Ubiquitous Fliers, Courtesy of Faceless Promoters
July 1, 2007
By DAN LEVIN
Armed with a miniature switchblade, a petite community activist named Enid Klass prowls the leafy streets of Murray Hill. Her goal is to rid the neighborhood of the thousands of fliers touting “Moving — $17 Per Man Per Truck” that for years have been illegally taped to lampposts and bus stops.
“They’re a visual blight and a total nuisance,” said Ms. Klass, a retired researcher for Merrill Lynch. And the culprits are as wily as she is tenacious. “As soon as we tear them down,” she said, “we find even more posted in the same spot a few days later.”
Apparently, city officials are just as frustrated.
According to a letter Ms. Klass received in March from Todd Kuznitz, director of enforcement for the Sanitation Department, the agency has issued 3,300 violation notices for these signs since 2004. But the department has been unable to discover who is behind the postings, even though phone numbers are listed on them.
“The number you see on a poster or handbill is established as an elaborate ruse,” the letter said, “and calls are forwarded in such a way that they are not easy to trace.”
Illegal postings have been a problem in the city for decades, but according to Matthew LiPani, a Sanitation Department spokesman, the people behind the $17-a-man fliers are particularly elusive. To try to track down the culprits, the agency has even dispatched employees under cover in a sting operation. But the cases have gone cold. Sometimes respondents fail to show up for appointments at the Environmental Control Board; other times, an administrative judge dismisses the charges for lack of a clear link between the accused and the number listed on the flier.
Meanwhile, residents are left to their own devices. Ms. Klass recently took matters into her own hands by calling the number listed on the ad.
“I spoke to a very gruff-sounding man and told him the neighborhood association would appreciate if they stopped posting the fliers,” she said. “It went in one ear and out the other. He couldn’t have cared less.”