Rave: To the Mad Sign Hacker (Whoever you are)

[DP]

You know those garish plastic signs for commercial painting services, junk removal, house flippers and what-not that we constantly see on utility poles and parking strips all over town? Well, a couple of years ago, I started noticing how someone in my West Seattle neighborhood has been going around slicing them right down the middle. Whoever it is that’s doing this, he (she?) works stealthily (probably at night) because I’ve never seen him at work. And quickly, too. Sometimes it’s just a matter of hours between when a sign goes up on a pole and when the Mad Hacker slices it in two.

I’ve noticed that the Mad Hacker doesn’t bother taking these signs down; he just mutilates them and leaves them in place. At first I wondered why he does this, especially if his complaint is (as I assume) that the signs are ugly. Then it dawned on me. In the first place, it’s too much trouble to climb up every utility pole that has a sign on it. Unsafe too. And besides, if the point is just to disable the sign, it’s so much easier just to cut it and move on to the next one. This guy must be thinking: Why should I waste as much of my time taking these signs down as some clown took putting them up?

In the second place, the Hacker probably wants the person who put up the sign to come by later and see what happened to it. So the Hacker’s message to the businesses uglifying our public spaces is this: Hey Mr. “Got Junk,” Mr. “College Pro,” etc.! . . . If you put up one of your crappy signs in my neighborhood, I’m going to slice it immediately, and I want you to see that so you’ll know you’ve wasted your time and money. Eventually you’ll learn not to do this in my neighborhood again. Because I live here. And I care what people do to this place.

Bravo, Mad Hacker! Bravo! Based on your fine work, I have been inspired to imitate you. Only for now, I’m doing a slight variation on your theme. Instead of hacking these unsightly signs to shreds and leaving them in place, I’m going to remove them first, then hack them, then photograph them in my trash. Then I’m going to send copies of the photos to the perpetrators, just to make SURE they get the message: It is illegal to put up non-dated, commercial signs on Seattle utility poles, and if you do that in my neighborhood, I will gladly undo it for you.

Please see the text below, which I’m using as a template to send out to various companies that put up these signs. Following that are sample photos of signs I’ve recently taken down.

Dear CollegePro Painters: Someone from your organization has been tacking up signs on utility poles in my neighborhood. I need to let you know that this is illegal activity according to Seattle signage laws. Whenever I encounter such a sign in my neighborhood, I remove it immediately.

Please discontinue posting your signs on utility poles in Seattle. It is illegal and just plain unsightly. If you continue doing it, I will be forced to contact the police, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and take other action as necessary.

Thank you.

–Me

Pix:

Share This

[Carson]

I love it!!

Share This

[KBear]

Do you take care of illegal sandwich board signs, too?

Share This

[kg]

It would be 10x better if you wore a mask and cape.

Share This

[Ken]

The same person also cuts up legal political signs on private property.

Share This

[DP]

Answers . . .

Sandwich Boards: Currently I do not deal out sandwich board justice. However, there is one that I have my eye on, and I might ask the owner to move it because it’s right in front of a nice King County park sign. Uuuuuugly!!!

If a sandwich board was blocking a public sidewalk, I’d have no qualm about telling the owner to remove it. Our public spaces are already choked-up enough with billboard advertising. We don’t need this crap coming down to the sidewalk level, do we?

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I understand the need of small business owners to compete, but there is a limit to how much they can get up in my face with their advertising. Let them use the Internet, the Yellow Pages, the WS Blog ad panel, or whatever. That’s what those spaces are there for.

Mask and Cape: This might work, but I’d need tights to go with the ensemble, and now we’re talking really disgusting. (Remember: I’m trying to beautify the neighborhood, not make it worse.)

—D.P.

Share This

[EmmyJane]

I always thought it was the wind doing that to signs… Although maybe that’s what the Mad Hacker wants us to believe it is…

Share This

[JanS]

If I understand the law, it it NOT illegal to post on utility poles (the Seattle law changed in 2002), and is the responsibility of the poster to remove them subject to fine, if they are damaged. I’m not locating the exact wording right now, but will endeavor to find it and include it here.

Yes, they are unsightly, but are they truly illegal?

Share This

[JanS]

mea culpa…the signs have to be dated :

http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/posteringrules.htm

Share This

[dhg]

Thanks Jans. Those are interesting rules: no posts above the 7ft line and post only with a posting date means we can ask the City to get rid of many of them.

Share This

[DP]

Needless to say, the commercial signs (College Pro Painters, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, etc.) are nearly ALWAYS above the 7-foot line and they are NEVER dated. I suppose you could ask the city to remove them, but I think you’d be wasting your time, because city staff have better things to do. In this case, I don’t feel bad about “taking the law into my own hands” and removing illegal signage myself.

Frankly, I don’t even like the NON-commercial signs, because people can be very sloppy with them. It makes the neighborhood look trashy when people put up lost pet, tent revivial, or hip-hop concert signs on utility poles with gobs of tape and never bother to remove them. After a couple of weeks the signs start peeling off and local punks start throwing trash around. Urban blight sets in . . .

Maybe this kind of behavior is acceptable on Capitol Hill, where it’s part of the grungy charm. But here in West Seattle? I don’t think so . . .

Share This

[flowerpetal]

I simply remove the signs from poles near my house. They really are unsightly and offend my eye from inside the house. Leaving a sliced sign would not beautify anything. I try to stay away from absolutes like “always and never.”

I cannot recall a sign that I removed being seven feet of the ground; and I have removed some of the same signs you have taken pictures of.

Share This

[DP]

OK, flowerpetal. Let’s go with “usually” and “seldom.” The commercial signs are USUALLY above the 7-foot mark and they are SELDOM dated.

I agree with you that the sliced signs are not an aesthetic improvement, but I understand the logic behind slicing a sign and leaving it up. If you simply take a sign down, the poster might think, “Hm… the wind must have blown my sign down. Better put up another one.” But if you slice a sign, and the poster sees this, he’ll get the unequivocal message that his signs aren’t welcome in the neighborhood. And other potential sign putter-uppers will get that message as well.

So it’s a tactical question, really. If everyone (or rather, “most people”) did as you and I do, flowerpetal, then this would be a moot point, since the illegal sign posters would quickly be overwhelmed by our collective fastidiousness. But since most people just tolerate these signs, slicing them may actually be the better approach to making them go away for good.

Consider an analogy: Let’s say you’ve got a neighbor whose dog poops in your yard every day. You’ve talked to him about it personally, to no avail. You’ve contacted the city, also to no avail.

You now have two options for getting the poop out of your yard:

A) You can pick up the poop every day and throw it away in your trash. Sure, it’s a hassle, but at least it makes the poop go away.

or . . .

B) You can pick up the poop and toss it back onto your neighbor’s doorstep.

Of course, with option B the poop will still be there stinking up the neighborhood. But now it will be even more of an annoyance for your neighbor than it is for you.

If you just dispose of the poop yourself, your neighbor will not be motivated to change his behavior and you will be stuck picking up poop forever (or rather, “a long while”). However, if you rub your neighbor’s face in his own poop (metaphorically speaking), he will be more likely to stop the offending behavior.

Another trick you might try is rolling up a newspaper and swatting your neighbor on the nose, making sure the dog witnesses this.

Note: Don’t try any of these confrontational tactics with a crazy, shotgun wielding neighbor with a pit bull. When dealing with someone like that, it’s better just to put up a fence. Or move out of the neighborhood.

Share This

[flowerpetal]

I was right with you until you offered the analogy which I don’t like at all; even if it was meant to be funny.

I think there is room enough for sign slicers and sign removers. I don’t think one is a better approach than another. We have somewhat of a different motive. I’m not as interested in teaching the sign posters a lesson; I just want the ugliness gone, and that’s what I get.

Share This

[DP]

No, both motives are ultimately the same: to make the ugliness go away. What’s different is the method.

Method 1: Remove the signs as they appear. This makes the ugliness go away now, but you have to do it again and again, and if you can’t keep up, then the ugliness reappears.

Method 2: Slice the signs. This leaves the ugliness for now, but might cause the ugliness to cease over time, as the uglifiers learn that they are wasting their efforts.

Is Method 2 working? Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be so far. But who knows? If not for the Mad Hacker, things might be worse . . .

Anyway, it’s a larger principle we’re talking about here, namely, whether it’s better to treat diseases or symptoms.

“For every thousand men pruning the branches of the tree of evil, there is but one who is hacking at the root.” —Emerson

Share This

[rockhills]

So, just to clarify. I see that most of this thread is about commercial signs that are illegal either because of their placement of lack of date. What about legal signs? I see an awful lot of those ripped apart, removed, or otherwise defaced. Would removing or defacing a legally posted sign be illegal?

Share This

[anonyme]

Don’t want to hijack this thread, but Garage/Yard Sale signs can also get out of hand. I live near a corner, and people hardly EVER remove these signs once the sale has ended. They leave them to rot off the poles, or blow around the neighborhood. In other words, for someone else to clean up. The signs never have dates, and seldom have addresses. When they do, I sometimes walk the sign back to that address and throw it in their yard. Hooray for the hacker!

Share This

[Author]

Posts