Hartford Mayor Clashes With Prominent Law Firm Over Sidewalk Ads

HARTFORD, CT — Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he directed police to cite a law firm after advertisements appeared on city sidewalks without authorization, prompting the firm to defend the campaign as an effort to draw attention to road safety.

Arulampalam said Wednesday, Aug. 12, that Trantolo & Trantolo had sprayed advertisements on sidewalks around Hartford the previous day.

"Yesterday, a law firm sprayed advertisements on city sidewalks around Hartford," Arulampalam said in a social media statement. "Today, I directed the police department to cite the law firm for advertising on public property without authorization."

The mayor compared the markings to graffiti and said the firm should be subject to the same rules as other residents.

"If a young person did this in the City of Hartford, we would call it graffiti, and I don't believe that a law firm should be treated any differently," Arulampalam said.

Trantolo & Trantolo responded Wednesday, saying the sidewalk markings were part of a campaign intended to highlight road safety issues in Hartford and Connecticut.

The firm said it worked with an outdoor advertising company to place temporary stencils in Hartford and West Hartford featuring local and statewide traffic safety statistics.

According to the firm, the stencils were created using either power washing or temporary chalk, rather than spray paint, and were intended to be temporary.

The firm said it had planned to remove remaining chalk markings at the end of the campaign but accelerated their removal after concerns were raised.

"Our goal was, and remains, to draw attention to the very real safety challenges facing pedestrians, motorcyclists, drivers and families throughout our community," Trantolo & Trantolo Chief Executive Officer Scott Trantolo said in a statement.

"If a temporary message on a sidewalk gets people talking about how we can make Hartford and Connecticut roads safer, then we believe it has started an important conversation," Trantolo said. "The chalk will disappear. The need for safer roads will not."

The firm said its campaign highlighted statistics including 24,468 crashes at Hartford intersections over the past 10 years, 633 pedestrians struck in Hartford over the past five years and 12,418 motorcycle crashes in Connecticut over the past decade. The sources for those figures were not included in the material provided.

The mayor's statement did not specify the citation or potential penalty the firm would face.

To see several videos from Trantolo & Trantolo regarding the campaign, click on this link.