April 2007 — Several California Municipalities Consider Newsrack Ordinances

On January 1, 2007, a state law went into effect making it illegal to take more than 25 copies of a free newspaper to recycle, trade or sell it, to deprive individuals of the opportunity to read it, or to ruin a business competitor's ad campaign. Newspaper theft will now carry a maximum $250 fine for first-time offenders and up to a $500 fine with possibility of jail time for second-time offenses. On Sept. 11, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 2612, which was authored by Assembly Minority Leader George Plescia of San Diego 's 75th district.

In April 2007, members of the Coalition for L.A. 's Enforcement Applied to Newsracks (CLEAN), originally formed in 2003, testified before the City Council's Public Works Committee on reported slow progress made toward clean-up and enforcement of a newsrack ordinance adopted by the City Council in November 2004. That ordinance requires newsracks to have a uniform size, material, and Ivy Green color. It also requires that no more than four racks be placed adjacent to each other, with each grouping separated by 48 inches and no more than 16 newsracks within 200 feet of the same block face, with certain exceptions. At the Committee hearing, as reported by CityWatchLA , a representative of the Bureau of Street Services Investigation & Enforcement Division described progress made in the San Fernando Valley region in securing permits and re-seeding newsracks, and adding that West L.A. was slated next with the entire Los Angeles region expected to be re-seeded within three years. Citizens were told to call 311 to report hazardous or dilapidated newsracks. According to CityWatchLA, there are 23,500 permitted newsracks in Los Angeles .

In Palm Springs , city officials sent letters to publishers informing them of a new newsrack ordinance that passed the City Council in January 2006. The letter enclosed an application for a newsrack permit, which requires an annual $5 fee for each newsrack. The ordinance limits the size of newsracks throughout the city, but in the downtown region it also limits their color to gloss white on all sides with a gloss black pedestal. The ordinance permits newsracks in only 20 downtown locations, “with no more than six different publications in one location, divided into two groups, with a maximum of three newsracks in each group,” according to the City of Palm Springs E-Newsletter for October 2006. According to the newsletter, code enforcement officers tagged more than 250 newsracks where the publisher did not apply for a permit or otherwise violated the ordinance, and newsracks without permit applications “were picked up by street department crews and impounded for up to 30 days.”

On January 24, 2007, a Report of the City of San Diego presented the City Council with recommendations of the Housing and Land Use Committee to amend the city newsrack ordinance, first established in 1974 and later amended in 1996. On February 20, 2007, the City Council adopted the amendments, which require distributors to obtain a newsrack permit for an annual $10 fee and to adequately insure and maintain newsracks for public health, safety and welfare. Distributors will be required to document maintenance for each newsrack, to be made available to the City upon request. Required will be maintenance to remove trash, graffiti, stickers and dents; height restrictions to meet disabled access; publisher and distributor sidewalk repair when a rack is removed; weather protection “to ensure publications do not get wet or fly out …during rainy or windy conditions”; and guidelines for when a rack should be considered abandoned and slated for removal. The report noted the balance of constitutionally protected rights of free speech and press with reasonable time, place and manner regulations, and cited NAA's website newsrack summary “of other jurisdiction activity with respect to similar regulations.” The report discussed public concern with uncontrolled proliferation and lack of maintenance of newsracks, and publisher concern with red-curb restrictions and six-foot rights-of-way that exceeded disabled access standards. In the final San Diego proposal, the free travel path was reduced to four feet, and racks were allowed near red curbs and within six inches of curbs where no stopping, standing or parking is allowed. Publishers must provide proof of insurance and a “hold harmless agreement subject to approval by the City Attorney indemnifying the City from liability associated with” newsracks. Special provisions were made for the Gaslamp District, because of its historic designation and “location between the Ballpark, Convention Center, and Downtown [with] higher densities of pedestrians and vehicular traffic.” Publishers agreed to 10 locations in the Gaslamp where each “corral” would accommodate up to eight racks, and agreed to pay costs and maintenance and a permit process to determine what newspapers are in corrals. According to the La Jolla Village News , the Task Force that helped shape the ordinance included newspaper distributors and 12 publishers, including the San Diego Union Tribune ; Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, San Diego Reader, Military Press, Gay & Lesbian Times, Learning Annex, and Showgirls. The Village News reported that the Union-Tribune has 1,094 newsracks in the city, the Los Angeles Times 650, USA Today 167, the Wall Street Journal 100, and the San Diego Community Newspaper Group 123.

On February 1, 2007, federal prosecutors announced that they were considering suing Paramount Pictures and the Los Angeles Times for a promotion in April 2006 to support the May 5 opening of "Mission: Impossible III." The Times reported that it received a letter in January from an assistant U.S. attorney stating that her office intended to sue both companies but was willing to discuss settlement. The studio and newspaper had par tnered to create 4,500 "singing" newsracks throughout Los Angeles as part of a print, online and point-of-purchase campaign. Equipped with electronic sound boxes, the racks played the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when opened, but in some cases the red plastic sound boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and fell onto the stacks of newspapers inside. The arson squad was called in twice and blew up one newsrack in Santa Carita, mistaking the device for a bomb. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West LA was evacuated for 90 minutes after one person reported a six-inch long red plastic box attached to the newsrack by wires.

First Published:
August 07, 2007