From 1,000 to zero: The loss of public news racks in San Francisco

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Editor’s note: Julia Gitis is the founder of Community News Lab, a nonprofit working to modernize print news racks into digital kiosks. Gitis plans to get community input at the 24th Street BART Station on January 23.

Ken Cacich, a 72-year old San Francisco resident, has been reading the Bay Area Reporter, one of the country’s largest LGBT newspapers, since 1975. “It’s a phenomenal paper, because it’s geared toward gay news,” Cacich says. But recently, he’s found it harder and harder to find a copy of the print publication.

“One by one, they’re disappearing,” he said of the news racks near his home in Lower Polk. “They’re mysteriously somehow disappearing.”

At a time when San Franciscans are feeling bleak about national politics and community leaders are emphasizing the importance of engaging locally, the city will finish removing all of its remaining fixed-pedestal green news racks. By the end of February, the last city-owned print news rack will be removed.

Meanwhile, publishers that own or could purchase their own news racks find themselves overwhelmed with the startup costs and the burden of keeping them graffiti-free. 

The communities affected most by the news rack removals are those that are less tech-savvy and prefer reading print papers, especially seniors and non-English speakers. 

“Read it online? No,” says Cacich, who doesn’t own a computer or tablet, and uses an old iPhone 6. “I’m an old-fashioned guy. I go to the gym every day, and I like a newspaper on the treadmill. I’m below low-tech; basically no-tech. I really don’t do anything online.”

Free-standing news racks for individual papers were so pervasive in the 1990s that they were deemed a public nuisance; the news boxes took up a lot of space, and many weren’t well maintained.  The sidewalks, according to SFGate, were a “jumble of thousands of news racks,” where readers could “choose from 31 periodicals in 73 boxes” along Market Street between First and Second streets. 

Mayor Willie Brown led an effort to clean up the streets by consolidating the individual boxes into centralized green fixed-pedestal racks owned and operated by the city. In 2002, Clear Channel began a 20-year contract with the city to install and maintain 1,000 news racks in exchange for putting ads on the back of half of them. 

What no one predicted was “the seismic change in the nature of newspapers,” said John King, the longtime urban design critic and San Francisco Chronicle columnist.

“Originally, it was a program to remove what they said was blight on the street,” said San Francisco Chronicle publisher Bill Nagel. “But as the business changed, now the city sees the racks as blight instead.” 

These days, aside from a handful of newsrooms whose print ads still drive their revenue, the majority of San Francisco publications prioritize digital over print, and focus on reaching San Franciscans on their phones. 

Many still remember the important role the news racks once played. “The kiosks raised the equity,” says King. “You could have the Beacon next to the Examiner next to the Bay Guardian. It is a way of disseminating news to people who weren’t aware of the publication beforehand. With the internet, it’s all gone. Cultural and technological changes filter down to become the urban landscape changing.” 

Publishers left unsure

The disappearance of news boxes “is definitely impacting our circulation,” said Michael Yamashita, publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, who distributed the BAR in around 15 city-run racks along Market Street and was down to his last two in the early fall, both in the Castro, which he restocked almost daily. Then they disappeared. 

Yamashita only learned the city was removing all of its racks last summer. “It’s all so opaque. They don’t share information with us. There’s no schedule, no guidance.” Yamashita reached out to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s office for answers.

After confirming the process with Mandelman’s office, Yamashita is starting to put his first Bay Area Reporter boxes out in the Castro. “The demand is still there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re the only ones in the neighborhood that have racks,” says Yamashita.

Johnny Garcia has been distributing El Tecolote’s print publication for more than 10 years. While the bilingual newspaper has long been distributed to local businesses, the racks allowed residents to pick up a copy on the go.  He pointed to the sawed-off bolts in the ground at the 24th Street BART plaza, the only sign of where the fixed-pedestal news racks once stood. “There was no warning, nothing.”

Back to individual boxes

Though the city-run news racks are disappearing, every newsroom can still do what newsrooms were doing 20 years ago: Place their print publications in individual free-standing news racks. But that costs money and time that smaller and independent publishers, especially, don’t have: Filling out paperwork, paying $50 fees per box, paying hundreds of dollars for the racks themselves, paying for insurance, and re-painting the boxes every time they get vandalized. “You’re required to have $1 million liability insurance,” says Paul Kozakiewicz, founder of the Richmond Review. “Now, the publisher has to spend $1,000 per year for insurance, plus buy the racks, plus maintain them.”

The Department of Public Works emphasizes it is not against the racks; they just have to be maintained. But many publishers have experienced a lack of communication from Public Works that makes individual racks feel even more out of reach.

Marvin Ramirez, longtime publisher of bilingual paper El Reportero, says the city removed all of El Reportero’s individual racks, valued at $9,000, and never told him where they are. “I only had one box left on 29th Street and Guerrero at the laundromat. They took it away about a month and a half ago,“ he says. “Ten or 15 years ago, I bought 45 boxes. The city started to take them away, without telling us they took it. There was no way to know exactly who took them, or where. There’s nowhere for us to complain. Nowhere for us to demand return. They just take them.” 

Rachel Gordon, the spokesperson for Public Works, said the city hasn’t removed any boxes since 2023, and that free-standing racks are usually removed if publishers don’t address graffiti after receiving several notices and warnings.  

Kozakiewicz doesn’t believe this process is always followed. “The DPW threw a couple of my racks away without even telling me.”

Steven Moss, publisher of the Potrero View, has also had his free-standing racks removed without warning. He says there are around 10 Potrero View news racks left. “They get graffitied constantly, and the city is constantly ticketing us,” he says.

Nagel says the Chronicle is going to have fewer than 30 of its signature yellow free-standing racks left on the streets, down from 38 a couple of years ago. “It’s really going to only be a handful of locations,” he says of the city’s paper of record, whose racks require twelve quarters to open. The city continues to fine box owners for graffiti, he says.  “Frankly, the fines become more expensive than any revenue coming in from the news racks.” 

“We would have to buy new ones, and they’re very expensive,” says Kozakiewicz. The Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review do not plan to go through with the hassle of purchasing them. “There’s only a few publishers left. Most publishers can’t afford the racks.” 

Moving to local merchants

As an alternative, some publishers are expanding their distribution to private businesses. Neighborhood paper Sunset Beacon lists the local merchants where readers can find the paper while dining or shopping. Moss says Potrero View’s biggest distribution point is Good Life Grocery in Potrero Hill. “They distribute 500 or 1,000 monthly. it’s part of people’s daily lives, and it brings traffic into their store.” 

But publishers complain that the papers are hard to find indoors. Cacich, loyal BAR reader, looked for the publication in his neighborhood bar. “It’s inside the bookshelf, on the second shelf, where no one can see it.”

Aside from bars and cafes, San Franciscans can still find a few businesses that cater specifically to print readers. Fadi Berbery is the owner of Smoke Signals, a Polk Street shop which will celebrate 30 years of selling newspapers and magazines this spring. “Newspapers are still a big part of my business,” says Berbery, whose dog, Pebbles, keeps him company in the shop every day. Berbery says it’s a misconception that only older readers prefer print. “I’m selling around 50 papers a day, 100 on Sundays. More than half my customers are younger than 50.” While we’re talking, a man in his 30s walks in to buy a paper. “I like to drink my coffee and read the paper,” he says of his morning ritual.

“It’s sad. I liked it better when we had competition,” says Berbery about the news rack removals. “Now, everyone expects me to have everything. I worry about disappointing my customers.”

A mile away, Jason Feng is selling print papers out of his newsstand to residents in North Beach. Feng starts work at 6 a.m., seven days a week, at his newsstand at Columbus Avenue and Stockton Street. He says he sells 40 to 50 papers a day, a mix of English- and Chinese-language daily papers. As we’re talking, one of his regular customers comes by to purchase the San Francisco Chronicle. “I come here every day. I’m old-school. I have to have the paper,” he says.

This week, San Francisco begins its 60-day countdown to zero city-run news racks. “It’s one of those ineffable cultural losses,” says King. “Those difficult-to-measure but real losses, in terms of the chance encounter, the serendipity. The act of flipping a page, you discover stories you wouldn’t go looking for.”