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Shadowboxing Downtown advocates, free-press defenders square off over newspaper boxes bY david foRbes
dforbes@mountainx.com 251-1333 ext. 137
A series of emails obtained by Xpress shed new light on a continuing dispute over lost, found, reviled and defended newspaper boxes downtown. The emails, written during the weeks before and after the boxes’ mysterious disappearance, reveal a vigorous behind-the-scenes discussion between city staff and Downtown Commission members concerning the boxes’ place in public life — and whether the city could legally remove them. The discussion also highlights an ongoing tug of war between downtown advocates and First Amendment protections. Dozens of boxes for distributing a bevy of publications — including The Laurel of Asheville, The Urban News and a promotional pamphlet for Shoji Retreats — suddenly disappeared around Nov. 19, and someone cleaned up the adjacent space. Then, on Dec. 9, city parking attendants discovered some of them in an abandoned, city-owned parking garage on Haywood Street. Neither Mountain Xpress nor the Asheville Citizen-Times had boxes removed. anoop krishnan, who owns Mela restaurant on Lexington Avenue, says he saw people with a city of Asheville truck remove some of them, but city staff deny any involvement, and an internal inquiry found no evidence of it. In the age of electronic media, some might see newspaper boxes as an anachronism whose disappearance would scarcely matter to anyone except mystery aficionados and the dozen or so affected publications. But beth grace, executive director of the North Carolina Press Association, says eliminating the boxes in the
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what’s in the box: Newspaper boxes for a variety of small, local publications went missing around Nov. 19 and 20. They were found in an abandoned parking garage Dec. 9. How they got there remains a mystery. Photo by Jeff Tallman
name of beautification restricts the public dialogue that’s essential to a healthy civic life. “Without those boxes, people can’t get their papers,” she points out. “People want the place where they live to be beautiful, but I think people also have the right to know, and to have those boxes in a convenient location. To take that away for aesthetics seems frivolous and shortsighted.” Even today, Grace maintains, newspaper boxes play an essential role in informing the public, especially in a connected, walkable area like downtown Asheville. To some downtown merchants, however, those boxes are merely an unsightly nuisance that hurts local businesses and detracts from downtown’s image. “You want a sandwich board, a sidewalk café, you want to paint your sidewalk — you have to get an encroachment. Why aren’t we holding newspaper boxes to the same standard that we hold our downtown merchants?” Asheville Downtown Association President adrian vassallo asked at the Dec. 13 Downtown Commission meeting. “If City Council truly wants a part-
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nership with downtown, this is something they need to address.” behind the scenes Beginning in October, dozens of back-and-forth emails discussed whether newspaper boxes are still appropriate on the streets of Asheville — and whether those considered unsightly could simply be removed. On Oct. 7, Vassallo, who also serves on the Downtown Commission, complained to city staff that “There continues to be un-inhabited or un-utilized boxes all over. Many of these are tagged and are full of trash. I think it’s time to put a permit system in place.” City planner alan glines agreed to add the item to the agenda for the commission’s November meeting, to give staff time to “review the current situation.” That wasn’t the first time the issue had come up. In February of 2012, city staff met with local publishers and told them that due to aesthetic concerns, the city would begin regulating downtown newspaper boxes. But restricting
the boxes’ placement has significant First Amendment implications, and in the end, the publishers and city staff merely agreed to informally keep one another informed about any problems. Downtown Commission Vice Chair michael mcdonough says he’s satisfied with some of the voluntary changes local publishers have made, dubbing them “the good guys” and adding, “We’re almost there.” And even the commission members, he reveals, don’t entirely agree about the best approach to dealing with newspaper boxes. For his part, McDonough says he doesn’t favor as strict a permitting regime as Vassallo advocated in the emails. Meanwhile, city staff remained concerned about the lack of resources for enforcement and the “fine line” in dealing with First Amendment issues, noted Glines. Vassallo’s complaint triggered an Oct. 23 discussion among staff in which several people favored steering clear of a permitting process because of the money, time and “headache,” in Glines’ words, it would take to enforce such rules. to Remove oR not to Remove The dialogue continued into November, as staff considered whether they could remove abandoned or damaged boxes, where they could be stored, and how publishers might be notified. On Nov. 12, Vassallo submitted an official complaint through The Asheville App, a feedback program checked by various staffers. Development analyst abigail Riley quickly replied that city staff did not have jurisdiction in the issue. Planning Director Judy daniel responded that the city was reviewing the matter and crafting a policy to address “abandoned/trashy” boxes. She also noted that advertising publications have some First Amendment protections as well, and that the city’s Legal Department had advised them “to be very careful in how this is addressed.” Vassallo replied that the newspaper publishers had failed to police themselves, adding, “There are still numerous