DETROIT (AP) — William Shaw has a message for other business owners advertising their services on illegally erected signs in Detroit: “Don’t put up your signs. They’ll come after you and your business and make you pay the price.”
As part of his court-ordered community service for installing hundreds of billboards advertising a plumbing company in suburban Detroit, Shaw is being asked to remove similar billboards around the city.
“They’re not going to back down,” Shaw said of Detroit’s blight control officials as he ripped signs off utility and other poles on the city’s northwest side Friday morning.
Many street corners and downtown areas in Detroit are plastered with signs offering lawn care services, event rentals, cash for homes, and even cheap medical care.
Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration has been aggressive in clearing blight. About 25,000 vacant and abandoned buildings have been demolished in the past decade. The city says it has also removed about 90,000 tons of trash and illegally dumped debris from streets over the past four years.
The city said it removed more than 615 “Shaw’s Plumbing” signs between February 2022 and July 2023. Because of this, William Shaw has been charged with more than 50 misdemeanors.
The judge ordered Shaw to perform 40 hours of community service with the city’s blight remediation department, which includes removing illegal signs installed by others.
Shaw said Friday that although he paid thousands of dollars in fines, “business is brisk” at his store in Melvindale, southwest Detroit.
“I was putting up signs promoting businesses illegally in the city of Detroit and I didn’t know I was doing that,” he told The Associated Press. “We put up a lot of signs promoting businesses, and we did the same in other neighboring cities, and we paid fines not just in Detroit but in other neighboring cities.”
Gail Tubbs, president of the O’Hare Park Community Association, urged the city to do something about the number of “Shaw’s Plumbing” signs. Tubbs said the illegally posted signs are a nuisance.
“We just don’t want it,” Tubbs said Friday before Shaw removed the sign in her neighborhood. “We don’t need any more visual pollution or blight in our community. We don’t want it. We don’t need it.”
Shaw said he was being made an example of, and city officials say others will likely follow suit.
“Mr. Shaw is just the first. We have a list of the top 10, top 20 violators,” said Katrina Crowley, deputy director of the Blight Remediation Agency. “This is just the first of many.”
“Quality of life is an issue for all of our residents,” Crowley added. “Putting nuisance signs on poles where they shouldn’t be is the message we want to send to business owners: Stop it. There are ways to advertise your business legally.”
