Sidecar may get dinged for sticker campaign

Ride sharing company Sidecar may start getting fined for advertising stickers that have been left in droves on parking meters, street sign posts and other municipal property all over the Mission and other parts of the city.

Rachel Gordon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, said crews have been asked to keep an eye out for the round orange stickers and to photograph them so the city can fine the company for any illegal postings. Citations can start at $100 per violation.

A Twitter user who goes by name “Dolores Clean” brought the issue to light and has been urging the city to crack down on Sidecar through a series of tweets. So far, he has tweeted more than 300 photos of the stickers, and has a collection of 90 photos, mostly of the stickers, here.

The stickers bear the company’s name, the hashtag #cheaperthan and appear to be part of some sort of guerrilla marketing campaign. It is unclear whether the company is paying someone to put them up. Sidecar did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment.

Public Works Code 184, which applies to illegal postings, states, among other things, that you cannot post something adhesive or otherwise affix something to a utility pole or other publicly owned “street furniture” in a way that causes damage. If it does, you may be liable for repair costs and an administrative penalty.

Posting anything on decorative or historic lampposts is prohibited.

In a followup email after Capp Street Crap’s initial post, Gordon said the city would need to prove that Sidecar was responsible for the stickers.

Dolores Clean, who first started seeing the stickers late last month, mostly in the Mission, said while he’s not a fan of taggers either, what Sidecar has been doing is particularly galling.

“There is a different kind of offensiveness when it’s done for profit,” he said.