By Gus Saltonstall
For those who live in the lower West 70s, you might have noticed a recent influx of sidewalk advertisements for SLT UWS, along with a barcode.
Over the past month, West Side Rag counted more than a dozen of the turquoise pavement advertisements around West 72nd Street.
SLT is a workout gym that ties together cardio, strength training, and the most challenging elements of pilates. The gym, which has nearly 20 locations throughout the east coast, recently opened at 2109 Broadway, between West 73rd and 74th streets.
In recent weeks, the Rag has received multiple emails questioning the sidewalk advertising.
“Have you seen the SLT marks along 20+ UWS sidewalks? It’s clearly bugging people — some have been scratched off in various forms,” one tipster wrote, who wished to remain anonymous. “These have been on our sidewalks since March.”
It is illegal to paint or draw on either public or private property in New York City, which includes spray painting, markers, and unauthorized stickers or posters, a Department of Buildings spokesperson confirmed to the Rag.
According to Section 19-138 of the New York Administrative Code, “it shall be unlawful for any person to deface any street by painting, printing, or writing thereon, or attaching thereto, in any manner, any advertisement or other printed matter.”
When reached for comment on the sidewalk advertisement, SLT told West Side Rag that they were in the removal process.
“We have hired a 3rd party cleaning team to remove and clean the promo advertisements that were placed in the area prior to our new studio opening,” Melissa Chordock, the president at SLT, told West Side Rag in an email. “We anticipate the work being completed by the end of the week.”
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I see sidewalk drawings everywhere. I guess this law is also not enforced in NYC.
Wonder if a rival studio is behind the complaints? This is the kind of story and reporting that I depend on the Rag for.
The guy who wrote DONE all over the neighborhood spent a night in lockup. Why do they get to just clean it up and move on like nothing happened.
Keep reporting them. I reported ATT sidewalk advertising to Gayle Brewer’s office and the sidewalk was clean the next day.
Gail Brewer’s office responded in a timely manner? Will miracles (low-hanging fruit matters) ever cease? Now let’s get her to move on important, life-threatening, issues on the UWS.
Move it or lose it (like an election).
SLT-shaming!?
Does that mean we can report hans honchar? His sidewalk ramblings are getting political again at 72nd bet West End and Broadway/Amsterdam.
By all means. During the pandemic, someone was parking their motorcycle – no license plate, naturally – in the Amsterdam bike lane (and egregiously so – right in the green paint) in the high W70s. I reported it to 311, with photos. five separate times. Each time indicating, I’m going to keep reporting this until you enforce the law. Each time creating evidence that the law is being broken and nothing is being done.
After the fifth time, the motorcyle was moved across the street. Also illegally parked. But not in a bike lane. Worked for me, for then.
SLT should be fined. As for the “this is a small problem” commenters, ever hear of tragedy of the commons? If you let people abuse the commons, they will destroy it.
He brings the homeless guys in the area food and drinks. There are so many issues in this neighborhood. Why is anyone angry about sidewalk chalk?!
re: chalk
The UWS neighborhood is a showcase of defining deviancy down,.
(The late politician and sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined the phrase “defining deviancy down” to describe the tendency of societies to respond to destructive behaviors by lowering standards for what is permissible)
I’d think that getting him indicted for this might be harder since it’s both art and constitutionally protected speech. The SLT stuff is clearly profit driven and commercial.
Hans does commercial advertising on the sidewalks in front of West 72nd St. businesses. And he is often on meth. Not that that’s a crime anymore but he does a lot of yelling when he’s on it.
I believe possession and use of meth is still a crime in NYC and NY State.
Writing political rants in chalk on city property is not constitutionally protected speech.
I’m down for that. YES.
Please also get rid of all the billboards on the West Side Highway in the 120’s and 130’s that block views and look ugly.
How would that work? The billboards are on private property and being dozens of feet up in the air, as they are, it might be a stretch to say that they’re violating the statute cited in the article.
Of all things to worry about in this day and age.
I’m pretty sure vandalism is something to worry about in any “day and age.” You realize that’s public property and that they didn’t pay for this “advertising” right? I’m wondering if you might feel different if there were a Coke or Citibank sidewalk advertisement spray painted in front of your building?
Lastly what type of business tries to ingratiate themselves into the neighborhood by defacing the neighborhood’s public property?
If you’re commenting here, this marketing campaign did its job. Generated buzz with a very low ad spend.
Yes. Buzz so that we know never to go to SLT, right? Tons of other pilates places to hit that don’t leave even more trash on UWS sidewalks.
One nitpick: It’s a QR code, not a bar code.
i agree that sidewalk drawings are destroying public property, but not nearly as harmful as e-skooters, bikes and shoplifting.
If placing posters on public property is illegal in NYC, what has been done to hold accountable
those responsible for the ubiquitous Missing or Murdered posters displaying images of the victims of October 7th? The events of that day were horrific, but nonetheless the public spaces in our city should not serve as billboards for any cause or product.
But ten thousand missing Israeli posters are not a problem.
So glad to see the Rag reporting on this! Vandalism is illegal and prosecuted all the time in NYC – but the law goes out the window when it’s a corporation instead of a less powerful individual. Why is the law applied unequally? It’s a slippery slope to excuse corporate vandalism.
Wow. I’m so happy people spoke up about this. We don’t need this type of corporate vandalism in our neighborhood. There are so many small businesses on the UWS who don’t vandalize the sidewalks for business. It’s inspiring to see our community members step up to keep our public places clean. These sort of efforts may seem small but they’re helping maintain the charm of our neighborhood.
SLT: Sidewalk Leave Trash. Just imagine the marketing meeting where they thought this was a good idea. “Yeah, someone else will clean up after us SIX months later.”