Honor boxes may become endangered

The Department of Licenses and Inspections has placed orange tags on dozens of Center City honor boxes as it looks to enforce a little-known law.

Under city code, newspaper and magazine publishers are required to keep their honor boxes clean and free of graffiti. L&I usually only responds to complaints, but this year officers went out and tagged boxes that were not in compliance.

L&I Commissioner Fran Burns said the department has tagged nearly 70 boxes in the past two months. “We’ve only removed three honor boxes over last three weeks, so what we do anticipate is that the owners of the honor boxes will either clean them or clear them.”

Owners officially have seven days to take action, Burns said, but noted that officers re-inspect the boxes after about 30 days to ensure compliance. She said some of them have already been cleaned or replaced.