This thread inspired by this nearby thread, in which the visibility of house numbers is discussed.
In the residential neighborhoods of your city, do you have house numbers painted on the curb?
Is it even legal to have such numbers on the curb? I keep reading stories here and there, that is some communities it is not legal. Or maybe, legal but only when painted by the city or a painting company hired (or at least approved) by the city.
I’ve heard of charities soliciting home-owners to have these numbers painted, typically in return for a “donation”. Is that legal? Is that a potential scam? Is that something that cities are trying to prevent by passing laws about numbers on curbs?
In general, what is the logic of having laws preventing house numbers on curbs? (ISTM San Francisco is such a city.)
In my neighborhood, every single house has numbers on the curb. I don’t know who put them there originally; maybe it was whoever built our subdivision. They were there when I moved in, in 1993. Many appear to have never been repainted. It is not maintained by the city of Sacramento, but a city ordinance specifically allows homeowners or their agents to paint their house number on the curb in front of the house. About once a year, a charity group offers to repaint them (usually in a red, white and blue scheme) for about $5. I always let them. They never do it without asking first.
I’ve had the number painted on my curb twice. It always fades after two or three years and requires repainting. It’s supposed to be helpful for ambulances and other emergency vehicles to locate the address.
Whenever I’ve had to find house numbers, they have always been really helpful. A lot of people have the numbers (on the actual house, if they even have it at all, which sometimes apparently they don’t) in such dumb/hard to see spots it can be very trying to figure out an address that way. And if it’s night time? Forget about it.
Most of the time our house number painted on the curb is blocked by a parked car. This is San Francisco, there are no parking spaces that don’t have cars in them.
We frequently receive notices on our front door that say painters will be
in our area tomorrow, and to please indicate on the notice our interest in
having our curb done.
The one time they did it…they painted the wrong number! :smack:
I grew up living across the street from a fireman and his family and, at one point, asked him whether our city had a law requiring them. He laughed and told me our city (San Diego) didn’t have them and the fire truck drivers didn’t really need them.
So the next time we were visited by a college kid offering to repaint our curb number “to make sure the emergency crews can find the right house” I told him he was bullshitting and, furthermore, if an emergency responder lacked the brains to look 45 degrees upward from the curb to see the wooden sign with our house number on it, he or she didn’t have the brains to be an emergency responder anyway.
Another neighbor, who was a sherrif’s deputy, suggested that if we wanted to be helpful in that regard, we should consider painting the street and house number on the roof shingles. People on the ground wouldn’t notice, but the law enfocement Helicopter pilots might appreciate the visible reference point.
–G!
[But I noticed he didn’t do that to his own roof, so maybe he was just pulling my leg.]
The site from which I linked the above photo is selling vinyl numbers for mailbox and curb, so I suppose they won’t ever fade. Assuming they actually stick forever.
But my other question still stands: In cities that forbid this, what is the logic?
There may not be logic specific to the house numbering. The curb is owned by the city/county. The city/county forbids private individuals and companies from painting public property without permission. Hence painting house numbers would be legal only if the city/county enacted legislation specifically to permit it.
Ditto for Boston, on the “there are no parking spaces that don’t have cars in them.” I’ve never seen numbers painted on the curb here in the metro area. Not sure if they exist in the burbs where houses are farther apart and the streets aren’t full of parked cars. I suspect even if the curbs were not blocked by cars they’d be covered in snow half the year so there might not be much interest in painting numbers.
There are laws about painting on the curb and the city controls that. Businesses are known to paint curbs red or yellow outside their businesses to keep a parking space open for them. Only official red spaces are ticketed; you should be able to identify them by “city of” stencil painted on them and maybe, “no parking.” Rogue red-curb painters don’t have those stencils.
When I was growing up in Philadelphia, the city painted the numbers on the curb. But that was before most people had cars and parked on the street. Here is my Montreal suburb, I have never seen it. IIRC my son in Redmond, WA has house numbers, his and his neighbors’, on the curb.
A private citizen or company can get in trouble for painting the curb without clearing it through the city. The neighbor around the corner from out house on the corner lot painted the curb on the side of his house red. He had a gate on the side fence and parked his work truck and trailer back there. It was painted red for many years. But one day they painted over the red with gray paint. One of my sons asked his classmate the neighbor’s son what happen, why did they paint it. Acording to the son his parents got a ticket for parking in a zed zone. They went to court to fight the ticket. They thought that they should not be ticked because they painted the curb red. After some questions from the judge about who, why, and did they have a permit the judge ruled. They had to pay the fine for parking in a red zone, it was red did not matter how it got red, but it was red. Also he had them fined for painting it red, and they had to paint over the red.
In our country is is definitely illegal. When reports surfaces of these “We’re here from the county to paint your number. It’s needed for emergencies. That’ll be $20.” scammers, an reminder article shows up in the paper.
(These are the same people who have “leftover tar” that they can fix your driveway with for cheap, etc.)
A few people in our neighborhood have quite obviously fallen for this.
Not here, but in some locales, the authorities send out crews from time to time to paint over these. Usually right after a group of travelers have been thru. You see black rectangles on the curb.
Where I live, painting the curb numbers is a cottage industry for the homeless. They get a couple spray cans, a set of stencils, a roll of tape, and start knocking on doors.
We don’t have them here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them either (in my area anyways). In fact, I’ll bet if we look at the locations of people that don’t have them, a lot of them will be similar to mine where the curb spends close to half the year covered in raked up leaves or snow so it would be mostly useless anyways.
I never really understood the point. They’re down low, not lit, cars (etc) blocking them, probably faded for years at a time and they’re already on the house. Why the extra expense?
