That would be news to the many Republicans, including Lumm herself, who have served on Council. Ever hear of Ingrid Sheldon?

I submit that unwanted phone books should be subject to the same restrictions. I welcome the phone book published by the phone company to which I subscribe. The others are useless and wasteful.

Like the A2 Journal, these phonebooks are delivered to driveways and porches without homeowner permission, and are not delivered by USPS.

Congratulations to Jane Lumm on her historical swearing-in.

The link above is an introduction to the Private Express Statutes. If the USPS wanted to, they could put UPS, FedEx and the others out of business overnight, they can control all third party deliveries if need be. Your mailbox is convenient, but not the end-all point of delivery. Political ads and non-profits have some exemptions as you note, have to wonder how Dominoes gets away with it though.

I recall an incident years back where some company thought it made them look swanky to send all of their mail, postcards, and everything, via FedEx overnight. The USPS wasn’t impressed, and sued their pants off.

That’s why the Observer had to back off, and that’s why this littering could get to be a federal case, if we collectively want to put the screws on.

The real problem in our area is A2Journal. It is only a slight nuisance for me to pick up off my driveway, but it is delivered to the rental dwellings down Fountain where pile upon pile of the plastic-covered papers are slowly ground down into an indigestible mass on driveways.

I’m surprised to hear that the front door is off-limits since political campaigns routinely deliver literature to doors. It was my impression that it is illegal to place material into mailboxes, but elsewhere is legal.

Tell him you don’t want his litter, and if it does not stop in a reasonable amount of time (2 weeks?) you will have to file a criminal littering complaint — [link] — click “trash on lawn” in step 2, and fill out the rest. This worked for me, but they might get mad and be stubborn about it. Don’t forget to contact their advertisers to complain too, make noise, it’s all good.

Don’t bother to telephone, they are experts at BS’ing and tap dancing around this — remember, they have to be able to prove certain numbers of eyeballs look at their crap, so carbon copy your letter, so they can see it, to:

The Hon John Hieftje, Mayor; City of Ann Arbor; 100 N Fifth Ave; Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 — jhieftje@a2gov.org

Mr Barnett Jones, Police Chief; City of Ann Arbor; 301 E Huron; Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 — police@a2gov.org

Community Standards Supervisor; Ann Arbor Police Department; 301 E Huron; Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 — communitystandards@a2gov.org

Mr Michael J Lavery, President and Managing Director; The Audit Bureau of Circulations; 48 W Seegers Rd; Arlington Heights, Illinois 60005-3913 — michael.lavery@accessabc.com

(Along with a note that they are skirting postal laws:) Mr Patrick R Donahoe; Postmaster General of the United States; 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW; Washington, DC 20260-3100 — (don’t email, you want to insult the man?)

Possibly worth trying, though I think they charge a small fee for opting out, and only members will care: The Direct Mail Marketing Association — http://www.dmachoice.org

Maybe someone could remind us of the problems visited on the Ann Arbor Observer some years back that had to do with the same matter of delivering ephemera. I was living out of town most of the 80s and 90s and only have bit of recall about what happened, that is whatever I might have heard in passing while visiting.

The Observer once was freely delivered to everyone, and placed on doorsteps by independent carriers. Someone (Ann Arbor News?) cried foul to try to get them to stop, or force their delivery fees up to an unaffordable level.

Because the USPS has a government mandated monopoly on delivering 1st & 3rd class mail, with exemptions for “newspapers,” defined as based on readership and frequency of publishing, the front stoop was ruled out, and they had to go to the current mode where you declare that you want it, and it is sent in the mail. That’s about all I remember, fortunately for all of us they were able to continue publishing. Again, if someone could correct or expand on that (if Mary and Dave are willing,) please do.

Because of the USPS, the front door is off limits; because it’s public property, the hell strip and sidewalk are off limits; but there is a portion of your property, especially the driveway, that are fair game for cops who want to sneak around to GPS bug your car, and where “newspaper” publishers can toss their audience inflating trash.