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Friday, July 10, 2009

Shaw Neighbors Work to Remove Billboard Blight

Shaw residents have been working to get the city to require the removal of billboards located at the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and P Street, Northwest. According to a posting to the neighborhood Yahoo! list serve, "This has been an issue for decades and the residents have never been able to get the government to move on the issue, despite the billboards being illegal, with various DC Code, Zoning, and Property Tax irregularities or violations." You can help the movement to bring down the billboards by signing the petition, which available at an informative website set up for the issue, http://shawbillboardblight.org/.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're basically an asshole if these billboards bother you. I swear, you gentrifiers will find anything to complain about.

si said...

Oh NO! that is just uncalled for. The problem is not the billboards, its the illegality and the fact that someone is profiting from slumbanking vacant property. this is a big problem in various locations in DC, there are big billboards & small. For example the giant sign on the side of 555 Mass ave is perfectly legal and affixed to an occupied building, ok fine. but the billboards on NJ are on a vacant lot, get littered with trash, provide cover for vagrants and enable someone to substantially profit from vacant underutilized property. plus they arent permitted! not cool.

Shaw Rez said...

Anon -- FYI, I almost didn't allow your comment; please try to be more respectful in your choice of words.

I agree with neighborhood residents seeking to enforce laws restricting billboards. I also think the neighborhood revival is cummulative, so perceived little things to some add up to a big difference in the long haul.

Cary Silverman said...

The illegal billboards at 9th and L are now gone. Stay tuned for more. Agree with Shaw Rez that improving the neighborhood -- making it safer and better looking -- is cumulative. Fix sidewalks, pave streets, get rid of the vacant lots, renovate the parks, address nuisance properties, and, yes, get rid of illegal billboards that give nuisance property owners a nice source of income.