I hate to say it, but I am wondering. There were literally hundreds of "Future Jazz Project" (lousy band) posters all over central Denver recently. Yo! Flaco posters stay up for months. A second-rate condo has been posting signs all over Speer Boulevard at Downing Street (Denver) for months. It goes on and on.


The city doesn't care, and either do 99.9% of the residents. Spammers can slap their signs on telephone poles on the edge of their property and they just leave them there.

Did you ever get the feeling that we're the only ones who care?

It makes a difference here. Our area is passed over by at least half of the serial spammers. That took years of work, however.

The area I've taken on never had a horrible infestation, but my actions have made a difference:

I used to see three or so different kinds of sings, replaced at least weekly, if not twice-weekly.

I now go weeks without any signs at all, and when the occasional sign goes up, they no longer hit multiple corners, but usually just one or two. My guess is that they're "testing the waters" before they go whole-hog.


So yes, even though we have a thankless job, it does pay off. My AO was light, yours may be heavier; mine paid off in (x) months, yours may take longer.


Hang in!

I measure success a bit differently than just whether illegal street spam keeps getting posted.

Think of the people who DIDN'T get scammed because they never saw a "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice," "Avoid Foreclosure," "Fix Your Credit," "Make Money Fast!" etc. sign--signs that you removed before they victimized someone.

Sure, some spammers persist for years and others give up after a few months of seeing their blight removed. Illegal sign posters are just like any other kind of criminal--there's always chronic or new law-breakers waiting to jump in, just like there will always be robbers, burglers, etc.

Please keep removing the street spam--you are stopping crime even without necessarily seeing the hard evidence or being thanked by the intended victim you saved from financial loss or other hardship.

"It's 10 p.m. Do you know what Dumpster your street spam is sleeping in?"

Seems like CAUSS had a positive influence over the Herbalife spam campaign. I think I've only seem two or three Herbalife signs all year! That is a huge accomplishment!

>Seems like CAUSS had a positive influence over the Herbalife
>spam campaign. I think I've only seem two or three Herbalife
>signs all year!

I've forgotten what they look like. :-D

Sign spam in Austin is definitely down from where it was a few
years ago.

Dear Folks:

As always, Never Give Up.

Thanks, Bill.

Folks: some of you are new to metro Denver spam-elimination efforts. About 5-6 years ago, we cleaned it up real good. We made a difference! And our efforts continue.

I sometimes travel out of state for business. It is immediately evident which cities (and residents) care about appearance and property values.

I know it's worthwhile.

DenverShark

Redstone

We do all make a difference. The main spammers in my three mile territory have given up. It's very gratifying. A persistant apartment spammer woke up last week to find their illegal signs altered and proclaiming, "All G*ay Living Beginning January 2007".
I bet some of the current residents saw the signs and thought, "Uh oh!". I crack myself up!

John Thrash

Hilarious!

The website may be here, but there wouldn't be any traffic.
Certainly no "Is There Really Any Point?" thread.

Why? Because it works! The city is - in spite of the continuing outbreaks of spamming - definitely cleaner today than before. I drive through areas of town that I used to frequent for business reasons and spot nary a sign where formerly they were weekly if not daily appearances. I drive through others parts of Metro Denver and see gratifyingly sharked new signs - I have my own distinctive swoop cut and these others are sporting similarly unique cutting patterns. Thus one of CAUSS's goals, i.e. teaching others how to shark, is clearly working.

Now, as to the municipalities' attitude toward street spam - I couldn't agree more. There seems to be little committment to keeping the stuff suppressed. My model community is Scottsdale and perhaps Phoenix, too. You never see the stuff on poles or roadside stickers. You got a yardsale, you make a paper sign, tape it to a cardboard box with a brick in it and put it on a street corner -FOR THE DURATION OF THE SALE. Once it's over, you better get it the hell out of sight! Municipal code in action. Effective. How about we start getting on our local politicians? What about asking the code enforcement people what the public can do to put some teeth into existing ordinances or getting effective ones adopted?

There are additrional ways to educate the public. The link below shows one which was exposed to 40,000 people this past summer.

http://images.burningman.com/index.cgi?image=28058&ord=74/866&skip=60&q_photog=&q_category=&q_keyword=&q_year=2006

Keep up the good fight. It works. Proof os that is in the ire of the spammers themselves - they just HATE us! And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

HAIFISCH.