Hundreds of Complaints Flood In About New York Store Signs, but From Whom?

The calls to 311 started to pick up steam about a year ago. They were complaints about an arcane New York City statute requiring special permits for businesses to hang signs or awnings larger than six square feet. The caller — or callers — was clearly targeting certain commercial strips, making complaints in batches, as on Nov. 26, when calls came in reporting 25 businesses along a two-block stretch of Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The businesses did not have a license for their signs, the complaints said.