I'm a new member as of today. In the Austin paper the other day, someone placed a letter to the editor explaining CAUSS, and providing a URL to readers. Wow...this is a great organization. I hadn't heard about it. Sign spam, along with the huge amount of litter along Austin roadways, has prettey much ruined this once beautiful city. If you haven't been here, you can't imagine what a mess this city is. I travel all over and never see other places as bad. Maybe there really are other places as bad; I just haven't seen them.
I've complained to city officials several times (including former Mayor Watson and City Manager Jesus Garza), to no avail. I typically receive a form letter or "form email" stating concern, and then nothing happens. Our code enforcer is overwhelmed, and our city government considers sign spam and other litter a low priority, citing street maintenance and other essentials as their priority. They need to realize that a city's environment ranks right up there with street maintenance and the other essentials.
I hope other concerned Austinites visit this forum as a result of the letter in the paper the other day. We need to make our city officials know that that at least "some" Austinites still care about their city. I hope other Austinites, like myself, will increase their efforts at removing sign spam (and other litter).
#2. "RE: Letter in Austin paper regarding CAUSS" In response to Reply # 0
That was my letter; it ran on Sunday (12/30/01).
Unfortunately, they edited it. I specified the types of signs I was talking about ("lose 25 pounds," "dog trainer"), and they took that out. Oh well...at least one person figured out what I was referring to.
As I said in the Texas forum, I first found out about CAUSS through a letter to our local weekly, so everybody _please_ write letters to the editor of any local papers. It does an excellent job of increasing awareness (and new recruits).
Here's the text of mine. Feel free to use as much of it as you want (I freely borrowed from the one in the weekly paper), if that'll make it easier (and more likely) for you to write a letter.
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Austin has become the victim of a plague of illegally placed commercial signs. They're ugly, and they're everywhere.
Placing these signs along the street or on utility poles is prohibited by the Austin City Code, and violations are subject to fines of $100 per sign per day. If anyone sees these signs, please help beautify Austin by either pulling them down or noting the street and block number and reporting them to Austin's zoning complaint line at 974-2875. There is also a Web site (www.causs.org) devoted to fighting these annoying signs.
Our city deserves better than to serve as the background for illegal commercial advertising.
