 |
|
|||||
 |
 |
|
Save Back Bay news boxes The Back Bay Architectural Commission (BAC) will hold another hearing this Wednesday to consider once again whether it will ban news boxes from key commercial streets in the Back Bay. The hearing will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Room 801 of Boston City Hall. The BAC voted to ban news boxes earlier this year, but the group was pressured in October to hold another vote after US District Court Judge Douglas Woodcock urged city officials to reconsider the decision because not all of the affected publishers had been properly notified. Fighting the ban is a coalition of publishers including Editorial Humor, The Improper Bostonian, The Weekly Dig, The Real Estate Guide, Stuff @ Night, and the Boston Phoenix. All of these publications have free circulations, with the exception of Editorial Humor, a pubication that charges fifty cents a copy. The publishers would accept a ban in the residential section of the Back Bay as long as they could keep their boxes in the commercial district bounded by Boylston Street, Mass Ave, Newbury Street, and Arlington Street. They hope that once Back Bay residents realize that news boxes won't be on residential streets, the BAC will back away from banning them in the heavily trafficked commercial streets. Some, including WBZ radio talk-show host David Brudnoy, himself a Back Bay resident, have suggested that the BAC's earlier vote was a snobbish measure that would punish the larger public by denying it access to free publications in the commercial heart of the Back Bay. If the neighborhood-wide ban holds, the publishers vow to fight it in US District Court, arguing that such a sweeping measure would violate freedom of the press and place an unfair burden on papers with free circulations (or like the Editorial Humor's limited paid circulation) -- in contrast with mainstream paid papers such as the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, which have many other means of distribution at their disposal. Below is a reverse-chronological list of the Phoenix's coverage of this issue. The free press Boxing match by Seth Gitell from April 11, 2002 Newsracked Paper chase by Seth Gitell from February 28, 2002 Ill Humor The first news-box-ban victim by Mike Miliard from January 31, 2002 Media Judge urges city to vote again on news-box ban by Dan Kennedy from October 11, 2001 Media Publishers fight Back Bay news-box ban by Dan Kennedy from September 5, 2001 Banned in Back Bay Local commission votes to ban news boxes from Boylston and Newbury Streets by Dorie Clark from May 10, 2001 Block the ban The Back Bay’s ban on news boxes is an assault on the press a Phoenix editorial from April 19, 2001 Banned in Boston Back Bay commission votes to ban news boxes by Dorie Clark from April 12, 2001 Freedom to Speak Fight the news box ban by Dan Kennedy from April 10, 2001 Spreading the news Interfering with a newspaper's distribution is an assault on freedom of the press a Phoenix editorial from June 15, 2000 |