New NYC Council Bill Tackles ‘Ugly’ Newspaper Boxes on Sidewalks

By: Benyamin Davidsons

The New York City council approved a new bill on Wednesday that aims at better maintenance for the often broken and littered newspaper boxes on sidewalks across the city. As reported by the NY Post, the legislation requires the owners of the boxes to display their contact information – including name, telephone number and address on a “readily visible” surface – so that anyone can contact them to report disrepair, which was called “ugly” and a “public nuisance.

Also, the bill will give the city Department of Transportation – which already regulates the news racks – the authority to conform a uniform size, shape and material for the plastic and metal news boxes. “We love convenient access to favorite local publications, but we don’t love it when the news racks are

broken, abandoned, filthy or tipped over,” said City Council Member Erik Bottcher, (D-Manhattan) the bill’s sponsor, who represents Chelsea & Hell’s Kitchen. “Our legislation will establish clear guidelines and help ensure that our local publications get to maintain their news racks while also helping to alleviate sidewalk congestion.”

All the news racks are already registered with the DOT to distribute printed material and must maintain a commercial insurance policy, the agency’s website says. The new bill, Known as Intro 663, seeks to effectively ban commercial entities other than news organizations from advertising or placing ads onto the news boxes. It will also ensure that the new the standards are communicated to the publishers of the various foreign-language periodicals distributed, via the DOT and the Mayor’s Office of Ethnic and Community Media.

“Newsracks, which are such a familiar part of our cityscape, are crucial for ensuring that people can pick up the latest publications,” City Council Member Sandra Ung (D-Queens) said in a statement. “But without proper oversight, we’ve also seen that these news racks can fall into neglect and become a blight on our neighborhoods.” Maintenance worker Casito Torres told The Post “the boxes would look good if they were maintained” better. “I think it looks really nice when the newspapers are all in it and the paint is nice,” Torres said. “I sometimes wipe them down when I pass by and see they’re dirty. They sometimes look horrible, they can look so ugly. I hope they follow through.”

Business improvement districts lauded the bill. Tom Harris, the President of Times Square Alliance, said his organization is “proud to support” the bill “which recognizes the importance of imposing standards on newsracks which are too often a blight on our precious and limited sidewalk space.” Chelsea Greenspan, the President of the Council of Chelsea Block Associations said: “I just want to thank Eric Bottcher for paying attention to the smaller details that really affect our quality of life. These little

things add up to big things, and makes it bigger for everyone.”

Some residents said they would rather see the newsboxes go altogether. NYU graduate student Elianne Del Campo, who studies in part of Bottcher’s Greenwich Village district said she’d rather see the newsracks gone. “I remember seeing lots of those colorful boxes that were pretty beat up, especially around here because there’s a lot of smaller newspapers,” she told the Post. “Now that I think about it, I haven’t been seeing them recently,” Del Campo added.