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Vaughan gives posters the slip; 'Pam for spam' solution greases poles so ads won't stick Councillor had an 'I-can't-take-it-anymore' moment
Gail Swainson
Toronto Star
425 words
28 June 2006
Vaughan has found a novel way to take the stick out of illegal advertisements plastered all over city poles and signs - sort of a Pam for spam.
"These signs are a blight on the urban landscape," Vaughan Councillor Alan Shefman said yesterday as city staff sprayed non-stick oil on a street sign to show how it works.
Every year, thousands of illegal paper signs, advertising everything from three rooms of furniture for $499 to pest control, flutter from light standards and street signs in city intersections.
But now, Vaughan staff has come up with an environmentally safe product that greases up the metal so the advertising can't stick.
The oil will be applied to metal poles, light standards and the reverse side of traffic signs in every one of Vaughan's 300 intersections, as soon as the current crop of sign spam can be scraped off. The substance is non-toxic, non-flammable, non-hazardous and Ontario's Environment ministry has declared it environmentally friendly.
As part of its campaign against unsightly advertising, Vaughan is also beefing up its sign bylaw.
This will allow charges of posting an illegal sign to be laid against those whose phone numbers are listed on the advertisements.
Thousands of the glued-on advertisements are scraped off municipal signs and poles in Vaughan every year. Also removed are another 5,000 to 6,000 signs wired to posts and light standards.
Shefman was the spark for the initiative, which came as a flash of inspiration on his way to an environment committee meeting in May.
"I was sitting in the intersection and I saw all this stuff and said, 'That's enough, we have to do something,'" Shefman said.
He asked city staff to find a safe product that would prevent signs from sticking and they found a rust-proofing product called The Solution.
Yesterday, city staff and politicians unveiled the new "sign-off" product at the very Thornhill street corner - Atkinson Ave. and Centre St. - where Shefman had his I-can't-take-it-anymore moment.
Markham has its own illegal sign removal program employing students. Advertisements are either scraped off or covered with blank, white stickers.
"It's 10 p.m. Do you know what Dumpster your street spam is sleeping in?"
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