Gothamist: Councilman: Deliver Us From Menu and Flier Hell

JoeShep

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:20:50 -0500

I own a home in Queens and have been "waging a war" with the flyer morons for years. (Tip: They don't like it when you fling the crap back into the van) I found a website today that offers relief. http://www.lawnlitter.com I signed up my home and they're going to send me a sign that works with the law. Yippee!!

Mary Christopher

Fri, 11 May 2007 20:42:55 -0500

I am a single family homeowner in Brooklyn and I don't care who Felder is or what he stands for, I have been fed up for years over this issue. I firmly beleive in conservation and saving this planet for my children. I would have almost no recyle garbage w/o the HUGE mess of flliers/menus/newspapers etc that are left on my stoop on a daily basis. As a TAX PAYING homeowner I am powerless as to who comes onto my property dropping garbage. Say what you like about Felder, garbage all over my lawn and stoop that I have no part in creating destroys the quality of life! NYer's deserve a choice!

yup

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:26:47 -0500

It's not just menus. Our building is the preferred dumping ground for circulars, shitty free newspapers, copies of the NY Times that some former tenant forgot to cancel, etc. We have no full-time doorman, so we're welcomed by piles of paper crap almost every night when returning home from work. Attaching a basket outside is a STUPID idea. So is putting a "no circular" sign that these non-english speaking delivery people will ignore or fail to comprehend.

NYC

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:03:53 -0500

If felder cared about the quality of life then he should push the shyster landlords to get their supers to claen the hallways more than once a month. isnt there a law about keeping the buildings clean?

J.

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:18:08 -0500

#12 wrote: The "beauty" of the free market is that if you set up an artificial barrier to business activity, like a rushing stream, it will find a way around the barrier and annoy you some other new way. I'm just spouting this off the top of my head...can anyone else give a more educated/substantiated microeconomic analysis? *** The more substantial microeconomic analysis is that flyering causes a negative externality - businesses profit from flyering, but in doing so cause homeowners to have to pay fines and create a general garbage nuisance. If businesses paid all the homeowner fines and also reimbursed everyone enough to make them not care about having to look at tons of garbage on the street, and if they then still turned a profit, then flyering would be economically efficient.

whatever

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:56:38 -0500

It is very annoying to come home after a week away and see a stack of those d@mn menu fliers in front of my apartment door. It just informs everyone that the occupant isn't there and that the apartment is ripe for burglary.

Sam

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:03:22 -0500

Can we stop the silly oorah cd's too? What about the cucumber magnets?

Michelle

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:49:56 -0500

who uses paper menus anymore? everyone i know uses seamlessweb.com and menupages for delivery food

stopnshops

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:46:36 -0500

Does this ban include menus from kosher restaurants in flatbush? uncle country magazine?

Benjamin Dover

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:39:39 -0500

I guess Councilman Felder never heard of the First Amendment (Freedom of the Press)

Hunter

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:37:30 -0500

I don't mind the flyers down in the lobby but in the evenings the delivery guys will jam them into my apt door and make my dog go insane. And its always the same restaurants. Sometimes they do come in handy, I agree. Oh, and a bin would only work for so long.

Anonymous

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:07:25 -0500

oh calm down everyone. If you get this worked up about a few pieces of paper slipped under the door, how do you deal with every other aspect of life? How hard is it to throw it out, or put it in a drawer that you can refer to if you ever want delivery?

.

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:49:15 -0500

not to mention, I've almost slipped on the plastic bags many times...I wonder if I can sue Pathmark?

tara

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:36:59 -0500

I don't want circulars—I own a house in Astoria—but also don't want to have to hang a sign on my stoop that says I don't want them. Why should I have to post an eyesore of a sign in front of my house? The circulars should just stop. Period. If you want to slip a menu into my mail slot, fine. But throwing bags of paper onto my stoop? Enough already.

WH

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:25:42 -0500

Has anyone noticed tha mad sudden rush lately by felder to push odsball legistlation the last few weeks to keep his name in the headlines in anticipation of his intended run for city comptroller next year?

sam

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:24:00 -0500

I would love something like this. More annoying than the actual litter? Some idiot delivery guy fucked up my building's elevator last week by hitting every single button on his way down. The elevator got stuck on the 9th floor, the computer running it got confused, and the entire building was reduced to 1 elevator for the 24 hours it took to have a repairman come in and fix everything.

OY

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:16:08 -0500

What about in Felder's own district where they love to pollute the streets with mammoth Posters on every darn lampost?

social commentary

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:04:59 -0500

Yeah, awesome. They're going to take this one right out of the asses of the delivery guys who will be told that they'll be fired if they don't leave them.

anonymass

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:59:14 -0500

I think that the civil disobedience idea is the only real recourse. Organize your neighborhood to collect all fliers and stop by each restaurant en masses at 8:00 on a Thursday evening when the place is at its fullest and toss them on the floor.

Roger Bixley

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:59:13 -0500

Hey eatery owners, you want an easy way to harm your competition? Just put litter your neighborhood with your competitor's flyers, and watch those fines eat away at their bottom line!

Josh

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:54:38 -0500

This is a good concept, but it'll never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever actually get enforced.

Joe Boy

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:51:24 -0500

I don't think we can really stop people from dropping off fliers, because the restaurants just won't observe the law unless there is allready a ticketing system in place to prevent them from doing it. I think that it would be better to set up a system where the sanitation department is *required* to ticket the company indicated on fliers for littering, that would stop this from happening MUCH faster than simply making it illegal to drop flyers off in buildings. Of course, that wouldn't stop them from making delivery people drop flyers off *inside* apartment buildings when they make deliveries.

Mark

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:49:26 -0500

I hate the menus and circulars just as much as the next person, but I do feel obliged to point out that the reason why restaurants, etc. keep sending this crap out is that they at least perceive that it is helping their business. Same reason why spam and telemarketing continues unabated: it works. If Chase bank stopped getting responses to all those pre-approved credit card letters they send out, they would stop sending them out since it'd be unprofitable to do so. The "beauty" of the free market is that if you set up an artificial barrier to business activity, like a rushing stream, it will find a way around the barrier and annoy you some other new way. I'm just spouting this off the top of my head...can anyone else give a more educated/substantiated microeconomic analysis?

fare is fare

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:26:22 -0500

Be my guest councilman, Ban Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, Pathmark and Modell's. Go right ahead ban the Penny Saver.

Crier

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:19:48 -0500

I have a great idea! Why doesn't the councilman propose we have a mass recycling effort for all the unwanted circulars! Oh, wait I forgot...Felder "hates" recycling.

Peter

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:09:39 -0500

Civil disobedience would come in handy with this problem. Whenever people get flyers they should call and place big delivery orders, and then refuse to accept delivery. If enough people get into the act the problem might go away.

bd

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:06:32 -0500

the circulars are a complete waste of time & are always strewn in front of my building. yes, please, stop them!

paul

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:57:02 -0500

I think this is great. And the day that I put time and money into actually building something for more advertising to be shoved down my throat in my own home is the day I die.

DF

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:56:48 -0500

I'm all for this, but I think the employers who send delivery people out with flyers should have to pay for violations, not the delivery people themselves, many of whom don't make $50 a day.

happy medium

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:55:35 -0500

Silly question: is there a loophole in the law allowing them to not get fined for littering, or is it just that the cops choose not to write those tickets?

PeteMac

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:52:45 -0500

Lets keep the delivery guys from riding up and down the sidewalks first, then deal with the flyers.

me

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:50:27 -0500

amen cant stand these f*cking flyers thouse of us who own 3-family homes for instance get swamped with this crap , and don't have "staff" to clean it up during the day..so i come home to garbage in front of my house..or better yet a sanitation ticket!!!

wee hava wiener

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:43:30 -0500

notice the councilman who proposed this bill, Felder and Gentile.

happy medium

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:31:24 -0500

As I was reading this, I was actually thinking that maybe we should just put up a bin for the menu and flier people to put them in. Clearly, great minds think alike.