Last summer our city got bombarded with these "We Buy Homes" signs. Now granted we have always had a mild problem with the loose weight, work from home with your computer, stuff emvelopes, insurance products, investment products, etc, but these "We Buy Homes" signs are either highway sign yellow with black letters or highway sign red with white letters.
I drive a scooter and felt that these type of signs posted at intersections were a danger to me and safe driving. I also thought of my relative that has poor sight, what if she thought that a sign was a warning and reacted improperly and caused an accident.
I had enough, I had sent letters with photo's to the Mayor, Codes Department, my city councilman and the Knoxville News Sentinal. NOTHING. Several weeks past NOTHING, not even a letter. So 1 month past and no action, so I went out and became what I discovered was a Sign Shark. I removed signs all over the city that I found, or could reach. I found a few that this Roof Sealing guy must have used a 20 ft extension ladder. Kind of hard to bring a ladder that big on a 50cc motorscooter.
Well anyway, I removed over 200 signs, sent an email to the mayor and city, Nothing. I did phone the codes department and left a message for the person that handles this. I was called back and told they would do their best.
This all happened 2 months ago. Well the sign posters are at it again. This time I sent emails to EVERY CITY COUNCIL PERSON, The New Mayor, Codes Department, Law Department, Chamber of Commerce, Police Chief, etc.
Knoxville is a beautiful city and I hate that it gets trashed by these guys.
I have also called these guys Saying I am calling from the City of Knoxville - not saying I am an employee, just calling from the city, and informing them their signs are subject to fines.

Here in Knoxville we also have a problem with businesses putting their cigarette signs, lottery ticket sales, etc signs on utility poles, not to mention those tacky ground signs.
I would love to hear from any of my fellow citizens in Knoxville and surrounding area.

We had some some pretty heavy traffic from Nashville about eighteen or so months back.
There was an article or two written for the Nashville News paper, which has since been archived or deleted all together.

I'll have to do some research in our old archives. When I find it, I'll post what we have here and send you an email.

Best I recall, we got the same response from Nashville CE that you did. The comment was made that CE makes one clean sweep a year and that's it.

My suggestion is to run a public service add in the newspaper and use CAUSS as a place to start to gather added help. Either that or put up your own web site, like the guys in Atlanta and reference that in your public service add. We can also help you with the wording or fax you one of our flyers that was used in one of our public awareness demonstrations a few years back.

GW

GW

Check out Keep Knoxville Beautiful at
http://www.korrnet.org/keepknox/

If I remember correctly, they had a program a couple of years ago that dealt with litter and signs specifically. I exchanged some email with them and they were quite responsive. They worked with the sponsorship of some large local businesses.

Newbie

Newbie (not)

Thank you for your reply. One of my emails was fowarded to their attention and they responded. I have also heard from several of our city council members.
I was in North Knoxville yesterday and noticed this same guy "We Buy Homes" 633-5533. The top of his signs look like a house roof. Last summer I must have taken down over 40 of his signs alone. His company is listed as Tennessee Home Buyers and on the reverse directory there is only his company's name associated with the telephone number - no address.
Maybe Mayor Haslem will address this issue, or maybe a bunch of citizens should show up at a city council meeting and address the issue personally.
I might suggest also sending letters to our state representives, senators, governor, and the state department of transportation being these signs are in violation of sign colors. Red and Gold signs the same shade of Highway signs are illegal too in that they are designed to attract your attention thinking they are a warning sign.
I might suggest though to leave the current batch of signs up and give the city time to see these for themselves.
The Mayor should have no problem seeing these being there is one on Kingston Pike at Neyland Drive. He can see this one on his way into the office.

Thanks for your effort. Knoxville and your post have come to the attention of serveral of our code enforcement officers from around the country.

I have every reason to believe that these guys/gals will email and may even call your Knoxville elected officials with complaints.

Rest assurred, you're not in this effort by yourself.

The same with your neighbor to the west of Nashville. There is a flurry of renewed activity over there also.

Thanks for the support.

GW

Last night I e-mailed the Knoxville Mayor and received a response today. He said they are working on a better way to deal with the illegal signs. They may, but I encourage you to never give up.

Hi:

Good to hear from you.

I'm sending you a private message. Look for the red icon on the left, just before the list of forum threads.

DenverShark