The featured story in this week’s Washington City Paper is a delightfully entertaining article on a topic that’s become somewhat more important to me in the past twenty-six months, given where I work: newspaper boxes and how they fit into Washington, D.C. and other large cities.
The majority of Washington’s metal newspaper boxes can trace their roots back to Shiner, Texas, where Arthur Kaspar manufactured wire baskets, shelving, and racks. In 1956, he went to San Antonio to try to sell wire racks to the San Antonio Light newspaper. At the time, most newspapers were sold on honor racks, basically a cigar box for coins atop a stack of papers, a distribution method with obvious shortcomings. The Light asked Kaspar to make a coin-operated rack that would hold 100 newspapers and secure a nickel before a buyer could get his hands on a paper. Kaspar’s company came up with a wire box with a coin mechanism that released a pull-down door when money was inserted. Before Kaspar could present the San Antonio Light with his prototype, however, a man showed up in Shiner, claiming to work for the newspaper. He loaded the box into his truck and took off. The San Antonio Sheriff’s Office eventually caught him and recovered the rack. No charges were filed, and the Light ordered 50 racks.
There’s quite a bit of information in the article, such as:
- In the city’s Golden Triangle district, newspaper companies have a gentleman’s agreement to police the location and content of the boxes, to maintain a general standard of appearance.
- Boxes can be quite difficult to get into some communities, such as Georgetown or Silver Spring.
- As one might expect, graffiti is a common problem for box owners, especially in a politically charged town like D.C.
- Newspapers for the gay community can have additional challenges when managing their newspaper boxes:
One of [Metro Weekly editor-in-chief Sean] Bugg’s boxes sat beside a USA Today box and others on a corner in front of a downtown office building at 14th and L Streets, not far from the Metro Weekly offices. One day, he noticed that the box had somehow been moved to the trash bin out back. He sent someone to return it to the corner, but the next day it was back in the trash. Finally, Bugg called the building management, who gave him a song and dance about how his publication wasn’t appropriate for their building. Bugg went into full offensive mode and barked that there was no way in hell that building management had control over the sidewalk, and that if they ever touched the box again, he would call the police. “It was just so shocking,” says Bugg. “Dude, it’s 2006, not 1985.”
- The seemingly ubiquitous Employment Guide boxes can turn up in the most unlikely places:
You can ram Employment Guide box lookalikes in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. According to Jamin, an Employment Guide staffer thought he spotted one while playing the game and stopped shooting cops and running over drug dealers long enough to pull his car up to inspect it. Rockstar Games didn’t re-create the exact boxes in the game, but anyone familiar with the real-life boxes will recognize the ones in GTA.
Anyway, the article is quite fascinating, so check it out. Thanks to FishbowlDC for the link.