![]() This also isn’t the first time that city-operated news racks have been removed Clear Channel has consolidated and winnowed hundreds of racks over the last decade as newspaper distribution has reduced and print titles have folded. Most of them weren’t highly used, as print readership declined and news racks became receptacles for graffiti and garbage. Some of them were becoming a nuisance.” She noted that Public Works met with the publishers of all the papers that were renting a box in the city news racks (for $50 per box per year) to give them a heads-up about the removals before Clear Channel started taking them down.Ĭommunity reaction to the removal of the news racks is mixed. They’ve become magnets for trash, drugs being stashed in them, and vandalism. Public Works spokeswoman Rachel Gordon says this change allows the removal of news racks that were underused and vandalized. Clear Channel was responsible for providing, installing, and maintaining the news racks at no cost to the city, with the ability to put their ads on 485 of them. Clear Channel will continue to operate news racks with ads on the back of them, which are mostly located downtown. The contract expired this year. Publications will now be responsible for furnishing their own news racks.Īccording to Public Works, Clear Channel started removing the distinctive green news racks in July. The 20-year contract with Clear Channel to operate up to 1,000 green, fixed-pedestal news racks was inked right as the print media business model imploded. In May, the Public Works Department approved the removal of all remaining ad-free news racks in the city, estimated at around 200. Ngarangad wasn’t the only one whose neighborhood news rack disappeared overnight. “That is one fewer source of information that people can use to figure out what’s going on in their city. “Taking any source of information away, especially free information, was sad for me,” said Ngarangad, who does not own a computer. On July 25, to her surprise, the news rack was gone. Walking to the green city news rack at the corner, she picks up the San Francisco Examiner and the occasional Sunset Beacon, which she reads at her favorite bench in the San Francisco Botanical Garden. ![]() ![]() Every morning, Connie Ngarangad walks down Lincoln Way toward Ninth Avenue. ![]()
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