Business Groups Rally Against News Rack Ordinance

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Business Groups Rally Against News Rack Ordinance

By DARRELL SATZMAN

Staff Reporter

A handful of business groups are urging the L.A. City Council to reject a proposal by the Board of Public Works to rewrite the city’s news rack ordinance.

Elements of the plan drawing the most opposition involve increasing the number of news racks allowed in a particular location to eight from the current three and allowing publishers to choose their own color schemes for boxes.

“It seems the city is saying the answer to bad behavior is to condone it not only condone it but to codify it,” said Jay Handal, president of the West L.A. Chamber of Commerce. “Everyone has a right to put their boxes out there, but people have a right to have streets without broken down and ugly boxes.”

After more than a year of discussions with a coalition of local publishers, the Board of Public Works unanimously approved a plan late last month that would for the first time impose licensing fees on publishers.

Public Works Commissioner Janice Wood said at the time that the plan balanced the concerns of property owners with the First Amendment rights of publishers. Since then, however, several groups have asserted that the new rules tilt the balance in favor of publishers.

Among the groups expressing opposition are the West L.A. and Century City chambers of commerce, the Century Boulevard and Hollywood Entertainment District business improvement districts and the Westwood Village Business Association.

The proposed ordinance is in the City Council’s Public Works Committee, where it is not expected to be up for a vote until later this month. Committee members can request modifications, as could other council members if and when the proposal goes before the entire body.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski is not on the Public Works committee, but her office has been getting negative feedback about the plan, said Julie Pietroski, a deputy for Miscikowski.

Wood could not be reached for comment.

The new rules are expected to lead to fewer news racks on the streets because publishers would have to remove racks in areas where they are deemed unsafe and in locations where the number of racks exceeds the limit. An estimated 30,000 racks are currently installed in the city.

Enforcement, which has been almost nonexistent in recent years, would be phased in over time.

But the promise of enforcement has not been enough to mollify critics. “A lot of these publications are apartment or job listings with 200 pages of advertisements. I don’t think they were intended to fall under the rubric of protected speech,” said Steve Sann, co-founder of the Westwood Village Business Association.

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