Yay for C-Ville Weekly for calling out 1-800-GOT-JUNK for illegally strewing their own junk all over town. Companies are sticking up their damned signs along every road in town. At the moment it’s a plague of mortgage brokers’ signs, which was preceded by signs pitching a dating service, which was preceded by Mountain Kim Martial Arts (who presumably had to learn self defense in the first place to deal with people pissed off to find their yard cluttered with signs.)
Fun fact: it’s illegal for you to take them down, so the city/county has to use its own resources (read as “tax dollars”) to pick them up, since it’s not like the spammers are ever going to come along and clean up. I want to know which candidate for commonwealth’s attorneys will prosecute these yahoos. I suppose we can rule out Jim Camblos, since he’s not doing anything about them now, but maybe, like “fighting underage drinking and smoking,” this could be his new cause.
In case you haven’t noticed, I really, really loathe these things.
I, for one, support the Martian Arts.
What about the trucks they park around town? I especially hate the one they park in our neighborhood. Last week we had a 1-800-GOT-JUNK truck alternating with a car advertizing a maid service. They park them adjacent to a vacant lot (county owned?), so I guess that makes it legal? I feel especially that the truck is a hazzard with obstructing the road and line of sight.
Is there someone we can call to complain?
Hooray for Martian Arts.
Screw the laws against it — I rip them out whenever I feel like it. I often think the best solution to this problem would be to decorate the car of the franchise owner with a 1-800-GOT-JUNK ad in spray paint.
hatesigns: Is there someone we can call to complain?
Call Martian Arts. Camblos will be out of office. That`s a wish, not a prophecy.
Man, I hate to fix that typo. It was an awesome one.
Who IS the owner of GOT JUNK fame anyway? Is it a franchise that anyone with a truck can do or what? Someone somewhere has to be in charge.
Waldo,
You said it’s illegal to take those signs down, is that a state ordinance or a local ordinance or…? I’d love to give citizens free reign to remove that obnoxious clutter.
Dave
You mean the same candidates who themselves have countless signs littering every other yard in the city/county? Oh, the irony.
I agree with you tho. Those signs suck. Maybe if the people sticking them in the ground were wearing oversized white t-shirts, the cops could hunt them down.
I’m afraid I don’t remember. I’d called the county about this a few months ago, asking if I could just rip them out of the ground. Lee Catlin was very helpful, and hooked me up with the woman who is in charge of signage regulations. She explained that I could not remove the signs, and that, unfortunately, only the county could do so. I wish I could remember on what basis that’s so. It must surely be civil (Mountain Kim could sue me for theft), but as far as I’m concerned, that’s abandoned property — litter — that they have no claim over.
If it were within C’ville and Albemarle’s power to allow citizens to rip the things up, that would be a brilliant change to bring about. Great idea, Dave.
*grin* Good point. I’ve go no problem with those signs, though, so long as they’re put up on private land with the permission of the landowners and they’re cleaned up aftwerwards. Then it’s a basic property rights matter. Personally, I don’t mind terribly short-term signs promoting local businesses, either. Crutchfield had signs all up and down 29 a week or so ago, promoting a one day sale, but they removed ’em promptly at the end of the day.
blanco nino: the cops could hunt them down.
No. The cops are too busy ignoring our thousands of traffic offenders.
There was an illegal sign for “University Painters” that hung at Scottsville Rd & Mill Creek road for a long time (over 1 year).
I complained to the City who correctly pointed me to the county. I documented and even photographed the violation (with pointers to the code infractions that Waldo had shared a while back). After a year-long email dialogue with someone in the County, I am happy to report the sign has finally gone.
My county person (Rob Heide) confirmed that it would have been illegal for me to remove it.
Maybe if we collectively reported these violations, the city might take some action against them.
Yeah, it’s also like all the folks that have a garage sale on the weekend and post thier flyers on the utility poles and then never come back to take them down. BTW, when I moved a year or so ago, I got one of those PODS thingys and believe it or not, the City saw it (or someone ratted me out) and they told me I had to pay a “refundable” deposit of $50 for having one of those in “my driveway” because it was considered a “sign” as it had PODS written on it with a phone number. AND, they said if it wasn’t gone in a week, they would keep the $50 and then assess more fines depending on how long it lanquished. So there ya go.
You know, I’ll betcha that the first person to get prosecuted if they ever start enforcing that law will be someone who’s trying to have a yard sale and put them up that morning to direct traffic to their location. Whereas the corporate offenders the- “We $ave you from foreclosure! Cheap!” or “Cart Your Crap Away!” Those guys they’ll keep getting a pass.
at that point, i would have duct taped a bedsheet over the “sign” and told the city official to go screw.
I live in Orange County California. I was sited for vandalism a year ago for taking down a local political candidates election signs (2 signs). One sign was posted on a telephone pole and the other on a bus stop pole. It is illegal to post anything on a telephone pole. Utility poles are considered private property; same with bus stop poles. I had nothing against this candidate. The signs were causing a traffic hazard in my neighborhood. Upon taking them down, 3 cop cars were on my like white on rice. I have no prior convictions; my record is lilly white. I work hard and have never caused anyone any trouble. I told the cops why I was taking the signs down. They didn’t care. They immediately assumed I was doing it for political reasons. The police captain even showed up, and he phoned the political candidate to ask him what he wants to do. The candidate told the captain to press charges against me for vandalism. I was finger printed, and had a mug shot taken. I couldn’t believe what was happening, not to mention scared out of my mind. I was let go. I immediately hired a lawyer and paid her $2500 to get this thing expunged off my record. The DA kicked the violation back to the police (probably because it was so rediculous and he didn’t want to waste the courts time.) Today, I’m still waiting to hear from my lawyer on where this violation stands. This street sign stuff really needs to be better regulated. If anyone has any good ideas on how to stop this street sign litter and negligence, please speak out! I’m all ears and would like to stop this nonsense.