Nathalie,
10-15 years ago there was a City Attorney, Mark Sidran who lead a campaign that prohibited posting bills on telephone/utility poles. I gave it tepid support largely because I saw too many power-stapled posters to the pole an unattractive blight. The ordinance passed. And after a while the poles looked fairly “clean”, free of the posters & bills formerly affixed to them

Then it, the ordinance was repealed. Posters started appearing on the utility poles again. Now, so many posters one over the other have been affixed that essentially, it's as though a “ream” of paper is stapled to the pole.

Well, now vandals are alighting them! Fires are appearing at utility poles. Sidran was right. Sigh. This is so bloody sad and uncivilized.

Ban posters on utility poles now.

Posters > Fires > Sidran/Ban > CleanPoles > BanRepeal > Posters > Fires ...

The cycle of life continues...

Clearly the solution is for the company that posts the most posters to also REMOVE posters... because Responsibility.

N'est-ce pas?

It's Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear. Too bad copy editors no longer exist.

Around my house, I pull down posters as soon as they go up. Then again, pretty much all the posters that go up in my neighborhood are scamvertisements, so they need to come down for the good of humanity.

It would be nice if the companies that put up these posters would be responsible and take them down when they're outdated. Also, there is a distinct lack of pigs emerging from my ass.

This was a huge issue several years back, with The Stranger crusading for the rights of people to put stuff on the poles. The Line Crews hate when there's too much stuff on the poles, or too many leftover staples or nails, because it's hassle and a hazard if they have to climb them. Also, if someone sets the posters on fire, and the pole goes up, that can mean an outage for people (sometimes a lot of people)

But the thought at the time was "Won't somebody PLEASE think of the struggling musicians!?!?!"