We found this guy doing some modern archeology Friday evening as he removed a thick layer of old rock show posters, multilevel marketing offers and staples from a utility pole in front of the Cha Cha. He said the city used to take care of the periodic maintenance but now it’s left to the businesses. How long before the pole is covered again?
you know that’s the guy who puts up the majority of those right?
Sounds like I should have asked him more about the ‘businesses.’ Glad to see those who put-eth, taketh away.
If it’s true that the pic is of the guy who puts up most of the posters in the first place (from the business “Poster Giant”?), then the ONLY reason he removes them is out of self-interest, so he can make more money putting up new posters. He is a major contributor to the tattered and sleazy look of many streets due to old, deteriorating, moldy posters, and he is in violation of several of SDOT’s regulations (not that they enforce those!).
The City (SDOT) has never made a real effort to remove old and illegal posters, saying that it’s a “low priority.” Thank goodness for CleanScapes, whose workers remove posters along Broadway on a frequent basis.
You bet, it is low priority to the city budget – esp. when food banks are stressed.
I love posting, for me it adds color in a mostly bland street view. I am glad someone is making a living off this effort. Three cheers to hard work and small business.
Actually, its never been the city’s job to take down the posters. There is an ordinance that deals with posting and folks who post are supposed to return and remove the posters; i think because they so often don’t led to the discussions years ago from folks about a ban. The issue has been enforcement and the difficulty thereof. So, Not the city’s job to remove. And you can probably see why enforcement is difficult. I believe Cleanscapes actually has multiple contracts with the City to do some of the teardown, unless the businesses pay for the poster removal service like they do for the sidewalk cleaning Cleanscapes does.
That’s partly true, Stone. But, the ordinance you refer to is an SDOT “Director’s Rule,” (in effect since January, 2003), and it does stipulate that SDOT can remove illegal posters, and then charge the offender(s) for the cost of removal. But, since each utility pole contains numerous offenders, it is basically impossible for this to happen, even if SDOT wanted to try….the ordinance was poorly thought out in the first place. But I just wish SDOT would spend some time removing the old, tattered litter from our public structures….that’s just normal maintenance.
And, yes, the Director’s Rule does require those posting to remove the posters when the event promoted has passed, or within 30 days, whichever is sooner. But this is never done, except occasionally by the postering business out of self-interest, and the result is the mess we now see on many of our streets.
I like the posters. Makes Pike/Pine part of what Pike/Pine is.
Just hire some person down-on-their-luck to monitor the posters and take down the ones that are past-due.
Or let the post-hipsters take down the “good ones” for their collections.
-Me