As one member of the CHS Facebook Group noted, not every flyer poster has been deterred by the BIA’s efforts
Capitol Hill’s ancient communications network of flyers, posters, and stickers has been disrupted on Broadway.
Derek McGuire wants you to know the Seattle Central Go Club meets every Wednesday and is celebrating its second anniversary this week.
The Broadway Business Improvement Area wants you to know its cleaning crews will take flyers down.
“Our cleaners maintain all public spaces within the BIA. Poles, signal boxes, parking pay stations and walls are regularly cleared of all posters, stickers, and graffiti and then painted to help maintain them. This helps contribute to a clean, welcoming business district, which is our mandate,” BBIA director Egan Orion tells CHS.
“It is legal to post posters and legal to remove them,” Orion says.
McGuire says the Broadway BIA’s actions are new to him after years of posting flyers in the area. His latest $60 batch promoting the Go Club included the city’s best practices like a posted date.
It remains legal to post material on the city’s utility poles after a 1994 ordinance banning the posters was struck down and replaced with a more permissive law. Stickers on city signs are a legal no-no and considered vandalism.
The Broadway BIA is not removing flyers because they are illegal. It’s the clutter.
Orion said he and the BIA are well aware of the community importance of the flyers.
“We don’t touch the wooden poles as those are part of the culture of the neighborhood to promote events and groups,” Orion said.
The more common metal utility poles? Those are part of the BIA’s nearly endless battle to make Broadway less filthy.
Orion, a longtime event producer with Seattle PrideFest, says that after McGuire messaged him about the removal of the Go Club’s flyers, he also provided advice from his own experience with flyering over the years.
Orion’s advice includes avoiding the main drags where BIAs are active including the turf of the 15th Ave BIA. That could grow to include a Pike/Pine BIA zone if that proposed group ever forms.
Just saying, you can also post your community events to the free CHS Calendar
He also acknowledged that the remaining wood poles in the neighborhood get heavy traffic and are frequently stripped by the pro poster companies like Poster Giant and Keep Posted.
The pros do seasonal pruning like this poster “harvest” CHS witnessed in 2016.
The last time CHS asked the city about utility pole flyers, we were told the laws haven’t been updated since “the Nickels administration.” In short, “posters can be hung without a permit – no permit fees are required.” As for taking them down, “the person or organization placing the signs is responsible for removing the signs.”
Between the city’s poster giants and BIAs, McGuire is wondering where he can get a word in about the Seattle Central Go Club.
“So, are we just all supposed to be OK with the idea that if you want to keep a flyer up you have to pay “business class”?, McGuire asks.
On Broadway, your best poster move might be to find wood and hope for the best. It turns out that the long running tradition of putting up posters around Capitol Hill is matched only by the long running tradition of someone pulling them down.
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support 
