Illegal advertising cluttering community

Jeremy Schwab

Joyce Stanley gets hot when she sees stickers advertising new rap albums or signs advertising political candidates illegally plastered on utility polls and other public property in Dudley Square.

Stanley, the director of the business and community improvement group Dudley Square Main Streets, said the postings contribute to the unkempt look of the square.

“It pisses me off that we have all these nice poles and everything and they put those things there that don’t come off and ruin the poles,” she said.

Record companies often hire people to post as many stickers or flyers as they can, wherever they can.

“They put them up mostly at night,” said Stanley. “Sometimes I’ll be taking it down from a building and they’ll be fighting with me because they get paid by how much they put up.”

Other activists in Boston’s communities of color echoed Stanley’s sentiments.

“Illegal advertisements on telephone poles are a big problem,” said community organizer Michael Kozu of Grove Hall-based Project RIGHT. “It’s very destructive. Usually the worst offenders are vendors from out of town who have no accountability and have people to slap them up. [The stickers] are pasted and very hard to take down.”

Shelly Goehring, who heads Four Corners Main Streets, said illegal postings are also a problem in her neighborhood.

“The frustrating thing is our poles are pretty new and with the humidity and rain it sticks and the polls look gross,” she said. “A week or two ago, there were so many posters on Washington and Bowden streets. After I called, the Inspectional Services Department took them down within a day. It happens all the time.”

The problem of illegal postings in Boston is growing, however, according to Sal Lamattina, director of operations for the Boston Transportation Department.

“Now it’s happening everywhere, on street signs, control boxes, [traffic] signals,” he said.

The Transportation Department launched a campaign at the beginning of the summer to locate and remove the postings. In their patrols through Mattapan Square, Dorchester, Roxbury, downtown areas and other neighborhoods, department staff have discovered two groups in particular who have plastered their stickers far and wide.

In Jamaica Plain, the culprit is the local rap group 357 Phinelia which has reportedly given youngsters piles of stickers advertising the group’s new album. The youths dutifully post them on public benches, stop signs and bus stops.

The clothing company Fish Scales, meanwhile has spread its illegal advertisements downtown and in Mattapan, Roxbury, Dorchester and other neighborhoods.

“They’re putting those stickers on public safety sings like stop signs and do not enter signs, and I have to go out there and replace those signs if I can’t get the stickers off,” said Lamattina. “So it’s a lot of money. It’s manpower. It’s taking away from the other work I do.”

Sometimes it is difficult to locate such companies to collect the $300 fine the city charges for each illegal posting. Businesses get smart and do not include phone numbers or addresses on their stickers. The Inspectional Services Department has reportedly tracked down the website for 357 Phinelia and is still trying to reach them.

The Inspectional Services Department has issued over 300 tickets for illegal postings in the city in the last month, according to ISD spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake. Sixty-nine of those tickets were issued to Fish Scales.

“We’ve been trying to get in touch with them so they can follow the rules and regulations of the city of Boston,” said Timberlake. “Last I heard we contacted someone who said it wasn’t them, so we are trying to track down the company.”

Signs from political candidates are a perennial problem in many neighborhoods, as candidates often leave them behind when their race is run.

In Dudley Square, candidates seeking the votes of Roxbury residents often send their foot soldiers to tack signs to the sides of abandoned buildings or onto utility polls.

“The longtime council people and state representatives come back and take theirs down after the election,” said Stanley. “When we have statewide and national elections, candidates come in and put up signs and never take theirs down.

“They don’t fine them unless there is a hotly contested race and then the mayor goes around and collects them and sends them a bill,” she added.