Curb Your Enthusiasm: Painting Not Authorized By City

You may be confused if you recently found a very official looking notice taped to your door or mailbox advising that - for the sum of $30 - you can have your home address painted on your curb.

Titled, "ORINDA NOTICE" in large black letters, it offers to paint your address in black numerals on a reflective white background, using "approved city traffic paint," as "highly recommended by First Responders." At the bottom is a number to call or text to order the service, and you only pay after the job is completed.

The little, 5- by-7 inch flyer does not identify who is making the offer, but it does leave the impression that the City of Orinda is somehow involved.

It is not.

It turns out the notices were distributed by Curb Appeal Addressing, a private company that has been in the business since 2001. (At one time in Orinda, this service was apparently provided by local Boy Scouts as a fundraiser, but that era seems to have passed into history.) Aaron Israel of the company emphasizes that you will not have to pay until you are completely satisfied with the result.

The bad news is that the curb painting in Orinda is not being done under any City of Orinda authority, and nobody in the city government seems to have heard of Curb Appeal or what it is doing. Consequently, Israel admits that there is no coordination of its work with the city's street repaving program, as surprised Ivy Drive residents recently discovered.

The company has a business license, but is not licensed to solicit in Orinda, according to an Orinda Police Department spokesperson. In order for the company to run afoul of the licensing law, the police would have to catch the culprits in the act of distributing the flyers, and there are no resources for that unless a resident calls to report the activity in progress.

Contracting for the service is not illegal, so if you have done so, you can rest easy. You will not have to paint over your bright new address number, nor will you receive a visit from the authorities.



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