By John Miller
Ask around town and you'll hear that the new Los Gatos newsrack ordinance will rid our sidewalks of ugly, intrusive, and proliferating newsracks that assault the sensibilities of residents and visitors alike.
Don't be shocked that newsracks in Los Gatos will still be ugly, intrusive and proliferating under the new ordinance that should be called the "Los Gatos Publication Vending Machine Subsidy Act." The ordinance creates the illusion of establishing aesthetic regulation of private newsracks that appropriate public property for profit, but fails to protect the taxpayer's investment in community aesthetics and property values.
Yes, the new ordinance calls for aesthetically acceptable modular newsracks, but only in the historic district. In the rest of Los Gatos the ordinance permits more obtrusive in-your-face newsracks. On Santa Cruz Avenue such tasteless racks, newly bolted to the sidewalk and brazen with advertising logos, now torture our sensibilities. This is hardly a commitment to beautification. So much for aesthetics.
In fact, the ordinance barely mentions the community's historic interest in aesthetics as a reason to regulate newsracks. It defines newsrack design in terms of public safety. Can't have free-standing newsracks tipping over in earthquakes, etc. Of course, newsracks pose much less a threat to public safety than to public taste. Interpret this concern for safety as a vending-industry ploy to bolt newsracks to public sidewalks to ensure they occupy prominent and highly visible positions.
After all, freestanding newsracks like those next to the Good Earth are not only ugly. Vendors consider these racks not individually visible and obvious to passers-by. Much more commercially valuable are newsracks that are opportunistically positioned, bolted to the sidewalks and adorned with officially approved advertising logos-- all for reasons of public safety, you understand.
If public safety is threatened, it is from a proliferation of newsracks on public property. But the new ordinance will not substantially reduce the 280 to 300 existing newsracks in town; it even allows for more newsracks in the future.
The new ordinance establishes a newsrack committee to implement the ordinance. In a throwback to the tradition of smoke-filled rooms and secret covenants secretly arrived at, the committee is composed of three representatives of the newsrack industry and none representing the public. Is this an example of collusion between politicians and special interests? Tell us it isn't so.
Make no mistake. The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly affirmed the right of communities to establish meaningful standards regarding the number, shape, style, color, size, signage and location of vending machines on public property, in and out of historic districts. A serious newsrack ordinance would require the same aesthetically acceptable newsrack design everywhere, regulate the size of advertising logos and reduce, or at least cap, the total number of racks. Communities that allow vendors to bolt newsracks to the sidewalks have every right to enforce such meaningful regulations in return. So why hasn't Los Gatos?
Because our new newsrack ordinance is not like those that are serious about establishing and maintaining community beautification through meaningful regulation of overt commercialization. The Los Gatos newsrack ordinance exists to support vested self-interests. These self-interests shamefully drape themselves in the flag while invoking an alleged First Amendment right to shove in your face singles' dating directories, real-estate guides, and even legitimate publications like the Los Gatos Weekly Times. Meanwhile, you, the taxpayers, foot the bill, courtesy of the public right-of-way.
So what's really going on? Certainly people enjoy the convenience of vending machines. But the courts and common sense tell us that this convenience is very much a right limited by other public considerations. For Los Gatos, the most important of these is maintaining and protecting its historic commitment to beautification. It's time for publications and vending companies to admit that their rights to pander on the public sidewalks are limited by the courts and by a responsibility to put the community interest above self interest. They can easily make money with aesthetically acceptable newsracks that are not the visually dominant feature of the public right-of-way.
In drafting this ordinance, the Town Council dutifully considered the rights and the wish list of the vested interests. And the council was intimidated by threats of litigation by one publisher--who sees nuisance lawsuits as a cost of doing business. What the council failed to do was defend this community's aesthetic integrity and to protect taxpayers and visitors from the further commercialization of public space.
It doesn't require a Ph.D. in aesthetics to see that under the new ordinance, the majority of newsracks in our community will continue to be intrusive and tasteless instead of unintrusive and tasteful. This may be acceptable in San Jose. It is not acceptable in Los Gatos. We deserve better.
John Miller is a founder of Scenic America, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to improving the aesthetics of the rural and urban landscape. He lives in the hills above Los Gatos.
WHAT'S BECOME OF OUR NEWSRACKS?
The Los Gatos Weekly-Times, along with other publications, has been an active participant with the town, its residents and business owners since talks about regulating newsracks first began. The newspaper industry has received virtually no concessions from the town of Los Gatos throughout this time-consuming and costly process. Newsracks are vehicles for the distribution of information and would not exist on the streets of Los Gatos unless people were using them. Unfortunately, given the specifications mandated by the town, the newsracks that were selected for downtown are proportioned in a way that is inappropriate for use by the Weekly-Times. We have had to remove four of our newsracks, featuring the newsboy logo designed by Los Gatos graphic designer Rick Tharp, from locations in town. Since the racks were removed, we have received many requests for additional newsracks from both residents and business owners of Los Gatos. In fact, before the ordinance passed, we regularly received requests for additional racks throughout town. We currently are negotiating with several property owners for locations where we can legally place these racks. Meanwhile, the Weekly-Times is available in front of our offices at 245 Almendra Ave.--Editor
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, July 17, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved