Edit: The Inky article from this past summer notwithstanding, I just heard from a city employee (answering via the email address mentioned below) that L&I is still issuing fines: "No, it is not true. We still issue fines just continue to report violation if you wish for the distributor to be fined. The fine is now $300 for each violation."

You may or may not be aware of the city's circular-free decal program which is supposed to allow you to prevent trash from being thrown at your house/onto your porch/left in your mailbox under the guise of advertising for supermarkets and restaurants. The idea is: you apply for the program and get your home on the list; the city sends you a sticker to post; and whenever someone leaves trash on your property in violation of the sticker, you can report it and the business where said trash originated gets fined $100 per violation.

The website linked above is very vague on details, not even being very clear on what email you're supposed to send reports to. I just send them to vending@phila.gov as that's the only email listed on that page, but never received any response until recently.

Anyway, last week somebody actually replied to my email. It was to notify me that I had checked a box on my application not authorizing my address to be eligible for reports and fines. That was obviously a mistake on my part, so I fixed it.

Anyway, they also sent me the flier (see images) with more details on how you're supposed to report violations. Apparently they want a photo that includes the circular-free sticker on your home, and the offending fliers, in the same photo; and also a photo that clearly shows the name/address/phone number of each flier that was left. In addition you need to specify your address (obviously) as well as the date/time the flier was left (I'm sure you can estimate on the time...can't see how that's relevant or enforceable). It also makes slightly clearer that vending@phila.gov is the correct email address to send violation reports to.

Anyway, mostly just posting this because I want everyone to know about this program. Someone actually is checking the inbox where these reports go to. If we all get these stickers and all report all the violations, hopefully this practice of throwing trash all over entire city blocks in hopes of drumming up a little additional business will be abandoned for good.