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They’ve been a staple of Times Square for ages and a world without them seems almost too strange to comprehend – those huge billboards. But now it appears as if the presence of the billboards may be illegal. According to a 2012 highway spending bill, those billboards are just too big. And the federal government is demanding that NYC take them down.

So what’s the big deal here? Well, money of course. If the city does not comply, then they’ll lose about $90 million in federal highway funding. And while it may end up being expensive as all hell to get them down and replace them with new, smaller billboards, $90 million would still end up being the bigger number. The city isn’t too happy about this, however, and they’re not going to going to give up without a fight. The folks in charge are currently chatting with the Federal Highway Administration and seeing if they can come to a compromise. After all, what harm are the billboards causing? If anything they’re a tourist attraction that brings people to spend money in NYC.

Photo courtesy of Matt Wade Photography via Wikicommons