Bags stuffed with ads irk Ridgewood officials, who explore ban
Monday, September 16, 2013
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — The Village Council wants to eliminate those plastic bags stuffed with advertisements that are tossed onto residents’ driveways.
Officials are considering such a ban to prevent the companies behind such advertorial publications from distributing them in town.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn said the council received an email last month from a resident perturbed by the ad-heavy papers.
“Why do we have to tolerate this?” Aronsohn asked the council recently, arguing the bagged ads were not protected forms of free speech.
Waving a plastic bag filled with ads, Deputy Mayor Al Pucciarelli said the freebie publications constitute little more than litter.
“The cars go up the street and stop at every home, and you hear them at 6:30 in the morning,” Pucciarelli explained. “They throw this package onto our driveways, and to me, that’s litter.”
The bags of ads, Pucciarelli contended, place a burden on the village’s recycling efforts.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/223864251_Bags_stuffed_with_ads_irk_Ridgewood_officials__who_explore_ban.html#sthash.MdcmEmXE.dpuf
I totally support the ban. Those ads are worse than junk e-mail or unsolicited telemarketing calls, because it’s up the homeowner to remove and recycle them. A nuisance!
When I go away, I stop the mail and my newspaper subscriptions. If one of these things ends up on my driveway and ‘announces’ to the burglars that the home is unnocupied , theres a higher possibility of a burglary. (if my alarm doesnt deter the bad guys and they break in ill sue the sh*t out of whomever placed that crap on my driveway.)
Glad to see the council is taking action. Also include the multiple useless phone books from companies that are not my phone co provider.
Regardless of what our Mayor and Village Council believe, those bagged advertisements may indeed be protected by the First Amendment. Take a moment and Google “free newspapers in driveways constitutional” and see what you get. Looks like they are protected by law, and those communities that have tried to ban them have been sued. However, some communities have successfully gotten the distributors to include information about how to stop delivery in every bag thrown in a driveway. Maybe that’s what we should do here?
By the way, the distributor of those advertisements in Ridgewood is the North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record and The Ridgewood News. If you’d like delivery of the advertisements stopped, try phoning 201-646-4444, or 973-569-7500, or 888-473-2673. Those are their main customer care numbers for circulation issues.
Nobody I know wants these junk papers. I wholeheartedly support the ban, too!
I’m so glad our Mayor and Council are seeking to get the littering stopped once and for all! After years of cleaning up after strangers hurling their trash papers into my yard and driveway, I’ve had enough!
Thank you!
People get this junk paper from many sources besides the Record i see all this garbage up and down peoples driveways constantly, so i say find a way to ban it. Junk is not protected by any law.
https://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news/local-ban-delivery-free-newspapers-struck-down
NOTE: The court ruled that the ordinance violated the US Constitution as well as State laws.
This trashing of our homes and our town needs to be stopped. It’s not “free speech” it’s litter.
Lots of No Trespassing and littering signs available cheap.
One of my hobbies is walking around my neighborhood and picking up those bags in driveways of neighbors who are obviously out of town. Money-making idea for young folks without a car: combine this with dog walking and you’ve got some pocket change.
If someone gathers them up and dumps them at the North Jersey Media Group office that will be free speech too. Any volunteer? It would be a great photo op when the trash is returned.
you all have too much time on your hands!!
Include yourself in that assessment. You read the posts and commented too.
the white van that delivers those papers on friday am has passenger plates. Maybe the Ridgewood PD should ticket him for not having proper commercial plates and lettering on the vehicle. Its a start in the right direction. Same for the vans that litter with the phone books.
To the poster that said they are ‘protected’. They are only protected when its ‘news’. The record — USED to include a news section with the ads. Last time I saw one there was nothing but ads.
Maybe the village can post a ‘do-not-buy’/boycott page on their website. List the names of the companies that advertise and residents can boycott them. Problem solved.
a paul what about people use it to fill it up with dog shit. and through it in the street. some people are so fucked up.
We travel often. The litter piles up and alerts thieves and others with bad intent that we’re not home, it creates a very unsafe situation for us.
Contacting these companies does no good. They continue to trash our property with impunity.
I hope the Mayor and Council won’t back down. I hope they can get this stopped.
I just finished writing my previous comment when I heard the litter being thrown on my property once again!
This has to be stopped. Please.
This all hit the news – The Record, News 12 and Channel 7 Eyewitness News – but was buried because of all the tragedies going on that day.