Sisyphus has finally rolled a rock up the hill and gotten it to stay up.
Last week, Common Pleas Court Judge Alan K. Silberstein ordered a huge wall-wrap plastered on a building at Seventh and Callowhill Streets in Philly taken down, immediately and forthwith.
Silberstein's ruling comes four years after the wrap was put up - illegally and without a city permit - by Callowhill Center Associates, owner of the building adjacent to the Vine Street Expressway.
The wrap currently features a Subaru ad. You've probably seen it. Heck, you could hardly miss it. It's 65 feet tall by 100 feet wide.
The Silberstein ruling is a victory for the neighborhood groups and others who opposed the wrap from Day One, notably the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB) and its executive director, Mary Tracy.
The wrap is in clear violation of the city's 1991 billboard law. For starters, it's six times larger than the maximum size allowed. For another, it is located in the Vine Street Corridor, where all outdoor advertising signs are forbidden by special statute.
SCRUB won the case in Common Pleas Court (November 2001). The owners appealed, but SCRUB won the case in Commonwealth Court (July 2002). Won the case in the state Supreme Court (December 2002). Won the case in the U.S. Supreme Court (June 2003).
Delay tactics
Still, the wrap stayed up. Every time a hearing on the issue was scheduled, Callowhill Associates asked for a delay. The stated reason: Partner Myron Berman was a military reserve officer and had to be on-duty.
And where was Berman serving? Not in Iraq. Not in some distant outpost. In his hometown of New York City.
At last, Silberstein got fed up. In his ruling, he declared the wrap a "public nuisance" and gave the building owners 30 days to take it down.
He levied a $150-a-day fine every day it stays up - retroactive to December 2002, the date the state Supreme Court ruled it was illegal. That fine amounts to about $66,000 so far.
He also ordered Berman and company to place the revenue it got for the wrap in a trust "to benefit Philadelphia residents" from the same date in December 2002.
That's a big chunk of change. Word on the street is that the wrap brings in $60,000 to $70,000 a month, so we are talking upward of $900,000.
That last piece delighted Tracy, because billboard companies have used delaying tactics for years to avoid taking their boards down. Why? Because every day a board stays up is another day of profit.
"Why wouldn't you appeal and delay if you can keep making money?" she asked. "That's the problem with enforcement in the city. If someone sets up shop illegally, they can get from four to five years operating, making money, while enforcement grinds on."
Up the hill
I joked with Tracy that she is like Sisyphus, the figure in Greek myth condemned by the gods to spend eternity rolling a rock up a hill, only to have it fall back every time.
It's an enormous burden for SCRUB and any neighborhood group that seeks enforcement of city codes.
My suggested solution: After the court of initial appeal has ruled (usually Common Pleas), the city should start levying stiff fines on violators, holding the money in escrow while the offender appeals to higher courts.
That way, the onus would be on the owners of illegal billboards, auto-repair garages, fly-by-night stores, etc., instead of on the community groups who keep insisting that the city's zoning, building and safety codes be enforced.
Next rock up the hill: four illegal billboards erected adjacent to FDR Park in South Philly in 1999.
Same story here. They were declared illegal by Common Pleas, Commonwealth, the state Supreme Court, and, finally, the U.S. Supreme Court last year. SCRUB and community groups near the park are seeking to have the rulings enforced.
A hearing is scheduled before Municipal Court Judge Robert Blasi next week. Let's watch to see whether Blasi will let this rock stay - or push it down the hill again.