The Resident

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NEWS RACKS FACE CITY ATTEMPTS TO COMBAT 'BLIGHT'

Council to consider new modular units

By Stephen Baxter

New newspaper boxes may be banned from downtown San Jose as part of a proposal to replace rows of worn racks with tidier modular boxes.

San Jose Redevelopment Agency officials have floated the proposal to representatives of more than 10 daily and weekly publications in the city, and the city council is set to consider a plan on Aug. 12. If the council approves the plan, a freeze on new news racks would begin in the downtown core from E. Julian and N. Fourth streets to Interstate 280 and Highway 87, and modular racks would replace a few dozen boxes on four key street corners in a two-year pilot program.

Edith Ramirez, senior development officer for the redevelopment agency, said the project is part of a larger effort to beautify downtown and clear sidewalks for people to walk. If the plan is successful it could expand to the rest of downtown.

One of the corners slated for a modular news rack is the southeast corner of Market and Santa Clara streets, which likely has the largest concentration of news boxes in the city--many of them damaged.

"It not only creates visual blight but also creates a barrier for pedestrians," Ramirez said. The "poor maintenance" of the racks is also an issue, she said.

The other areas are on S. Second Street and Paseo de San Antonio, San Carlos and S. First streets, and on the northeast corner of city hall plaza on E. Santa Clara Street.

On May 20, San Jose redevelopment officials discussed the proposal with representatives from 11 publications--from USA Today and the San Jose Mercury News to Auto Finder and Fugitive Watch. There are more than 60 publications on San Jose streets.

The publishers indicated tentative support for the plan, and they said the publishers' group could purchase, install and maintain the new racks in the pilot program in part to control the coin boxes. Advertising generally supports newspapers' bottom line far more than from collecting coins from news racks or from subscriptions.

Redevelopment officials are trying carefully not to tread on the First Amendment or free speech rulings that have limited cities from restricting information. Other cities such as Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, San Francisco and Burlingame have set up uniform news racks on some sidewalks.

The Rose Garden Resident and other Silicon Valley Community Newspapers will continue to be available in front of the tower at San Jose City Hall at 200 E. Santa Clara St.

David Cohen, publisher of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, said that the group's newspapers are mainly home delivered in San Jose and its circulation would not be touched by the proposed change.

"I do feel strongly that newspapers should be available," Cohen said. "The city should not be in the business of curtailing information," he said.

Other newspaper publishers had mixed feelings.

Dan Pulcrano, CEO of Metro Newspapers, said he was glad the city expressed a desire to address the concerns of the city's free and paid publications.

Metro newspaper boxes are painted bright red, and Pulcrano indicated that a standard, dark blue modular box like the sample box in front of city hall could make it harder for readers to find his paper. Newspaper logo stickers may be added to some of the modular boxes, but details have not yet been decided.

"We don't want to disappear from the streetscape inside bland boxes," Pulcrano said in an e-mail. "If clumsily executed, the program could do damage to some publications-- and the businesses whose economic success is linked to them," he said.

Several San Jose publications written in Spanish, Vietnamese or a mix of languages would be affected by the proposal.

Frank Andrade publishes La Oferta with his wife, and they own 404 green-and-white news racks in San Jose. He said that unifying and organizing the racks is a good idea.

Boxes are hard to maintain because they get covered with stickers, etchings and paint-pen tags. Workers use solvent to scrub markings from the plastic faces, and they become blurry and must be replaced.

Andrade's racks cost at least $150 each, and they are sometimes stolen even though recyclers pay next to nothing for their metal.

"They're going to get graffiti too, you know," Andrade said of the new pedestal racks. "Just because they're new and uniform, there's still going to be some idiot graffiti-ing them ... they think they're artists," Andrade said.

He added that because many newspapers are struggling financially, the city ought to consider carefully the costs of any changes for local newspapers.

"They should be lenient in that respect. Our paper is 100 percent San Jose. We don't publish anywhere else," Andrade said.