The Cupertino Courier Council's take on city news racks: They're ugly By Michelle Ku A grouping of a dozen or so news racks stands near the Cupertino Crossroads shopping center on Stevens Creek. Positioned together, the racks are an incongruous bunch of shapes, sizes and colors. In short, they are ugly. "[The news racks] just look scattered," said Bob Cowan, director of community development. "It doesn't look clean." Last week the Planning Department presented City Council with a solution to the grubby mish-mash of display cases: one uniform modular newsrack. But councilmembers said, that's ugly, too. "The council just didn't like the design that was shown," Cowan said. "We'll probably go back and see if there is any way to dress up the containers. The council just reacted to that one design; there might be some way to doll those up." The unit presented to the City Council is the same that's used in Los Altos. The racks are a beige-ish yellow color and come in groupings so that two different newspapers can be put in one rack. "That's ugly," Councilmember Sandra James said when she saw the picture of the unit projected on the screen during Monday's meeting. But the councilmembers' considerations may not be just aesthetic. A news rack ordinance regulates--for public safety reasons--where containers are placed throughout the city. Councilmembers are considering changing the ordinance to make the standardized modules mandatory. If councilmembers do change the ordinance, they may also have to decide which papers go in the racks, as the standardized racks house a limited number of publications. Such a proposal has gotten some cities into trouble with newspaper groups. In San Francisco, the move to establish uniform news racks resulted in a recent law suit by six newspapers. The suit claims that the change to the uniform racks is unconstitutional because the city would have the discretion to decide which newspapers are distributed and where. But smaller cities such as Los Altos, Los Gatos and Saratoga have established uniform news racks without the legal hassles. Both Los Gatos and Saratoga have news rack committees to determine which newspapers are given space in the containers. Cupertino has been involved in discussions with several of the major newspaper publishers in the area to make sure it avoids any problems. Newspapers involved in the discussions include the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Jose Mercury News, USA Today and Metro Newspapers, The Courier's parent company. Representatives from the newspapers have asked the city to consider a memorandum of understanding in which, if the city provides the module, the newspaper companies could police themselves, said Ciddy Wordell, city planner. Cowan said he does not believe the lawsuit in San Francisco will affect the discussions in Cupertino, as the city has room for all the papers that are distributed in the area. "We're not going to have any trouble," Cowan said. "[The newspapers] were all at the meeting and they didn't have any problem with a standardized approach." In the meantime, Wordell said her department is trying to track down more attractive modules. "We are going to have to see what the options are in terms of other designs," she said. "We have seen other designs that are more elaborate, they had a little bit more shape to the top and are a little more ornamental." [ Back to Contents Page | Cupertino Courier Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.