Enforce the Ann Arbor ordinance against commercial handbills

Apr 12 00:19 UTC 2001

The Ann Arbor News dumps plastic bags full of supermarket ads in the general
vicinity of people's property every Tuesday, calling it a 'newspaper'. 
According to city code, newspapers must be at least 15% news and this is 4%
at most (if you count movie listings and an article urging you to eat less
and exercise more - the front wrapper is labelled Food Fun Fitness).  City
code bans placing commercial handbills (which this is) on personal property
except if they are put into the recipient's hands, with permission.
The News knows it is doing something illegal but the city will not go to the
trouble of stopping it unless enough people complain to the police.  Many of
my neighbors have been complaining to the News itself, with little result.
Sometimes they will stop dumping their trash at a particular address.  One
of my neighbors got them to leave the whole block along for a couple of months
by collecting all the plastic bags full of rotting paper from under the bushes
and dumping them on News property with a note.  Another neighbor spelled out
STOP with her accumulated bags of paper - no help.  One neighbor found that
you can stop delivery by running screaming after the delivery truck.  One
suggestion was to shoot the editor in chief, another to write a letter to the
editor.  My idea was to walk around the block one sunny day and get about 25
signatures asking the police to stop this (which is what the city code,
online, says the police are supposed to do when requested to do so).

Lieutenant Sheikh, 994-2878 is in charge of this case and of a pizza flyer
petition that I also submitted.  He has called the pizza places and most of
them stop - but Faz and Pizza House keep starting again.  I met the delivery
person for Faz while talking to neighbors about the News.  He is a recent
immigrant who was offered $5/hour and told that his stuffing papers in
people's doors is making Faz a lot of extra money.  I explained he was doing
something illegal and he apologized profusely and said he was taking the rest
of the stack back to Faz and quitting.  We spent two hours suggesting better
jobs (he has two MA's) and gave him the classified section from the Tuesday
Trash to take home with him.

Lieut. Sheikh says he will try to convince the Ann Arbor City Attorney (there
are two, one is married to a News employee) to prosecute the News or find some
other way to stop them, if he gets a few phone calls from people who care
enough to call him.  Signatures on petitions are too easy - people sign
without thinking.  I have asked a few neighbors to call, but the more the
better.  Please call the Lieut. any evening after 9 (he works nights) and tell
him your views on pizza flyers and the Tuesday Advertiser (which consists
primarily of five supermarket flyers and the News Classified ads).

The News turned down my suggestion to use the US Mail, which is legal but
costs them more (they use it in the suburbs but include less paper) or to mail
or give all potential recipients a card to return to indicate if they want
to keep receiving it.  (He said nobody would return it - no surprise).

Please call Lieut. Sheikh at 994-2878 after 9 any evening (leave a message
when he can call you back if he is out - his schedule is unpredictable) and
let him know if you want the News and the pizza companies to stop violating
this handbill ordinance.  Reasons for stopping given by my neighbors -
it is a disgusting waste of paper - it goes straight into the recycling
bucket;  it lets burglars know you are not home;  it is litter;  the pizza
flyers blow loose from the porch railings and get stuck in fences and under
bushes.  Be creative - come up with some new reasons for enforcing the law.

Thanks - and please let me know if you have called so I can stop asking the
neighbors to do so.

response 2 of 10:

Apr 12 00:43 UTC 2001

(send e-mail to Katie?)

(kill it here and repost to Agora?)

(ask Walter really *really* nicely?)

response 4 of 10:

Apr 12 01:34 UTC 2001

I would call for you but I live in Ypsi so it wont matter much. 

response 6 of 10:

Apr 12 02:06 UTC 2001

You can't kill an item that's been responded to.  But the author
can freeze and retire it.

response 8 of 10:

Apr 12 13:10 UTC 2001

Possibly not for Sindi, who is using DOS not WIN-anything, I think.

response 10 of 10:

Apr 12 16:12 UTC 2001

Type "freeze" at the Respond or Pass prompt.