THE NORTHEAST CORNER of SW Morrison and Broadway stands as a monument to one of my favorite things about urban life. A motley rainbow of newspaper boxes—clumped around a lone utility pole—firmly occupies the bedraggled sidewalk, reminding every passerby of the chaos and small wonders that await you downtown.
But under a plan scheduled for approval by Portland City Council on Wednesday, July 11, that gritty little clump of character would be rooted out in the name of an apparently higher power: order.
Working with the Portland Business Alliance (PBA), the city’s transportation bureau will remove every single odd-shaped, crusty newsbox around Pioneer Courthouse Square and pack nearly two-dozen orphaned publications into banks of pleasantly homogenous boxes carefully placed by the PBA. Then, if no one complains much after a year, the idea will spread.
The idea is to clear away some of the perceived clutter choking downtown’s sidewalks—making the place look more like the affluent (and suburbanite-friendly) ersatz mall community of Bridgeport Village. Doing so would put Portland on the same footing as places like Berkeley, San Francisco, and Chicago.
“We get a lot of complaints from businesses and downtown property owners who want things to look a little bit nicer and neater,” explains PBA spokeswoman Megan Doern, painting a picture of disused boxes either filled with trash or slathered in stickers, ink, and spray-paint. “It’s the ‘broken windows’ philosophy. If you keep the smallest things looking nice, it keeps downtown as a whole looking nice.”
That sounds reasonable. But this issue also goes a bit deeper than sidewalk aesthetics.
In a big way, it’s about sanitization. The project is tucked deep inside the city’s 2010 “sidewalk management plan,” and it feels like a consolation prize after the city made it slightly more difficult for the business community to work on its other de-cluttering project: keeping homeless people away from tourists.
And, if we’re not careful, this could also be about censorship. Spots in the new boxes will be allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis. And although the ordinance says no outlet will be refused over content or constitutional grounds—it makes no mention of other factors, like circulation. So will the small-run anarchist paper the Portland Radicle, which just cropped up at SW 6th and Yamhill, really be treated as decorously as the Oregonian?
Doern says the boxes have enough space for everyone who already has a box—with room for any newcomers, too. If space is tight, new boxes might also be erected. “It’s not the intent to limit publications,” she says.
The city, which has final say over the program, is making the same promise. But with some wiggle room.
“Right now,” says Dan Anderson, a spokesman for the transportation bureau, “the plans are to accommodate everyone who wants to be in.”
Good. But let’s hope those “plans” don’t change.
Denis – What you consider a ‘monument’ often clogs the sidewalks, and limits access to the pedestrian through-way. They also often violate the city’s encroachment policy, as well as City Code Chapter 17.64 which prohibits the use of city poles and posts. And, like The Mercury’s newsrack in front of Cinema 21 on NW 21st, they are full of graffiti. On top of all that, no law compels publishers to remove unused racks. Just go look at the two Just Out racks abandoned in front of Trader Joe’s on NW Glisan at 21st.
Mary Ann Pastene
…I don’t have any problem with this. I’m actually surprised that I finished the article. They could remove everyone of those boxes from the City, or put a thousand more down, and I’d be surprised if I noticed either way.
I don’t think anyone is trying to put a lid on freedom of speech and expression, but the walkability of our wonderful City depends on having clear sidewalks and pathways for everyone. Too often transit riders and folks getting to parked cars are confronted with walls of boxes. Boxes radiating from street poles are so often in the direct path of pedestrians – including those confined to wheelchairs. There is little apparent accountability for their placement. This is especially important along the relatively narrow sidewalks of our popular, traditional neighborhoods. This is an overdue step to bring some order out of chaos and to encourage folks to discover their community on foot – and to pick up an interesting publication as part of that exploration!
Phil Selinger, NW Portland
I think the push for “sanitation” will eventually stuck the life out of downtown, and the city as a whole. Part of the expression of publications is the look and feel of their boxes and having some real differentiation between them helps readers immensely.
I know the difference between weekly papers, apartment ads and the Oregonian without even needing to read the box.
To be honest, the “broken window” theory is rather terrifying because it means the entire community is at the mercy of the PBA and the big power brokers in town who are going to tell people how their community should live. First surveillance cameras, then newspaper boxes, then probably food carts, one by one they are going to turn Portland bland and regimented.
It is sad because once Portland falls, there really won’t be any place to go to escape this type of stuff (in a majorish city at least). We will just have to accept it in silence.
The PBA has never done anything that wasn’t 90% selfish. I want to know the real reason they pushed for this to happen. Instead of this bullshit of, oh sidewalk clutter needs to be cleaned up, so it can look all pweety!
It probably has something to do with them not wanting to see homeless people resting on the wall of boxes. Just be honest in your bigotry PBA, your not fooling anyone!