Corral OK

In the beginning there were mailboxes. They came in two kinds -- the blue ones that you put your mail into and the olive-colored ones that only the mailman used. The post office found a convenient location for each, bolted them down and life went on.

Slowly other objects began to appear on the street. Litter baskets really took off about the same time as the proliferation of fast food and its endless packaging. This prompted a raging dispute in cities about the number and kind of litter baskets needed to realize our collective dream of creating landfill mountains, naturally in any place but our own place.

Somewhere during the evolution of the ultimate garbage can, the few newspapers that were left in town realized that they could improve their bottom line by distributing out of small metal boxes. These were strategically positioned at places where the news-hungry public was likely to pass. Thus the honor box was born. It was called an honor box because it depended on individual integrity to put coins in the box and take one newspaper. This system seemed to work well enough -- not too big a deal considering that there were only two major dailies in town.

Then, faster than you could say "street furniture," the honor box situation exploded, pretty much in parallel with the rest of the information age. New newspapers to suit every possible special interest or cultural niche were publishing. Most of them relied on advertising revenue for income and were therefore offered free to the public. These publications, including the one you are reading right now, also needed honor boxes, especially since the greater their circulation, the greater their advertising revenues.

In my neighborhood in Old City, what has been the result? Honor boxes have multiplied like rabbits and now threaten to consume what little space is left at our street corners, where pedestrians also have to contend with street lights, traffic signals, bollards and handicapped accessible curb cuts.

In a survey conducted by the Old City District of 16 major intersections in the area, an amazing 115 honor boxes were counted representing two dozen different publications. Some show up only once, while others, including City Paper and its arch-rival Philadelphia Weekly, show up a league-leading 19 and 18 times respectively (with Metro in serious contention for the wild card slot). At some places, one or the other of these publications is on every one of the four corners that make up the intersection -- and this doesn't even count the several times that publications show up in mid-block.

But numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Like horses outside the Old West saloon, honor boxes need hitchin' posts. Nuzzled around the security of a street pole, anchored by chain tethers that are invariably too short to do the job, the neighborhood honor box often sits sadly on its two hind legs on the crooked pavement, like a dog denied the opportunity to accompany its master inside. Some boxes appear to be well tended and kept fresh with new material. Others appear to be seldom used and become trash receptacles (for more landfill building).

Because these things take up public space, often look like a mess, and frequently impede convenient and safe pedestrian flow, order should be brought to bear on their presence. Two years ago -- in a pilot program area between Sixth and 22nd, Spruce and Vine -- the city, the Center City District and the various publishers negotiated a series of reasonable regulations that included limiting the number of boxes, charging a fee for their use of the public way, regulating their size and construction, and providing for a means of enforcement. "Honor Box Corrals" were created at select intersections to organize the chaos. This idea worked as long as the number of boxes did not exceed the size of the corral. In many places, however, the situation has once again gotten out of control, as enforcement has waned and new publications that were not party to the negotiation have emerged on the scene.

I propose a few modifications to these regulations that are critical to Old City and may be helpful elsewhere:

1. In place of corrals, take advantage of blank walls near corners (and there are plenty of them) to organize honor boxes in a line, adjacent to, not in the path of, pedestrian movement.

2. Work cooperatively with building owners to provide lock-off rails so that honor boxes can be secured.

3. Aggressively monitor the upkeep of honor boxes with the express purpose of treating them as litter if they are not refreshed regularly or kept in a state of good repair.

All in all, a fairly modest proposal to make the streets look and work better. Next up on the street clutter patrol: mindless Parking Authority signs.

Alan Greenberger is a principal of architecture firm MGA Partners, incoming Chairman of the Old City District, and a member of the Design Advocacy Group.

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November 20, 2003
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