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A friend told me that Chicago has a new city ordinance that makes it illegal to leave papers (like menus and business ads) on fences lining a street. Is it true? I'm still getting plenty of worthless menus and stuff — what can I do to make them stop?
Thanks,
Recycle Bin
Dear Recycle Bin,
It's true. We told you about the pending legislation back in January, and it looks like the ordinance, strongly backed by Alderman Manny Flores, passed unanimously during the February 7 City Council meeting. Notice a big difference in your menu waste? Having nights where the complete lack of takeout menus in your building's foyer has left you hungry and confused about where you could possibly procure some food? Yeah, neither have we.
The amendment to Chapter 10-8 of Chicago Municipal Code states that:
It shall be unlawful for any person to distribute or to cause others to distribute ... advertising matter of any kind on any public way or other public place of the city in any manner other than from hand to hand.
The fine for violation is set at "not less than $200.00 or more than $1,000.00 for each offense."
The ordinance goes on to say that when passing handbills from hand to hand, only one flier can be given out, unless the person being given the flier expressly asks for more than one. We think the moral of the story is to be careful what you say. If you get too many Chinese food fliers from the guy by the L, the fine for the restaurant is between $25 and $50 for each offense. The ordinance does expressly say that it's the commercial establishment who has to pay the fine, not the guy on the street.
But that's public property. Private property gets even more fun!
The ordinance says, in regards to residential property, that:
... unlawful methods of distribution include, but are not limited to, hanging commercial advertising matter on the doorknob of any entrance door or gate, placing or wedging commercial advertising matter into or underneath any entrance door in such a manner that it could interfere with the door locking, or leaving a stack of commercial advertising matter on the premises.
That pretty well covers all the places our building still has fliers stacked up. Now, it's still OK, if the owners or property management post written consent, if the fliers are placed in a specially designated place, or if the materials are exchanged hand to hand. But, apparently they have to honor "No Trespassing" and "No Soliciting" signs. The fine here is $200-$1000 per offense.
On that same idea, newspapers, periodicals and things like the never ending supply of phone books (who uses phone books anymore?) that come to your home have to be neatly placed in bags so the papers don't blow all over the place. This only refers to things not delivered from a subscription or other request, so apparently the Tribune is welcome to litter if you pay for them to.
And you just can't put commercial advertising materials on automobiles at all anymore. Not under your wiper, and they can't hand you stuff while you're stopped in traffic. Right.
Finally, any fliers that are lawfully distributed (apparently there are still a couple of ways) must have the business' city business license number printed clearly on them. Oh, and if you hire someone to distribute fliers or phone books or anything covered here, you have to give the person a copy of the ordinance and "require compliance therewith." (We're sure it'll be studied very carefully.) If a business gets caught three or more times in a year, the Department of Business Affairs and Licensing can revoke its city business license.
If you see violators and want to report them, send complaints to your Ward Superintendent. Send the offensive menus to the office and be sure to indicate when and where they were distributed. Also keep in mind the emphasis (good, we think) that has been placed on the word "commercial." It's advertising they're going after very specifically. They even added the word to existing sections of the ordinance, we assume to try to keep First Amendment issues at bay.
Image via Maulleigh.
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Count me as another who had no idea this was already illegal. Some of the more egregious offenders at my house will be reported. Thanks Chicagoist!
Since I'm still new around here I haven't been annoyed by the menus yet...but I can tell after long enough I will be.
First they banned smoking and fois gras; they haven't given up on trans fats yet, and now they are banning Chinese food takeout menus? When will it stop? What next?
I have discovered many good places simply by picking up a menu that was attached by a rubber band to my front gate. Other times, I simply grab the menus and throw them out when I get inside. (Golly, that's difficult).
@mss2400
Yeah, it's not all that annoying. However, I imagine it adds up to a pretty good amount of litter as many of these menus just get ignored.
Moderately off-topic: How do I stop phonebooks from getting delivered to my house? Unless I run a museum out of my kitchen, I've got no good use for them.
It's annoying as hell to me. If you want to find a place use you Laptop from you Living room and go online. I never order from those I figure if they have to go to that much trouble they much suck.
Yeah for Manny Flores! Vote for him for Congress in 08! :)
Don't call the ward superintendent, call 311. Calls to 311 are tracked and generate service requests that are routed to somebody who has to respond. The ward superintendent doesn't have anything to do with enforcing this ordinance and will probably just ignore your call.
It's not as simple as just taking them in the house because they end up blowing all over the place in the gangway and so on.
I'd love to see an end to this or at the very least a compromise that allows restaurants to maybe do it a certian number of times a year or something. I don't see how anyone can justify needing to do this shit so much, almost everyday for some places.
very valuable information. every few weeks i get a menu for Duck Walk on Belmont shoved under my (private, gated apartment) door. how many freakin' menus can you have for one place? it doesn't 'prevent my door from locking,' but it's sure as hell annoying and superfluous.
Shannon, Duck Walk is the worst. They are peerless in their menu distribution volume.
It is tasty though...
Since my door opens directly onto the street, I'm ground zero for menus (and for people knocking on doors for their causes or religions). If I thought it would do any good, I'd tape a 'no menus' sign to my door.
Thanks for clearing this up... I remember reading the original article but thought it was only applicable to a certain ward. The worst part about the menu distro's is all the litter it creates. I'll definitely phone a few in if they don't cut it out on my gate!
I'm just waiting for the next RCN hang tag on my screen door. I am definitely going to report them.
This is going to put a lot of very poor people out of work. For many of them, flier distribution the only type of work they can get. Plus, did I read this right... does this also outlaw the distribution of free newspapers that are not bagged in plastic our bound? No Reader, New City, Inside, Windy City Times, Hyde Park Herald or West Side Gazzette? Picking up litter seems to me to be a small price to pay for allowing free speech - commercial or otherwise.
Ron