Posters on poles ‘pollution’ to DBIA
DBIA’s One City tackles removal of posters; More community bulletin boards urged
When it comes to posters affixed to utility poles downtown, Terry Guiel has no hesitation: when he sees one, he tears it down immediately.
“I think it’s pollution and I remove them,” said Guiel, executive director of the Downtown BIA. “And I’ll continue to do that – absolutely, 100 per cent.”
Historically, advertising flyers and posters on utility poles have been outlawed in Peterborough: in 1937, the city adopted a bylaw against postering in public because it was thought to be a distraction to traffic as well as a visual blight.
Fast-forward to 1988, when local fiddler and guitarist Ken Ramsden was charged $108 twice for postering downtown (he’d affixed to utility poles flyers advertising performances of his band, Reverend Ken and the Lost Followers).
Ramsden challenged the city’s bylaw, arguing that it was unconstitutional because it contravened his right to free expression. It went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1993 – and Ramsden won.
The Supreme Court ruled that utility poles had always been used for communications such as postering and that the city’s total ban couldn’t be justified.
The city responded by adopting a new bylaw in 1994 to allow postering on seven decorative utility poles along George St. The city also erected 17 bulletin boards for community events downtown.
But Guiel said that in the last decade or so, at least seven of those bulletin boards have been removed for construction, never
to be replaced by the city.
There was once a board on Aylmer St. in front of the main branch of the public library that was well-used, for example, that’s been gone since the renovation of the library began more than 18 months ago.
The lost community bulletin boards means fewer places for postering, Guiel said, so people resort to gluing their flyers to every utility pole in sight.
Sometimes people coat their flyers in sugar-based glue before applying them to utility poles, Guiel said, and they adhere a long time – look closely, he said, and you might spot some posters downtown that advertise events from four years ago or longer.
Guiel said the new One City program – which employs a dozen marginalized people to clean up downtown – have been instructed to remove posters from
utility poles.
But he still wants the city to erect seven new community bulletin boards to make up for those lost.
City staff members weren’t available for interview, following a late-day request on Friday.
But Coun. Dean Pappas, whose ward includes the downtown, said Friday he would follow up with city staff next week.
“We should replace them (community bulletin boards) – I agree 100 per cent,” said Pappas, who runs the family business, Pappas Billiards, on George St.
The city erected the bulletin boards in the first place in response to the Supreme Court decision, he said.
“We need to keep up our end of the bargain, on that.”