 |
You know them, you hate them. Advertising circulars cluttering up your stairways, mailboxes, windshields, only to end up laying the gutter and adding to the city’s litter problem. Fortunately, our good curmudgeonly blogger in arms JJT has started his very own crusade against these papery menaces, the battle lines being drawn in SoBo’s Pigtown. Flyering is illegal in Baltimore, and carries a fine if documented evidence is provided with a call to 311. Seems harsh, but DAMN these things are annoying.
This past month has drawn multiple offenses to JJT’s innocent doorstep, the tally being six flyers so far in as little as a week. You can see the offending flyererers here and here. |
I have to say, I admire the residents of Pigtown/Washington Village for their seemingly unending penchant for Blogger Justice© in the past few years. What with the advent of Pigtown John Watch and Baltimore Slumlord Watch, these diligent residents are taking on some of the city’s hyper-local issues head on and it seems to be making at least some waves. Extending this sort of online diligence city-wide could conceivably make a huge difference, and in the case of BSW, actually has.
With any luck, these offending businesses will either stop placing flyers where they don’t belong, or they’ll get a stern talking to by the city.
I would get flyers from the same place 2-3 times a week sometimes. it is extremely annoying, but i had no idea it was illegal! what a pain to get it documented though.
But but but … without these circulars, how will we know where to get bowel-wrenching Chinese food?
Sam wins the prize for working “bowel-wrenching” into a comment
Awww…thanks for the mention.
Hey I hope JJT makes some waves with his circular crusade — I get tired of throwing them in my recycle bin every week.
Oooo…just had an iced-coffee-at-midnight great idea. Take a couple of Pigtown hookers, let them live in an abandoned blighted home for free in exchange for going around the neighborhood reporting illegal flyers to the city. I think this could work…
Hooker power!
I smell sitcom!
BRILLIANT
In Patterson Park, we’re fighting a notorious violator, Nephew’s Pizza. It seems that they racked up over $10,000 in flyering violations, but they refuse to pay the fines or even appear in court. According to Councilman Kraft (who drafted this legislation), the city placed a lien on the property for the amount of fines accumulated (which the city can’t collect until the property is sold). However, Nephew’s still flyers our neighborhood at least once every two weeks.
I am hoping this little Internet crusade gets some attention. I just find the current reporting method to be, to say the least, dumb and annoying. The advantage to this method is I get to use my nerdy powers for good and make use of the awesome camera on my Droid Incredible.
That said, BSW’s idea of hookers living in vacant properties and reporting on flyers is a brilliant idea. Let’s make it happen.