January 29, 2008
Soggy Examiners the Bane of Suburban San Francisco
Is this what it looks like in front of your house? Generally, there's high demand for the San Francisco Examiner, but the people who live at this address might not have read the self-defining statement recently noted by the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club. (Back East, there might soon be some legislation about unwanted deliveries of free newspapers. ¡Dios Mío!)
Our wait for MUNI wouldn't be complete without the 'Xam. It's too bad they don't have more newspaper boxes for distribution.
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The slant of the Texas owner of the Examiner is often times very obvious. This paper is halfway to FoxNews sometimes.
I have repeatedly asked the examiner to stop delivering the paper to me. All up and down my street there are unwanted copies of this paper. With the wet weather here, they are disintegrating into a mass of running ink, (yes I pick them up and throw them away, but not when they are in that condition). The Examiner is a bit part of the mess of this city.
Think it's Colorado you're thinking of, not Texas.
Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.
Let's add "unwanted takeout menus" to that legislation!
the Examiner is a big part of my AM commute as well. obviously it has its share of problems (slant being one among the many) but the Chron isn't exactly perfect either. either way, Examiners are often already gone from the machine by my bus stop at 7:30am. i've tried repeatedly to get them to deliver to my house (24th and Folsom area) but they continue to ignore my requests. it's been months.
regarding the trash: since Gavin agreed to the removal half of our street-corner city trash cans along 24th St, i can't even tell if orphan newspapers are making the City dirtier anymore. there's just shit everywhere..
I'd like to see all the political flyers gone myself (and that means you Gavin's superfluous re-election team masquerading as SFConnect - did you really have to leave 6 of those bulky glossy bright orange things on our gate?)...
I must admit though - being a free paper junkie, I actually wish the Examiner would deliver on the weekends to my building like they used to. It's not a great paper and I find myself arguing with many of the editorials, but the local news coverage is quite decent.
The Examiner never ever delivers to the front of my house. However, if anyone knows a way to stop Asian Week from delivering, please let me know.
There were at least 20 out front of my building this morning....there is only 8 units?? WTF mate?
I'm glad the legislation is being considered! I have been saying for a long time that the City should pass restrictions that would limit the ability of a news organization to turn our streets into trash receptables with these widespread unsolicited paper deliveries.
It's not just a good idea because of the thousands of papers littering our streets (many of which probably DPW crews end up removing with our tax dollars) - but it's also such an extreme waste of resources and the cause of the addition of thousands of plastic bags into the environment on a weekly basis . At a time that San Francisco is on the cutting edge of reducing plastic bag usage we should be able to limit this practice, too. Also, the Ex distribution is on a scale way bigger, and the product so much more wasteful, than take-out menus and even the seasonal onslaught of campaign materials. I'm all for allowing the Ex - and other publications - to do their thing in as many free newspaper boxes they want.
Oh, and IMO there is one redeeming quality about the Ex - the free NY Times crossword puzzle! :) I also miss Adriel Hampton's articles on local politics.
I like the Examiner. Always the same exact people writing the same nutty ideas to the editor section.
Paul "Marxist is my favorite insult" Burton's incomprehensible diatribes, Judy "rent control is an evil visited on all the good-hearted poverty-stricken landlords" West's economics-deficient missives, et al. bring gales of laughter to my breakfast table.
And I have a feeling there are some first amendment issues which would come into play if any legislation to ban these "free gifts" were introduced.
I regularly clear all the free menus, housecleaning service flyers, Nob Hill Gazette things, junk mail, off my front stoop. It takes about five minutes. For crying out loud, have some pride in your living conditions. You don't have to own the property to care how it looks. Yeah, it sucks, but just pick them up, toss them in the recycling, and move on.
well, i i'm definitely not a lawyer, but it's my understanding (at least this is what i have gleaned from the explanation given to me by a lawyer friend) - that do not call list type restrictions similar to those proposed don't rise to the threshold of first amendment restrictions. unwanted deliveries to unspecified reciptientswould call something a targeted "gift" that's left out on the public sidewalk where anyone can take it?
well what would be cool is if, at the least, ross or someone could legislate restrictions, on environmental grounds, to the use of plastic bags in our "free gifts"
I am ready to strangle the people at the Examiner. Twice I've asked to be removed from their list, and back in December, when I was out of town for three weeks, they kept on delivering the damn paper. So, I came back to those soggy papers, wondering why they didn't just post a note on my door saying "come rob me."
I always make a point to punt the NY Times and
Wall St Journal for about half a block from the front of whatever building they are left. Keeps the snooty capitalists and posers in line with the rest of us. Go fetch your crossword puzzle, sissy pants. lol
@Cat--under a Supreme Court case called Rowan, it does not violate the First Amendment to stop junk mail from coming to a house. Their right to free speech ends at your door, or perhaps, your soggy doorstep.
Yes, but is a newspaper considered "junk mail"? Junk mail is described as unsolicited "promotional" mail. The Ex arguably has other purposes besides mere promotion (and hobo toilet paper); they can argue that it's informational, rather than promotional. At any rate, I read it because it's there, and I'm too lazy to do any legal research on the issue of whether or not newspapers can be defined as "junk mail."
Call Gavin's hotline for reporting littering - last I read, tossing garbage onto city streets was punishable by an $80 fine. Call 28-CLEAN to report litter!
He says so himself:
This Anti-Litter Campaign is about taking individual responsibility for keeping our city a beautiful place to live, work or visit. I hope you will join me in my efforts to keep San Francisco clean. Please do your part by keeping the area around your home or business clean and litter free. And, if you observe litter, graffiti or illegal dumping, call 28-CLEAN. You can do your part by volunteering at one of the many cleaning and greening events that are ongoing throughout the year.
I look forward to working with you all as we keep San Francisco clean, green and beautiful.
Gavin Newsom
4/13/2005
http://news.sfobserver.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=2d0785d39db3ac94dcd41943ea6c5adb
I live in the Castro and there're always three Examiners on our stoop, and dozens more on the sidewalk.
Hell, cut down on unwanted newspapers, Mythic Pizza flyers (ick), and phone books (phone books? in 2008?!) we could still be using plastic bags at the Big Gay Safeway.
thats good to know. however a few months back, we used the strategy to email the hell out of them. our household did so for weeks consistantly, then we sent a written letter, then more emails and now our whole block has been skipped for months.
we see the dude in the truck throwing them at the block accross but not ours. it is such a wastefule media distribution, im sure id read it here and there in bart if I wasnt so resentful to see it for such along time ligering at my door step and be the first morning encounter EVERYDAY. argh -
Maybe it's because I live in the bucolic, meadow-and-daisy-strewn suburbs, but when I called the Examiner to be removed from their deliveries, it actually worked!
Now if I can only stop those guys who throw flyers on our lawn wrapped in plastic bags with rocks in them. That's one bag for the trash can, one flyer for the recycling bin, and one rock to throw back outside. I'm exhausted at the end of it.
I live on the Panhandle and there are months of unclaimed Examiners, steaming in their unopened plastic bags, up and down my street. Between the moldering piles of newspaper in various states of decay and the fresh turd piles left behind by gutter punks and/or their dogs, just walking the sidewalks of the Haight can be a menace to your health and shoes. I called the Examiner to demand they stop pelting my flat with their retarded rag and lo and behold, they did! Now if I can just do something about the never ending flow of Chinese take away menus I find attached to my gate, day in, day out, time without end.
Regardless, I think it's ridiculous that a city that blathers on incessantly about how "green" it is would allow such a blatant display of wasted resources as that exemplified by the Examiner onslaught. You totally know that the Examiner's evil backers cut down like virgin old growth forest to make the paper they print their crap on. I think I'll contact Ross Mirkirami and demand that he do something and fast.
My main issue is the plastic bags the Examiner insists on wrapping its drivel in. It's one thing to do it during the rainy season, but those damn papers come encased in plastic in AUGUST. WHY??
The examiner wants to make sure you have plenty of plastic bags to put your dog poop in now that the grocery stores can't use them anymore. I give my wife loads of shit everytime she forgets to bring bags to the store, she finally said "well we need bags for the dogshit anyway". I volunteered that I would make sure we had plenty of examiner bags at the ready...
To stop the Examiner in the city (or the "Examiner Peninsula" in the suburbs): Call circulation. Call circulation again. Call and ask to talk to a supervisor. Talk to the supervisor. Document the above in writing, and send it to the Examiner SF.
This worked at more than one address that I lived at in the SF Bay area.
If you still have problems, the "documentation in writing" can be used to take your complaint to the Better Business Bureau and to the CAC (Certified Auditor of Circulation) that the Examiner uses to set ad rates with its major advertisers.
I'm willing to go to this effort to stop the examiner because this is an environmental problem: Among other things, some of that plastic used to wrap the millions papers ends up in the ocean...
Examiner Newspaper Litter & Stopping Unwanted Newspapers for GOOD!
At the Independent we were sued for unwanted newspapers in small claims court and lost. One homeowner was awarded a whopping $120.00 by the judge!
A PROFITABLE SOLUTION for repeat stops from unwanted Free Dailies and other newspapers delivered to your home.
We had the same problem with the Independent in the beginning. What made our independent delivery personnel improve was we were sued a numerous of times, taken to small claims court in San Francisco and San Mateo counties and lost every time.
People would take us to small claims with their rolled up newspapers and copy of letters requesting stoppages, and sue us up to $80.00 per occurrences and judges always awarded it in their favor. And then we would take it out of our independent contractors paychecks and they learned pretty quick about stopping unwanted newspapers!
We had one guy in San Mateo county California win a whopping $120.00 for accumulated repeat stopped deliveries. All you have to do when you sue in small claims court show proof of mailing of a letter requesting a stop for these unwanted newspapers and if it is not stopped. Sue for littering of your property and cleanup costs by you having to pick up the trash from your property and keep the newspapers for proof! FULL STORY on:
http://marcchamot2.blogspot.com/2008/04/stopping-unwanted-free-newspapers-and.html