US District Court judge Douglas Woodlock urged city officials this week to reconsider a ban on newspaper boxes in the Back Bay. Noting that newspaper publishers had not been formally notified before the Back Bay Architectural Commission banned the boxes last May, Woodlock told city officials that the commission should invite every publisher with a licensed news box to a new public hearing and then vote again.

" I would strongly encourage you. In fact, I would put it in an order if necessary, " Woodlock said at a Tuesday hearing called in response to a lawsuit brought by the publishers of Editorial Humor, the Boston Phoenix, Stuff@Night, the Improper Bostonian, the Real Estate Guide, and the Weekly Dig.

Woodlock also deferred action on the publishers’ request for a preliminary injunction after the city agreed not to enforce the ban for at least another three months, after which the suit is expected to come to trial. The agreement supersedes a temporary restraining order that was granted in state court on August 31, just days before the city had planned to begin hitting publishers with fines of $1000 per day for each box.

The newspapers’ lawyer, Edmund Robinson, argued that the architectural commission’s May 9 vote violated the state’s open-meeting law because the publishers had not been given advance notice. David Breen, a city lawyer, countered that the law’s requirements had been met by a notice placed in a Back Bay newspaper. Without ruling on the merits of Robinson’s argument, Woodlock told Breen that the commission should simply take the issue off the table by holding a new public hearing and a second vote.

But even though Woodlock made his suggestion merely to eliminate an administrative hurdle, it points the way to a possible compromise. Robinson told Woodlock that the publishers would accept a ban in the residential sections 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. Indeed, the extension that the city agreed to on Tuesday applies only to that commercial district. Robinson said that a new vote by the commission, preceded by a hearing at which the publishers would be allowed to speak, might well come out differently, especially if residents — the primary proponents of the ban — were assured that their streets would remain free of news boxes.

Whether city officials would be amenable to such a compromise could not immediately be determined. Breen and Michael Galvin, who heads the Basic City Services office, referred questions to Mayor Tom Menino’s spokeswoman, Carole Brennan. Brennan was unable to offer a response before deadline except to say that she does not generally comment on pending litigation.

Issue Date: October 11 - 18, 2001