Attack of the advertecture in New York

Ever feel like all of New York is becoming Times Square writ large, overly commercialized and Disneyfied? You’re not alone. Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, taking a page out of Charles Schumer’s playbook, held a slow-news-day press conference last weekend to decry illegal outdoor ads popping up on buildings and scaffoldings all over island, like the horrifying H&M ad on the Flatiron building this spring. He said building owners and advertisers “have been in cahoots” in producing this blight to the streetscape.