July 26, 2007
Calling All Dirty News Rack Documentarians
The much vaunted non-profit that seriously opposed the Atlantic Yards has a new enemy. Today the Municipal Art Society announced that, tired of decrepit and ugly news racks, it is launching a new campaign to eliminate the city of every last stinkin' one of them.
Claiming that inhabitants of other world class cities like Paris and London do not tolerate such rattiness in their streets, MAS is asking the public to help document the worst offenders by sending photographs to newsrack@mas.org. Don't hold back. The organization wants the "dirtiest, most unkempt, most repulsive" ones you can find in the five boroughs. Include cross-street details, people! There's even a prize for the winning photo: a $100 gift certificate to Urban Center Books on Madison Ave. at 51st St.
While news racks are illegal if they are within 15 feet of a hydrant, in a bus stop and within 5 feet of a corner area, among other rules, MAS wants elected officials to regulate them even more stringently!
While we admire much of MAS' work for the city and we know this is a media-obsessed kind of place, we wonder about this preoccupation with news racks. Is it so bad if a teensy, little ugliness on city streets remains in the '00s? And is increased government regulation of news racks really a fight MAS should spend its time fighting?
To get a sense of what might replace the so-called eyesores, check out the "modular distribution box" that hit the streets of Park Slope in May.
Photograph courtesy of the Municipal Art Society
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Christ, how homogenous is this city going to get?? Last time I checked, New York was New York, NOT Paris.
I've seen a streamlined fancy schmancy version (better looking than the Park Slope modular) uptown on Madison Ave. Sorry no photo for ya.
How am I going to get my weekly copy of The Onion? You know... besides online.
On the "things that bother me about New York's sidewalks" list I would put dirty news racks way, way below things like "covered in dog piss," "full of obnoxious sidewalk cafes," and "home of a million people who walk too slowly, come to abrupt stops for no apparent reason, walk directly in the middle of what should be a two-person space, and otherwise get in my way!"
I have to agree with you #4 there are just too many ugly people walking around and gathering at street corners waiting for the light to change. MAS should do something about this. Ugly people should only come out at night and stay away from intersections.
WOW $100 award for best picture. Talk about a reason to document this visual plague. How about sponsoring a contest for a better solution with top prize being about $10,000? Then maybe one might see some hidden talent show up with interesting solutions.
Easily the worst thing about NYC sidewalks is people with umbrellas. I'm not talking about during a downpour, I'm talking about people who open up giant golf umbrellas at the slightest sprinkle. It's only water, people.
Viva newspaper holders! Long live filth.
They don't really bother me that much.
I like being able to grab an occasional Voice or Onion. They are not well maintained and tend to get filthy and plastered with crap. The MAS campaign to enforce regulations to stop plastering every possible square inch of wall and construction bridges with advertising is a better effort on their part.
For those of you not wanting to venture to Park Slope, there's one of those newfangled racks in front of the Union Square Barnes & Noble, or somewhere in that general vicinity.
Claiming that inhabitants of other world class cities like Paris and London do not tolerate such rattiness in their streets...
So fucking move there and leave us alone.
BS.
London is chock full of free magazine and newspaper racks.
Same ugliness, but in a most British manner.
Just not on every damned corner.
El Especialito, anyone?
#11, I totally prefer Hoy Nueva York, personally.
"While news racks are illegal if they are within 15 feet of a hydrant" - Ha ha!! Look what the news racks are next to in the picture at the top of this article.
If U want to get rid of all of those news racks, Try starting at the very source of the problem . Sure it's convenient to blame the distributors for all the clutter . Some of that blame has to extend to the group of people in this city that respond to those questionnaires in some cases requesting the news rack to be placed in there neighborhood . I've seen the "Village Voice" popping up on corners of Jamaica Center starting about a year and a half ago . When I saw the first rack, I thought, It was a mistake and didn't pay it much mind . Then there was another down near [141]pl., That got me to thinking who out here reads this rag ? Turns out all those racks were full because nobody was reading the "Village Voice" in that area . I agree with "MAS" but I think that all of those racks should be moved to a central location say a shopping area instead of residential area's Posted by; "Still Not Amused"
The "modular distribution box" design is far worse than these which have character.
Go focus on assholes from Cleveland who buy basketball teams as a cloak for a massive luxury condo project.
how can anyone object to MAS's efforts here?
those things are hideous
o, right, they supposedly add to the artificial authentic gritty new york fantasy that all you hicks dreamt about before moving here.
nyc used to have class...a lot of class
MAS is a bunch of fools! In London instead of handing out free newspapers in these boxes, they have actual humans do it. Kind of like the guys who give you AMNY at the subway station entrance, except these dudes are standing in the middle of the sidewalk causing even more of a headache to walk around. I'll pass on that kind of resolution, thanks. There are already enough tourists stopping in the most inconvenient places to gawk at a building over five stories high and midwesterners-turned-New Yorkers who haven't spent enough time outside of a car to know the proper speed one must walk at in NYC.
#16 - People bitch about anything that makes the streets look cleaner and nicer. It's homogenizing the city! We like our NY rough and tough, Taxi Driver-style! Heroin addicts dying in the streets! THAT'S reality!
i hope they replace those boxes with clean slate for people to graffiti.
who's going to pay and upkeep the new ones? Anyone know how the new boxes in Park slope look after a few months of use?
MAS has been on this for awhile. I agree, it's not high on the pressing issues list, but they are nasty. And by nasty I mean they are a magnet for gross crap and trash.
And they take up room that could otherwise be used for passing someone.
this may not be embraced by everyone, but MAS rocks...
I don't understand why there are still so many coin-op newspaper machines in front of bodegas that have no papers, just a sign saying the paper is available inside the bodega. If you're not going to use the machine to vend papers then get rid of it.
It says the boxes have a graffiti-proof surface, and sloping top so people cannot put crap on top.
People will just put crap on the sidewalk though, as they do at the bus stop in front of my old apt. in Brooklyn. Can't take the trash with you? Just leave it in front of my door! I'll take care of it!
I hate the news racks just because they make it harder to jaywalk in the middle of the block. ;-p
As far as I'm aware (from a check throughout my walk on the streets yesterday) very few of these boxes are pay-per-read mags. They're, by and large, the free rags that are published in this city which the MAS is targeting in this vicious campaign.
With the exception of the Village Voice, these news boxes are necessary to get free publications distributed, since few vendors are going to waste space on their racks with free magazines, when they need to make space for the ones they're trying to sell.
If you think newsracks are a big problem in this city, you need to take a walk and look around. My suggestion? For a start, get some trees to line the streets in areas where the concrete bakes in summer. *That* would be civic-minded.