Sentiment for a grassroots anti-street spam campaign is growing.

Two days before Christmas, I received this message from a pair of highly motivated, principled sign sharks, with whom I'd previously discussed an expansion of the campaign against street spam:

Roger,
We did a drive around the neighborhood district and removed the street spam, especially the Netpointe signs.

Here's an example of the Netpointe street spam of which my diligent sign sharks speak, one that had been posted illegally at the corner of 10th and Elm prior to joining the Mensheviks in history's dustbin:

Since our street spam story first ran in early December, Netpointe has completely ignored two e-mailed requests to comment on the matter. Perhaps we should have phoned ... but doesn't the company check its e-mail?

NA Confidential repeats the gist of it:

Isn’t it ironic that one of the most egregious generators of street spam hereabouts is an Internet service provider? While we have nothing "against" Netpointe (the "we buy houses" signs are another matter entirely), spam is spam, and it's disappointing that a local business that undoubtedly devotes so much of its work time fighting against one variety of spam chooses to contribute to the city's trash problem by printing dozens of another and littering the city with them.

Duly inspired by the grassroots action taken by our correspondents, Mr. and Mrs. Confidential happily devoted their Christmas Day stroll down Spring Street to removing six illegal "street spam" signs, and filing them in a convenient downtown garbage can.

Later, on our drive to Georgetown, we noticed a proliferation of street spam signage, which is described as:

The term for illegal signs along roadways, at intersections, on traffic signs or utility poles, and even on private property. Illegal street signs are also called vertical litter, bandit signs, snipe signs, utility pole advertising and stuff on a stick (SOS). The signs may advertise local businesses, multilevel marketing schemes selling weight loss products, health insurance, sample sales, landscaping services and even pet waste removal services.

The preceding definition comes from the FAQ section of the Citizens Against Ugly Street Spam web site.

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See also Street spam, sign sharks and the sheer joy of litter removal, a recent article in NA Confidential.