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The torn, tattered and graffiti-filled newspaper boxes that often line the Big Apple’s sidewalks will soon be yesterday’s news — thanks to a new City Council bill approved Wednesday that aims to clean up the “public nuisance.”
The law requires the owners of the boxes to display their contact information – including name, telephone number and address – so passersby can quickly report their damage.
City Council Member Eric Bottcher (D-Manhattan), the bill’s sponsor, said, “We love convenient access to favorite local publications, but we don’t like it when newstracks are broken, discarded, dirty or overturned.” “Our legislation will establish clear guidelines and help ensure our local publications can maintain their newstracks while also reducing sidewalk congestion.”
In addition to displaying contact information, the legislation would also grant the city’s Department of Transportation — which already regulates Newstrack — the authority to set size, shape and material standards for both plastic and metal.
According to the agency’s website, all Newsracks are registered with the DOT to distribute printed materials and maintain a commercial insurance policy.
Under this new provision, the DOT will also work with the Mayor’s Office of Ethnic and Community Media to ensure that publishers of Newstrack – often free magazines in a language other than English – are notified of the changes.
“Newstrack, a familiar part of our downtown landscape, is vital to ensuring people can pick up the latest publications,” City Council Member Sandra Ung (D-Queens) said in a statement. “But without proper oversight, we have also seen that these newstracks can fall victim to neglect and become a blight on our neighborhoods.”
“If the boxes were better maintained, they would look better,” maintenance worker Caseto Torres told The Post.
“I think it looks really nice when it’s all newspaper and the paint is nice,” Torres said.
“Sometimes when I pass by and see that they are dirty I wipe them. They sometimes look terrible, they can seem very ugly. I hope they will follow it.”
Others in Greenwich Village, part of the Bottcher District, suggested that Newstracks were better off as a relic of the past.
“I remember seeing a lot of colorful boxes that were quite dilapidated, especially here because there are a lot of small newspapers here,” NYU graduate student Elian del Campo told The Post.
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t been seeing them much lately,” del Campo said. “I think I like it better now: They were kind of an eyesore and now we don’t have to avoid them on the sidewalks.”
Greenwich Village resident Yoshi Okuba, seen walking his dog near a newsbox, echoed del Campo’s comments.
“They are unnecessary,” Okuba said. “Although I don’t think the bill is meaningless, I think they (the boxes) should be moved.”
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