Every wall. Every permit. By state.

Property ownership is where every campaign starts. Written permission from the building owner is what separates a legal install from trespass, and on most walls in most cities it is the whole of what the law asks for. It is not the whole of it everywhere, and the places where it is not are the ones worth knowing. Los Angeles treats a pasted paper sign as a temporary sign: a building permit is required, the sign comes down within 30 days, and installation cannot exceed 90 days in a calendar year (LAMC 14.4.16). San Francisco prohibits all new general advertising signs anywhere in the city (Planning Code §611). Massachusetts puts signs on private property within public view of a highway, park or reservation under the Outdoor Advertising Board (MGL c. 93 §29). Owner consent is necessary everywhere. It is sufficient in most places, not all of them, which is why the permit check runs per market rather than per state.

Public infrastructure is a different matter. Utility poles, transit shelters, city-owned walls, bus benches, and light-standard poles are owned by municipalities, transit authorities, or utility companies. Posting on these surfaces without authorization is prohibited in every market we work in, and the published penalties are set per offense rather than per poster: New York runs $75 to $250 plus the cost of removal (Admin. Code §10-121), Los Angeles escalates from $100 to $250 to $500 inside one calendar year and charges a fourth violation as a misdemeanor (LAMC 28.04), Houston runs $300 to $500 per violation (Code §§28-38, 28-39), and Chicago runs $200 to $1,000 per offense plus repair costs (Code §10-8-320). Chicago and New York both presume that the business named on the poster did the posting, so the brand is exposed alongside the installer. Beyond Street Media does not post on any public or utility-owned surface under any circumstances.

Four states go much further than the rest: Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, and Alaska. These are usually described as billboard bans, and that description undersells them. Hawaii bars displaying any outdoor advertising device, a term its own definition extends to a sign, poster, notice or bill read by people in a public highway, park or other public place (HRS §§445-111, 445-112). Vermont bars erecting or maintaining outdoor advertising visible to the travelling public (10 V.S.A. §488). Maine bars signs visible to the traveling public from a public way (23 M.R.S. §1908). Each statute carries its own list of exceptions, mostly on-premises and informational. A paper poster on a private wall is not automatically outside these laws the way it sits outside a federal-aid highway rule, so briefs in those four states get read against the state statute first.

Local Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) add a layer in some cities, but not a legal one. A BID is not a permitting authority. What it can do is set conditions through its own agreements with member property owners, so a wall that clears city code can still be off limits because the landlord's agreement says so. We treat BID and landlord conditions as contract terms and confirm them in writing alongside the owner consent.