William Shaw has a message for other business owners who advertise their services on illegally placed signs in Detroit: “Don’t put them up. They’ll come after you and your business and they’ll make you pay for it.”
As part of a court-ordered community service order for posting hundreds of signs advertising his plumbing business in a Detroit suburb, Shaw must remove similar signs around the city.
“They’re not going to give up,” Shaw said of Detroit’s anti-slum enforcement officials as he pulled down utility signs and other poles on the city’s northwest side Friday morning.
Many street corners and neighborhoods in Detroit are plastered with signs offering things like lawn care, event rentals, cash for houses – and even cheap health care.
Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration has been aggressive in removing blight. In the past decade, about 25,000 vacant or abandoned buildings have been demolished. The city also says it has cleared about 90,000 tons of trash and illegally dumped debris from alleys in the past four years.
The city said it will be from February 2022 to July 2023 more than 615 “Shaw’s Plumbing” signs removedWilliam Shaw has been cited for more than 50 crimes as a result.
A judge ordered Shaw to perform 40 hours of community service with the city’s Blight Remediation Division, part of which will include removing signs illegally placed by others.
Shaw said Friday that he has paid thousands of dollars in fines but noted that “business is booming” at his store in Melvindale, southwest of Detroit.
“I was in the city of Detroit putting up signs to promote illegal business without knowing I was doing it,” he told The Associated Press. “We raised a lot of money to promote things. We have also done this elsewhere in other surrounding cities. And we have paid fines in other surrounding cities, as well as in Detroit.”
Gail Tubbs, president of the O’Hair Park Community Association, urged the city to address the number of “Shaw’s Plumbing” signs, calling illegally placed signs a nuisance.
“We just don’t want it,” Tubbs said Friday as Shaw tore down signs in her neighborhood. “We don’t need any more visual pollution and blight in our community. We don’t want it. We don’t need it.”
Shaw said he is being made an example of. Others will follow, the city said.
“Mr Shaw is just the first. We have a list of the top 10, top 20 offenders,” said Katrina Crawley, assistant director of Blight Remediation. “This is just the first of many.”
“Quality of life is an issue for all of our residents,” Crawley added, “and having nuisance signs on poles where they shouldn’t be… is something that we want to send a message to business owners. You guys need to get on with it stop. There are legal ways to advertise your business.”
