New York City cracks down on illegal ads

Back in November, I wrote a cover story for the New York Press about the illegal sidewalk shed advertising epidemic in New York City. Shortly before my article went to press, tough new local laws came into effect to punish building owners who allowed illegal ads to appear on their job sites.

According to this article by David Dunlap, the enforcement push is getting results:

Where Buildings Department inspectors found 62 illegal signs in October, only 3 remained as of yesterday, the agency said.

(So if you had a sense that many of those long plywood construction shed parapets have recently regained their blank appearance after serving as billboards, it was not your imagination.)

“The industry has voluntarily removed all the advertising on the sidewalk sheds — I can’t say without threat from the city, don’t get me wrong,” said Richard M. Schaps, the chairman and chief executive of Van Wagner, a leading outdoor advertising company. He said Van Wagner had already taken down sidewalk shed advertising that it controlled. [NYT]

Ironically, Van Wagner used to be one of the most brazen offenders in the illegal shed ad market. The image below is a screen grab from Van Wagner's website, touting the company's expertise in placing shed ads in the New York media market, accessed on November 27, 2006. When I checked this afternoon, the company was no longer advertising shed ads on its website.

Van Wagner will serve as the city’s contractor if enforcement reaches the point of actually covering up ads. “I’m hoping that doesn’t have to take place,” Mr. Schaps said.

Mr. Schaps said Van Wagner had a strong interest in enforcement, feeling that it is unfair to have to compete with illegal operators. “If there are rules, we comply,” he said. “The thing that’s difficult for us is when outdoor advertising companies do not comply with regulations.” [NYT]

Just goes to show that assiduous enforcement can improve the behavior of hardened corporate offenders. Now that the law is being enforced, it's probably more profitable for Van Wagner to fight shed ads than to pollute the urban landscape with them.

Comments

[Chris O.]

You know, I was in New York recently, and it occurred to me to look for these illegal ads around. Now I guess I know why I wasn't so successful in that!

[Alon Levy]

Well, it depends on which part of the city you're in. I'll look around Midtown when I get back next week to see if my hunch that it still has more shed ads than traffic jams is correct.