Post Office Flouts City Law, Too By Ronald Drenger The website of Van Wagner Communications, which specializes in outdoor ads, promotes a wide selection of walls, construction sites, phone booths, buses and billboards that are available to advertisers. Among them is the south wall of the Peck Slip Station post office, between South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge, where the company has secured a prominent spot for a 27-by-60-foot sign.   “There is little or no outdoor advertising in this area,” the website boasts. “In fact, the closest big outdoor [sign] is located on Broadway and Canal Street, quite a distance away.” The reason there are no other outdoor ads in the area is not mentioned: they’re illegal. Under zoning regulations, the post office building is inside the South Street Seaport Historic District, the Special Lower Manhattan District, and a commercial district, all of which prohibit such signs. But the building itself, because it is federal government property, is exempt from these city rules, and in recent months a Hollywood studio, a car company and a bank have shouted their slogans from its brick facade. The post office is not exempt, however, from residents’ complaints, which have piled up since the wall was first made available to advertisers earlier this year. “It’s an eyesore in a landmarked area,” said Una Perkins, a Community Board 1 member who lives across the street at 299 Pearl Street, in the Southbridge Towers complex. “It’s awful that a government agency would flout a law that they expect everyone else to uphold,” said Judy Duffy, CB1’s assistant district manager, who has fielded complaints. “Maintaining the integrity of historic districts is important to this community.” Some residents were particularly incensed when bright lights were added to the sign in late October, forcing them to lower their blinds at night. After receiving calls from Duffy and a letter from Rep. Jerrold Nadler last month, the U.S. Postal Service and Van Wagner, the sign company, agreed to turn off the lights every night at 10 p.m. “That helps a little, but they need to take it down altogether, said Perkins.” Pat McGovern, a Postal Service spokeswoman, said that Van Wagner selected the sign’s location as part of a program the company manages that places ads on postal assets such as delivery trucks, mailboxes, post office lobbies and mail packaging. The sign generates revenue for the Postal Service and “is not in violation of any applicable laws,” she said, and the contract with Van Wagner runs for several years. “We need to live up to our legal obligations, but we also want to work with the community,” she said, referring to the agreement on the lights. Ads for alcohol, tobacco and obscene materials are not allowed, she added. Paul Whitby, senior vice president at Van Wagner, said that his company had been responsive to the community’s main complaint. “We thought if we turn off the lights at ten, it should make people happy,” he said. But he dismissed suggestions that the sign be removed. “If you went to any particular sign in the city and asked, ‘Does anybody want this sign taken down?’ somebody would raise their hand,” he said. “We’re not talking about taking a historic building and defacing it.”