PRESS RELEASE
Downtown SAMs Remove Post Election Campaign Posters
Release Date: Thursday, November 4th 2010
Clean Up Prevents Unsightly Litter, Enhances Public Space
WASHINGTON, DC – A day after DC’s general election, the Downtown DC Business Improvement District’s (BID) Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance employees (SAMs) carried out a one-day blitz to remove all campaign posters from Downtown streets, fences, buildings and parks.
“The election is over,” said Richard H. Bradley, executive director of the Downtown BID. “Our goal is to keep Downtown streets free of litter and visual clutter to provide an exceptional environment for businesses, em
ployees, visitors and residents.”
Although DC law requires all political posters to be removed from public space within 30 days after the general election, the DC Board of Elections and Ethics asks that candidates remove all signs as soon as possible to avoid litter and illegal dumping in neighborhoods. Former candidates risk getting a $35 ticket for each remaining sign left on city streets.
Five Downtown SAM maintenance team members have removed 135 political posters. With 138 square blocks to cover, Maintenance SAMs, who number 41, provide aggressive year-round cleanup activities, including removing litter, trash, and graffiti from Downtown streets seven days a week.
Last year, they collected, on average, 16,579 bags of litter and trash monthly. In addition, they removed graffiti from 1,187 locations, stickers from 2,161 sites and illegal posters from 135 locations—including from some of Downtown’s 300 traffic lights and 1,621 streetlights—throughout the Downtown BID area.
“We take maintaining a litter free and welcoming environment very seriously,” said Everett D.E. Scruggs, the Downtown BID’s director of operations. People are encouraged to contact the Downtown SAM office at (202) 624-1550 to have illegal posters, including signs that advertise or promote goods and services, removed.
