Jordan Seiler is an New York artist who breaks into bus shelters to replace the ads with art.   Visit his  Public Access page (picture at right) and he’ll sell you a tool to break into bus shelters.   Seiler was interviewed on May 9, 2017 on the Two Beers In Podcast.  Here are some excerpts.   The explicit language is Seiler’s not ours.

On transit contracts

When you look at the actual numbers we get a shit deal basically.  But without going into the nitty gritty of the deal because I think it is less important, the whole idea that we would allow a private corporation to come into our city, hijack our attention and only give us a portion of the profits back seems totally insane… The fact that there is a revenue share at all seems kind of dubious to me.  So a contract is made with the city that says we’ll put up all these bus shelters and then we have an exclusive 10 year contract to run advertisements on them and then we’ll give the city 20% of the profits on that…Part of my job as an artist is to dream and not necessarily implement any perfect solutions.  But that is the pie in the sky idea.  Why would we not have this advertising infrastructure serve us as much as it possible can…Who decided that JC Decaux, a French multinational company should come in and make hundreds of millions of dollars off of this bus shelter advertising infrastructure.  Why does that money not go back into our city coffers…This is what cities do.  It’s an incredible revenue source.  JC Decaux realized early on that by offering infrastructure to cash strapped cities he could convince them to run million dollar deals under that radar without public scrutiny whatsoever.

On why he does what he does

I don’t think what I’m doing is illegal.  I think its part of being an engaged citizen.  It’s civil disobedience to express a concern of mine through the occupation of someone else’s private material and in doing so I’m hurting them but I’m not causing bodily harm.  It’s the most aggressive thing I can do without fucking up the world.

On selling keys to allow people to open transit kiosks

The keys are “functional sculptures so they are to be enjoyed and put on your mantle and looked at and whatever you do beyond that is not my concern…As crazy as it sounds I offer nine keys and that can get you in anywhere in the world.”

Insider’s take on Jordan Seiler: 

Jordan, you may not think the details are important but Insider does.  He looked into your claims about New York’s JCDecaux deal.  You’re an artist and a dreamer and a vandal and a lawbreaker but not an accountant.

• The revenue share is way higher than 20%.  JC Decaux, which took over the contract from Cemusa in 2015 is paying 50% of gross revenue plus it is providing 22.5% of the advertising spots on the shelters for city/public service use plus it is providing the New York City $20 million a year in tourism advertising on its plant in Europe plus it is providing the MTA with 3,391 free bus shelters.  The JCDecaux deal is not unusual.  MTA’s subway advertising contract with Outfront  starts at a 45% revenue share, increasing to almost 80% by the end of the 15 year contract.

• Insider estimates that the MTA shelters cost about $65,000 apiece without digital advertising and $100,000/apiece with digital which means JC Decaux is providing $220-330 million in bus shelters at no cost to the taxpayers.

• What does this work out to per rider?  Insider computes the value of the JC Decaux contract at $70 million per year plus $220 million for the shelters.  There were 638 million bus trips in New York City during 2016.  In the absence of the JC Decaux contract Bus fares would need to be increased by about a $0.43 per trip to pay for the shelters and foregone revenues.  If MTA asked bus riders and if they would prefer a $1/day fare increase for an ad free experience Insider knows what they would say.

• The contract wasn’t awarded “under the radar”.  It was awarded by a public competitive bid process by a government agency with elected officials, accountable to the Mayor.  Any change to the contract is subject to public hearings.

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