Atlanta homeowners declare war on AJC Reach

I’ve been sitting on this for a little while, largely because it seemed as if bigger things were going on in the world. But now that other media have picked up on the story, it’s time to let the truth be told!

And the truth is, Atlanta homeowners hate them some AJC Reach.

What’s the Reach, you ask? Well, it’s a bunch of ad circulars tucked into a plastic sleeve and dropped in your lawn. Or driveway. Or the sidewalk in front of your house. More about the placement in a moment.

The AJC has been doing this since late December. And for nearly that long, city officials have been getting calls from people upset about the plastic bags littering their streets and vacant lots.

“I’ve been inundated with complaints about it,” says Councilwoman Carla Smith, who represents a chunk of southeast Atlanta.

A new website, StopAJCReach.org, is devoted to, well, stopping the AJC from throwing the ad circulars in yards. It even advocates boycotting Reach advertisers. There’s also a related Facebook page, AJC Reach: Stop Littering Our Neighborhoods!, with more than 380 members. And if you Google “AJC Reach,” nearly every link that appears is complaint-related. (The only one that that’s not is a link to an AJC site where you can buy an ad in the Reach.)