Nutter Administration To Target 'Bandit Signs'
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Those ugly signs you see attached to utility poles -- offering to buy your home or car, cheap -- are the target of a new crackdown being launched later this spring by the Nutter administration.
Brian Abernathy, Chief of Staff to the Managing Director, says the so-called bandit signs are ugly, illegal and growing in number.
"There's a gamut of services being offered. One of the most famous is 'We buy houses,' or 'We buy cars,'" Abernathy explains.
Abernathy is leading the Nutter administration's effort to rid the city of these signs -- and to fine the companies that are placing them.
"The hardest part of this problem is finding out who put them up," says Abernathy.
Finding them takes many man-hours, something the cash-strapped city can't afford.
"We are looking to hire interns for researchers," Abernathy says.
In the meantime, the Streets Department crews that are in neighborhoods on other jobs will also take down the signs when they see them.