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Sign Remover brought attention to this story.
article:
Lose Ugly Street Spam... Ask Me How!
'Sharks' of CAUSS take on illegal signs
BY J. PATRICK OLEARY
Life On Capitol Hill (Denver)
July 1, 2008
http://www.lifeoncaphill.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=496&Itemid=66
If you want cash for your junk car or desire to earn $5,000 a month from home, we all know who to call, thanks to those tacky signs posted on utility poles, plastered on traffic signal equipment or planted in the median strip of busy thoroughfares.
Its illegally posted commercial signage on public property and its called street spam.
But if you want to de-spam Denver, should you swim with the Sharks or call town hall?
Sharks, so called for their habit of taking bites out of illegal signs, are anonymous people who remove street spam. Some of them share strategy and information through CAUSS... Citizens Against Ugly Street Spam... on its website, causs.org.
CAUSS has had active participants for about eight years in metro Denver, according to DenverShark, an active member. It is simply a website and nationwide forum where concerned citizens and code enforcement officers can communicate about the problem of illegal signs.
Denvers active forum participants typically number about a dozen, said DenverShark, but no one knows how many are removing signs.
My educated guess, based on how rapidly new street spam is removed, is probably 400 in metro Denver, plus a large number of individuals who remove illegal signs only in front of their own homes or on their immediate corners. Most of these citizens do not participate in the CAUSS forum.
Entering the forum is easy: pick a handle, enter your name and email address, and agree to abide by the terms and policies of the site. A password is automatically emailed, and the browsing begins.
In June Colorados section of the forum noted that Junk Car signs had sprouted up all over Central Denver, some being placed so high that one shark had to use a metal rake for removal (It was like hitting a piata!).
Responses included advice (and photos) of other sharks latest removal tools, and commentary from an Orlando shark on how spammers there have resorted to using teams with ladders and hammers in the backs of moving trucks to get multiple signs 14-16' up on the posts to avoid sharking.
An active shark with an injured knee requested help from anyone to remove a slew of Single? signs illegally posted in the Palmer Lake, Monument and Gleneagle areas north of Colorado Springs. One respondent identified the spammers websites as being based in Panama City, Panama, and provided some background on the marketing scheme. Six days later the laid-up shark posted a thank-you to whomever cleaned up the eyesores.
Postings in the general, national forums reveal that spammers were using craigslist.com in dozens of cities to hire part-timers to place numerous signs over regular routes (including the Golden/Broomfield area) on weekends.
The posting member tied the solicitations to a nationwide dating business known for spamming and encouraged people to visit the craigslist sites and flag each listing with prohibited to cause the removal of the ads by site management. Other participants offered links to a consumer action website reporting three states attorneys general actions (although not for spamming) against the dating service.
Elsewhere on the CAUSS site, theres a how-to tools page for building your own sharking stick and various removal/neutering gadgets, which cut out or obliterate part of the signs phone number or website, rendering it useless and warning away future spammers. True sharking. But sharks themselves are split on that tactic, and the City of Denver isnt thrilled with it.
They see a sign and they go cut it in half and leave it, said Julius Zsako, spokesman for Denvers Community Planning & Development Agency. Number one, it looks awful. Number two, we no longer have a phone number.
Numbers gone. So whats the problem?
The most important thing we as the public and consumers can do is to pick up the phone and call the phone number on the sign, and say, I dont appreciate you cluttering up the environment, and well never use your service.
That, says Zsako, is the first thing to do. The second, he says, is to call 311, the citys non-emergency services number, to identify the intersection and the corner it is posted on so the city will send the proper people for removal.
CAUSS also wants spam reported to local authorities, not just for removal, but to alert them to the problem. And most CAUSS members prefer complete removal, likening the signs to litter. But forum participants advise caution in calling the spammers, as some use caller ID. Not everyone... even on the forum... shares the sharks zeal.
Some spammers find out about the CAUSS website and vent quite a bit of anger and hostility there, DenverShark explained. A late May posting by a spammer criticized sharks for engaging in censorship, theft and lawbreaking by taking his signs.
CAUSS claims spam is litter and legal to remove. Denvers Zsako didnt mention illegality as a reason to leave it alone, only as a reason to not place it in the first place. He cited safety as the primary reason for the law: motorists should be watching the road, not sales pitches, and children, not yard-sale signs.
Flyers glued to a traffic control box in the heat of summer can also cause overheating and failure of the device. Nails driven into utility poles can injure workers performing repairs and maintenance. He also believes illegal signage is disrespectful and ugly.
So, he said, call 311. And yes, he added, the citys workers are proactively removing signage in their course of work.
The problem, while not gone, has lessened, according to Zsako. He worked for Keep Denver Beautiful from 1991 to 96. In one project, volunteers helped to collect 15,000 illegal signs and put them on display. The publicity helped.
Also, he said that the city educates political candidates about campaign signs when they file for office, with good results.
The local candidates have been really great, he said. But statewide and national races are another story. The sign issue tends to explode around election cycles, he explained.
Denver residents are currently allowed to display just one candidate sign per street frontage, but a proposed ordinance would remove that restriction and allow as many political signs as desired, for as long as desired, on private property. Posting the signs in the public right-of-way would still be illegal.
The median strip on Speer, and parkways along Monaco, 6th... thats all public (property), and should not be used that way. It ends up alienating people to your candidate, Zsako said. DenverShark see progress, but credits active citizens and other factors.
Ten years ago, spammers were putting up lose weight and work at home signs to sell Herbalife products. A massive removal campaign and cooperation from Herbalifes new marketing director put an end to those signs. Then spammers put up health insurance signs. After a number of people (notified) the state insurance regulators, the problem virtually disappeared. The last fad was We Buy Houses, but a massive removal effort, coupled with a weak housing market, has practically eliminated those signs.
DenverShark encourages everyone to remove all litter, including signs, and increase awareness by introducing friends and family to CAUSS. But the city is still part of the solution.
Dont be shy about contacting your public servants about the problem, especially regarding repeat offenders. Code Enforcement (Neighborhood Inspection Services in Denver) is there to enforce the law and remove illegal signs, DenverShark advised.
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