No New Newspapers, Part II

Poor Richard’s Almanac would have a tough time finding a place on Philadelphia’s streets today. So would Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Or a contemporary, photocopied zine.

Any periodical -- small or large -- that doesn't fit into a standard Inky/DN news box could effectively be kept off the streets as a consequence of a 1999 ordinance that the city may soon start enforcing, an ordinance that the two papers helped draft.

Among other things, the bill defines what are acceptable "boxes for the distribution of printed material." If it's strictly enforced, primarily only Inquirer, Daily News and USA Today boxes would be allowed on the streets.

Boxes made of reinforced plastic and even many free-paper boxes made of metal -- such as City Paper, Philadelphia Weekly and the Metro -- don't fit the code either because of the materials or because they're not heavy enough. Enforcement would bring about what is arguably the most profound change in the landscape of periodical literature in city history. Every news box of every periodical will be registered, permitted and taxed by L&I who, along with the Streets Department and the Center City District, will determine whose boxes go where, if they can go anywhere at all.

It's unlikely that free-weekly boxes will disappear, since their representatives helped draft the ordinance, but scores of oddball boxes with information about classes, rock bands, socialism or religion will be prohibited. Non-daily boxes that do pass muster will be moved from corners to mid-block. (As of Monday afternoon, the plan was put on hold as a mayoral spokesperson said they need to examine First Amendment issues.)

Why is this happening? News boxes, it's been argued, are a safety hazard -- this even though nobody has shown that any has ever caused an accident. Boxes, it's also been said, are ugly, a blight. (Which might also be said of bus-shelter ads and promotional banners whose revenues happen to enrich city coffers.) Still another underpublicized reason for enforcement now comes from at-large City Councilman David Cohen, who says, "When anything happens this close to election time, and when the main victims are going to be the smaller, infrequent publishers, the independents, one gets kind of suspicious as to why."

This quote comes from an Associated Press story that appeared in dozens of papers across the nation, and even in The Guardian (U.K.). But it did not appear in the Daily News or Inquirer.

Soon, one might expect stories about L&I, the Streets Department or the Center City District to be more closely vetted, if street distribution is regulated by the city.

What would Franklin and Paine say today?

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