Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Contractor nails advertising sign to tree

Last week I noticed that contractors were redoing the sidewalk and curb at the corner of 148th Street and Bayside Avenue.  They did a reasonable job, and left their calling card: a large plastic sign affixed to a street tree with a nail.  You stay classy, Valenza Contractors! Crappy, I hope you can get the Parks or Sanitation Department to give these bastards a fine for this.

- North Flushing Resident



Service Request #: C1-1-972688591
Date Submitted: 05/24/14 1:55:13 PM
Request Type: Illegal Tree Damage
Details: Trunk Damaged
Thank you for contacting New York City 311. Your Service Request has been sent to the Department of Parks and Recreation for action.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whereas removal of illegal signs placed on light poles or utility poles is the responsibility of the Department of Sanitation, this request will go to the Parks Department as is shown in the post.

Whereas the Department of Sanitation will actually remove illegal signs, the Parks Department will do absolutely nothing.

There was a similar sign in my neighborhood nailed to a tree. Over the course of six months I complained to 311 multiple times (about ten times - no exaggeration). That sign stayed up there until I took it down myself.

To get rid of that sign, take a box cutter and carefully slice along the corrugations above and below the nails. Do your best not to cut into the bark if possible and pull the sign down from around the nails. The coroplast material will tear enough for you to do this. I recommend leaving the nails in and don't try to pull them out as it may damage the tree further.

As far as getting the city to fine the contractor, good luck. At least there's a record of the damage the contractor did here in this blog...

Anonymous said...

Here's their Yelp page - let them know what you think!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/salvatore-valenza-contractors-whitestone-2

Anonymous said...

Have taken down dozens of these signs from poles and trees over the last few months. Everyone should just pull them down and don't bother calling 311. The process takes too long.

Anonymous said...

BWAHAHAHHAAH, the Italian Flag is posted on that advertisement.. Next to the American flag. What utter disrespect to this great nation.

This guy undoubtedly only hires illegal immigrants like Salvadorans and Mexicans just like most middle class Italian and Greek business owners.

The worst part is these guys will turn around and COMPLAIN ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

No one here actually thinks that this guy has a team of Italian workers doing

Cement
Driveways
Sidewalks
Curbs
etc

Anonymous said...

It's perfectly ok to display a flag of another nation so long as it's to the right of the American flag. It's funny how you extracted from that sign what the guy's entire business model is. All I see is an illegally posted sign.

Anonymous said...

Go to 311online type "poster" in the search box and go to illegal poster complaint. Put in info. Sanitation is pretty good removing the signs I reported within a week. They are also supposed to fine the company. Parks won't do anything.

Anonymous said...

Gotta love that line on the illegally placed sign that says "Violations removed"!

georgetheatheist said...

Trees? Trees? We don' need no steenkeen trees.

Anonymous said...

I am seeing this more and more lately in the nab - THANK YOU for calling attention this. They should be ticketed!

I called 311 for a sign by me - it was down within two days. I would have removed it myself but it was up too high for me to reach.

I remove ALL signs I see and have access to on trees in and around the nab. I just think people should be made to pay for doing this.

Le Gross Foo Chat said...

'Gotta love that line on the illegally placed sign that says "Violations removed"! '

Oh, yeah! That was my very first reaction!!!

Anonymous said...

Put them on the trees in front of his and his family's houses all over Malba.

Anonymous said...

Let's stop complaining and just take off any signs off trees, sidewalks or anywhere else they are not suppose to be. Do your part for your community and call whatever # is on the sign and ask them to please stop or you will report them. I especially hate the "We buy houses" or We buy cars" signs. I personally take them and toss them in the garbage.

Anonymous said...

Says it in a nut shell last poster.

We use to say "Walk the Walk Not Talk the Talk".

I also stole an answer (from a Vice President
of a nearby bank)for people who criticise me - "Talk to me when you pick up a shovel"

Anonymous said...

"Let's stop complaining and just take off any signs off trees, sidewalks or anywhere else they are not suppose to be."

Agreed. I've personally removed more than 200 of them over the last few years in my neighborhood.

Lately, it's been hard to keep up, however. I swear there are more people putting them up because they're showing up even faster than before.

There's usually a flurry of them right before a holiday week-end - perhaps to capitalize on the increased traffic.

Here's a web site that tells you how to make tools to remove illegal signs if they're too high to reach by hand:

http://www.causs.org/tools.html

They use bolts and wire to secure a box cutter to a
metal pole. Duct tape and a wooden pole that you can get at Home Depot for about $5 works just as well.

By the way, once when I was removing a sign a NYC police officer stopped by. He thanked me and said he wished more people would take an interest in doing what I was doing. I also get compliments from people in the neighborhood.

As long as you're mindful of overhead power lines and careful about cars passing by there's little to fear.

So let's all get cutting! Die street-spam die!

georgetheatheist said...

"By the way, once when I was removing a sign a NYC police officer stopped by. He thanked me and said he wished more people would take an interest in doing what I was doing."

That cop makes $100G'S per year and YOU have to do his work???

Anonymous said...

Thugs leave their mark! Turn you in for supposed violations, then let you know who did it. Vote your death!

Anonymous said...

Aren't these the guys that almost went to jail way back when? They shoulda!

Queens Crapper said...

And here's the response:

**This is an auto-generated system message. Please do not reply to this message.**

Service Request #: C1-1-972688591
Date Submitted: 05/24/14 1:55:13 PM
Request Type: Illegal Tree Damage
Details: Trunk Damaged
Your Service Request was closed.

The condition was inspected and it was determined that no work order was necessary. The condition will not be inspected again for at least 90 days.

Anonymous said...

This firm has had problems with the law going way back.