We posted way back in November of 2012 that news rack #133 (located near Harvey Milk Plaza next to the Muni stop and another news rack) was removed and that hopefully more would be taken out. Most of the time these pieces of street furniture sit empty and take up valuable walking space on Castro's busy and narrow sidewalk.
It looks like more of these pedestal mounted news racks have indeed been removed. We received a tip from Daniel over at Mudpuppy's Tub & Scrub that more sidewalk space has been spotted in front of Walgreens, in front of Harvey's, near Bank of America, and near Harvey Milk Plaza.
Daniel, activists, and local community organizations like the Castro / Upper Market Community Benefit District have been trying to get rid of these sidewalk blockers for more than a year and it looks like they finally got their wish.
Little doubt these racks were hauled off in preparation for demolition of Castro Street as construction on the new Castro Street Streetscape Improvement project is slated to begin in February. Construction is slated to last until December.
Perhaps we have seen the last of these racks or perhaps they are being stowed away to be placed back on the more palatial sidewalks coming to the Castro. The agreement between the City and Clear Channel Outdoors to place the newsracks on city streets is set to expire in 2022. We'll get in touch with the Department of Public Works to find out if we'll see these news racks crop back up again after construction.
Update: Andrea Aiello of the Castro / Upper Market Community Benefit District confirmed that the news racks are gone for good and will not be reinstalled after the Castro Streetscape Improvement construction.
Update: Andrea Aiello of the Castro / Upper Market Community Benefit District confirmed that the news racks are gone for good and will not be reinstalled after the Castro Streetscape Improvement construction.
