Whose Streets? Our Streets!

Spreading messages on paper signs posted in public is a grand tradition that has been affirmed by our nation’s founders and carried on for generations since. In fact the right to post signs on public streets has been preserved in our Nation’s Capital in laws specifically protecting this fundamental free speech activity. That means that placing your message on a street lamp post base using cheap wheatpaste glue is a safe, effective, and legal way to display opposition to destructive government policies built upon lies. These are our streets after all. Those of us who live in the District of Columbia and pay taxes are deprived of representation in our government. One recompense is that we have the opportunity speak up in close proximity to government officials in a way a few others can.

The right message in the right place can make a difference. We don’t need advertising dollars or domination of online platforms. All it takes is flour, water, paper, and a determination to speak the truth in public.

Here are some resources to get started:

DC Regulation 24-108 text here.

DC Police 2025 General Order on “Illegal Signs” gives protections for placing non-commercial signs on lampposts.

Washington Post article on signs marking ICE activity.

Patrick Young of Re:Action published a comprehensive review in 2023 of his group’s experience posting signs in DC, “We Wheatpasted Ten Thousand Posters Around DC This Year. Here’s What We Learned.”

Instructables article on “How to make wheatpaste”

WTOP article on EMPATHY signs in DC

A federal judge ordered DC to relax restrictions on lamppost signs in 2011.

A Circuit Court panel affirmed DC’s current regulation in 2017.