|
|
|
CITYSCAPE: BanditProject targets illegal stick-ups
Combating real-world spam with virtual policing.
CITYSCAPE: BanditProject targets illegal stick-ups
So-called bandit signs — the roofing, buy-your-house-quick, junk cars, buy-your-diabetes-test-strips offers plastered over utility poles around the city — aren't just ugly, they're illegal. Not that calling 311 about them seems to accomplish much. So, East Kensington resident Christopher Sawyer launched an alternative: BanditProject.org. The reporting site for illegal signs went live this week, and Sawyer is hoping to roll out an accompanying iPhone app within a week or two and a Droid app after that. Using the site or apps, citizens will be able to log photographs and details of signs to be transmitted to the city.
"On the 311 triage list, this is pretty low," he says. "I would consider the level of enforcement to be zero. And reporting it to the city won’t go anywhere. So, at least on Bandit Project we’ll be able to see the complaints and work with community groups to hand over data to city in bulk."
The signs are often posted by real estate speculators and fraudsters. Sawyer, who along with a handful of volunteers has made a full-time hobby of collecting and disposing of the signage, is working with the New Kensington Community Development Corp., Fishtown Neighbors Association, Olde Richmond Community Association and East Kensington Neighbors Association, among others. He's also trying to identify and track down the posters.
Enforcement, he says, is now the responsibility of the Streets Department's Right of Way Unit. "There are now two employees in the city whose job it is to remove the signs for all of Philadelphia County, in hundreds of miles of streets. When we heard that we flipped our lid, we thought the city just doesn't care." Too bad given the potential revenues — up to $300 in fines per sign.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
