| THERE'S AN IDEA: News Sensation
THE IDEA: Instead of a newspaper honor box for every publication under the sun, cities such as Pittsburgh, New York and San Francisco, use bigger, more aesthetically pleasing structures that hold several different newspapers. These contraptions, called news condos, or news racks cut urban clutter. WHY BOSTON NEEDS IT: Look around the outside of any of the major T stops. There are often so many different colored honor boxes huddled together that they look like multicolored mini recreations of Stonehenge. Some are chained to lampposts at different angles than their neighbors, many are uglied by graffiti, and others look like they have been used for kickboxing practice. “They’re just not visually attractive and there’s a lot of them,” says Chobee Hoy, president of Brookline Chamber of Commerce, who was in talks with NYC-based CityRax a few years ago to install news condos throughout the town, but the Chamber didn’t have the budget necessary to make the it happen. Kathy Kahng, principle of CityRax says each news condo can cost up to $5,000, with annual maintenance and management costing up to $1,000. PROBABILITY: Boston is already thinking outside the box, according to Peter O’ Sullivan, director of Boston’s Coordinated Street Furniture Program. Those high costs will be absorbed by Wall, USA, who has a 20-year franchise agreement to install and maintain the program, which also includes bus shelters and public toilets. Wall will sell high-end advertising on the exteriors of the news condos. O’ Sullivan says Street Furniture programmers are scouting locations now, and looking to begin installation around the city by next year. The only obstacle they might face is the reluctance on the part of publications to participate. Dan Biederman, president of NYC’s 34th Street Partnership, says when his group initiated the concept 10 years ago, they faced a lot of legal hassles from newspapers who preferred the color recognition their stand-alone boxes had garnered. O’Sullivan seems prepared. “There are thousands of single boxes throughout the city,” he says. “And people know that the Globe is green, the Herald is yellow and USA Today is white. The condos take away individuality, but it’s a cleaner, more organized structure.” Patrick Gerard HealyBack |
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