NORTHAMPTON — A producer of drag shows, Oliver Kelly of Easthampton, was putting up promotional flyers on downtown utility poles and vacant storefront windows in February 2025 when a city employee followed behind, immediately removing the posters and crumpling the pieces of paper.
“Having one’s hard work torn down immediately in front of their eyes is frustrating enough, but to also be a queer person minding their business and being yelled at by some man in a truck was truly the last straw for me personally,” Kelly says.
Now, Kelly is among performers, musicians and artists, and their supporters, who are spearheading an effort to repeal, at least temporarily, what they say is a nearly 40-year-old ordinance that limits posting flyers on certain city property, such as lampposts and benches.
At the March 5 City Council meeting, several people took their case to the council, on a night when the Ordinance Review Committee, made up of three councilors and two residents, gave a report outlining its recommendations.
Kelly explained why the temporary repeal or alteration of the ordnance, or at least pausing enforcement, is sensible.
“This hurts the local art scene and drives infringement on First Amendment rights to speech,” Kelly told the councilors, adding that city employees ripped down the posters and “shouted at me,” something they wouldn’t do to someone posting about a lost cat.
In material disseminated before the meeting, the idea is to get statistics and data on how it works in practice “and if the city’s many contrived fears around this ordinance are actually based in reality. Amherst and Eashampton have no language in their city bylaws around postings and have not fallen to utter chaos.”
The rules for “posting advertising” are located in the second section of Chapter 241 of the city’s ordinances, a chapter given the title “Peace and Good Order.” Subheaded “disorderly conduct,” this section also covers topics such as “nude bathing in public” and “obscene or profane language in streets.”
The ordinance for flyers states that “no person shall post or affix or cause to be posted or affixed upon any tree, stone, telegraph, telephone, electric light or other pole, post or structure, within the boundaries of any street, lane, common, park, court, alley or other public place, any sign, playbill, poster, notice, advertisement, or printed paper of any description whatsoever, except election notices, or any advertising appliance or medium, or cut, paint or mark any such stone, tree, pole, post or structure except for the purpose of protecting the same, except upon permit of the Board of Public Works.”
Council response
Councilor Jeremy Dubs, who has chaired the committee, said that every five years a similar panel is formed to gather input, which was done through three public forums. This led to recommendations on various topics, but there was insufficient time to address the ordinance governing flyers.
“Just because we didn’t recommend anything on this ordinance doesn’t mean that we can’t, it doesn’t mean we don’t have those opportunities to do that moving forward,” Dubs said.
The ordinance dates to 1977, said Councilor Garrick Perry, who vice chaired the committee, and was in effect in the days he was putting up advertisements for his band.
“This is not something new that the City Council or city is trying to create to harm folks putting up flyers,” Perry said.
The only related suggestions included in the final report from the Ordinance Review Committee is that “telegraph” be deleted from the types of poles listed, and that the reference to getting a permit from the Board of Public Works also be removed, since that board no longer exists. However, the committee also provided a spreadsheet showing that rescinding the ordinance could be considered.
In 1997, revisions were discussed by the City Council as concerns grew that the ordinance was both unworkable and possibly unconstitutional, because the Board of Public Works had no specific criteria for enforcement.
At that time, some city merchants were worried that downtown wasn’t welcoming when tape residue and torn paper was on property, creating a form of litter. The blanket prohibition on postering, though, was deemed legal because it applied to any and all flyers and handbills, no matter the content.
Following the meeting, Perry wrote in an email, “I think it’s important to note that this ordinance has not changed for decades and enforcement for the ordinance also has not been changed. This is the same ordinance that was in effect before, during, and after some of the most vibrant times of Northampton.”
Should response to adjustments be sought, they would have to be sponsored by a councilor, presented to the full council for a referral to the Legislative Matters Committee and then recommended to councilors.
Comments on postering
Like others, Erin Morse of Northampton, a musician in the do-it-yourself, DIY music scene, asked for a temporary halt on the flyering ordinance with hopes of eventually repealing it.
Morse has handed out flyers for shows, posted on public bulletin boards and “hanging flyers on city property, which are taken down at speeds higher than I have seen any other issue in the city of Northampton dealt with in my time here.”
There are concerns that people have to turn instead to various online platforms to promote themselves.
“Preventing the hanging of the flyers in the city forces the community into the online realm and requires individuals to engage in social media in order to know about local events,” Morse said.
Collette Paro of Chicopee, a disabled veteran who is part of a theater company that had a residency at APE Gallery, can appreciate wanting downtown to look nice, but putting advertising online only benefits large social media companies.
“Prohibiting flyers, however, is not a way to a clean city or fostering a thriving arts scene,” Paro said. “It hurts the city, it hurts artists, musicians, organizers, and community members that would benefit from seeing posted information.”
Jesus Acevedo of Amherst grew up visiting the city, observing that flyers have been a quick and easy way to find events and build community.
“I believe restricting flyers basically puts a hamper on ways for people to find events and a way to build community within this town,” Acevedo said.
Brigid Bogan, a former Northampton resident, gets joy from flyering around town for the local underground and independent music scene, talking to people, including business owners.
“The city of Northampton is standing in our way to be more free in our expression of events,” Bogan said.
Virginia Crand of Northampton said a worry is that the places where posting is allowed are focused on consumerism, such as shops and restaurants, and she is confident that people doing public postering without permission are removing them and keeping the city looking good.
“This will only weaken our economy and what attracts people to Northampton, to have venues for music and so many other things,” Crand said.
Recommendations
The Ordinance Review Committee made several recommendations during its report, with most of its focus on the sign ordinance, which is separate from the rules governing flyers. According to former Councilor Stanley Moulton, a member of the committee before he left the council, said that since the sign ordinance considers content, it runs afoul of court decisions that say such rules need to be content neutral.
“We have an unconstitutional sign ordinance that we cannot enforce,” said City Solicitor Alan Seewald.
The committee is also proposing development of ordinances that would phase out gas powered leaf blowers and require property owners to keep sidewalks free of vegetation, and removing the obscene or profane language in streets ordinance, which is unconstitutional and unenforceable, and the rescinding the thumbing or hitch-hiking ordinance that is outdated.
There are also a series of ordinances that need further study, such as where food trucks are allowed, whether there should be a designated area for alcohol being allowed at Pulaski Park, and requirements for removing snow and ice from sidewalks, posting notices of pesticides or herbicides use on public property and protecting ecosystems from invasive species.
