Deal With It, A.N.S.W.E.R.

So the city's suing the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition over their hard-to-remove posters, which they've stuck to lampposts, electrical boxes, and other pieces of street furniture. Good for D.C.

A long time ago, as part of a community-service project, I was tasked with cleaning a wall full of similar posters. Lemme tell you, getting that shit off ain't easy. Wheat paste, or whatever those folks are using, might be water-soluble, but it's still sticky as hell---especially when you slather the poster with it, which is the only way to get it to stick when you first apply it. But after it sets up and dries, it's there for good. Getting it off involves getting the posters as wet as possible, then taking a scraper to it an inch or two at a time. And you never get all of it; there's always residue left over. Sorry, Shep Fairey, but this stuff sucks.

Thing is, what's a better option? Tape is always a pain in the ass to remove. Tacky gum-like stuff I'm sure would be a disaster. Anyone out there have a better idea for securing posters to public property?

And here's a question for the city: Why is there no provision requiring removal of signs in public space after a specific amount of time? Political candidates, for instance, are required to remove their signs shortly after any election---why not make that the policy for every sign-poster out there? If that were so, I'm guessing A.N.S.W.E.R. would be a little less liberal (no pun intended...OK, pun intended) with the wheat paste.