," Aponte said. "It's not something I think they should be subjected to when they are doing something productive."
Aponte said her children haven't yet commented on the sign to her.
"You don't want to answer that question, if it comes up," she said.
Parent and coach Chris Peterson, who grew up playing Little League at that same park, said it's an embarrassment.
"It's just totally against everything we try to teach these kids," Peterson told the Des Plaines city council Monday night, urging them to do something. "It's disgraceful."
City officials say they will make contact with the billboard company, but the city cannot force the ad's removal.
"It's a First Amendment issue," Des Plaines City Attorney David Wiltse said.
It's not the first time a billboard has raised eyebrows in town. Years ago, a provocative "Sex and the City" poster on a billboard across from the Salvation Army on Algonquin Road generated a flurry of complaints.
City officials urged residents to take it up with the billboard company and eventually it came down, Wiltse said.
Wiltse said the I-90 billboard is located on private property that may actually lie within Rosemont. Who can exercise control over the content will depend on the agreement between the property owner and the billboard company, he said.
"We don't have any actual jurisdiction over them," Wiltse said. "It's more of an attempt to get them to cooperate with us."
Several city aldermen sympathized with parents' concerns over the ad, but to some it's not that big of a deal.
"It's not that provocative," 6th Ward Alderman Mark Walsten said. "And, it's not that close to the ballfield either.
"There comes a point where you've got the First Amendment, and you can't tell people or businesses what you think should or shouldn't be there. We'll talk to the billboard company and see if they'd be willing to remove it. If not, there's nothing much we can do about it."
The billboard promotes the gentlemen's club's full bar and kitchen. A call made to the club Tuesday afternoon was not returned.
Even Peterson agrees the ad is not pornographic or even vulgar.
"It's better than others I've seen, but it's still promoting that stuff right at my park," he said.