Poster patrol clamps down on advertising blight
While walking in Dorchester on a recent Friday afternoon, Sergeant Steve Tankle of the city of Boston’s Code Enforcement Office spotted a poster attached to a black lamppost. Emblazoned with white and green letters, the placard, advertising a new rap album, screamed out: ‘‘PLIES ..... Definition of Real ..... June 10th ..... History Will Be Made!’’
Another lamppost, near the corner of Atherton and Washington streets, was adorned with two splashy images of British hip-hop artist Estelle, and bold letters stating ‘‘ALBUM IN STORES APRIL 29.’’ Officer Dan Donovan took out a camera and snapped photos of both posters.
Boston’s Inspectional Services Department, which oversees the Code Enforcement Office, ended up citing Atlantic Records, issuing $12,000 in fines to the record label for illegally placing 40 signs on city property.
For Tankle, Donovan, and the rest of Boston’s code enforcement police, this was a routine operation. The City of Boston prohibits anyone from posting signs or decals on buildings and city property.
Posting advertisements on city poles can result in a hefty fine — as much as $300 a day per pole. But that doesn’t stop volunteers — known as street teams — from slapping posters on walls, utility poles, and lampposts along well-traveled roads in urban neighborhoods. Armed with glue, tape, or staple guns, they affix posters and fliers where people can see them. Sometimes they slide as many as six posters up a pole, so they’re stacked one on top of the other.
‘‘It happens all the time. They tend to go up overnight,’’ said Michael Mackan, captain of Boston’s code enforcement police.
Some posters are do-it-yourself marketing efforts by local bands and nightclubs, many of whom aren’t even aware of the city ordinance. Others promote political campaigns. But in recent years, city officials have noticed more big-name companies using makeshift billboards.
x ‘‘It’s not uncommon for Blue Hill Avenue to get hit with a bunch of signs promoting movies and albums,’’ said Mackan, who has been on the beat for 17 years. ‘‘The residents, they see this guerrilla advertising as a blight on their community.’’
Boston is not alone. Cambridge and Somerville have similar ordinances, carrying fines of up to $300 per violation.
‘‘We enforce this regulation, as needed, which is not very often,’’ George M. Landers, Somerville’s superintendent of inspectional services, stated in an e-mail. ‘‘When it has happened in the past, a couple of times a year is normal, I usually contact the vendor; once I inform them it is not allowed, they willingly remove the posters.’’
No fees were collected in Somerville last year, according to Landers.
Boston’s posting ordinance is enforced by the city’s Inspectional Services Department. The city’s code enforcement police — the same folks who write tickets for illegal dumping, unshoveled sidewalks, and improper storage of trash — find illegal posters during routine patrols and by following up on complaints from residents.
As corporate America has embraced such guerrilla marketing tactics, code enforcement officers have become sleuths in tracking down those responsible.
‘‘We track them down through the Internet,’’ Mackan said. ‘‘It takes quite a bit of investigative work to find out. If it’s Sony, we’ll send the ticket to Sony.’’
Boston’s Inspectional Services Department uses discretion when enforcing the little-known ordinance.
‘‘You have a lost cat, you have a yard sale, we take them down, but we tend not to issue fines for those,’’ Mackan said.
Aliza Shapiro, a Boston-based promoter who runs Truth Serum Productions, said she only became aware of the ordinances early this year after a Boston code enforcement officer spotted a poster for an art show, which was being promoted by her company, on a pole near a fire station in Jamaica Plain. As a result, the city’s Inspectional Services Department issued a $300 fine to the venue at which the Truth Serum event was to be held — Coolidge Corner Theater.
‘‘In the 15 years I’ve done Truth Serum, I’ve never had any trouble,’’ Shapiro said. ‘‘I didn’t know about the rule.’’
Truth Serum Productions regularly hires artists to design event fliers, which serve a dual purpose: to promote the event and showcase the local artist’s work. Shapiro and other volunteers then post the fliers around neighborhoods and get permission from business owners to post fliers in their storefront windows and on their bulletin boards.
‘‘I’m putting art up around the city,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s all part of my mission, which is to put money into artists’ pockets.’’
Shapiro called Boston’s Inspectional Services Department and spoke to the code enforcement officer who issued the citation.
She ended up walking around the city and removing all of the posters. The $300 fine was forgiven and reduced to a warning.
‘‘I went through Allston and took them all down,’’ said Shapiro, who laments that space is scarce in storefront windows, which are often already full of cigarette ads and phone card advertisements, and community bulletin boards are few and far between.
‘‘There aren't many places to post.’’
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
