Committee takes more time for decision on news racks

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1998 | 11:21 a.m.

A proposed ordinance that would impose a $25-a-year permit fee on news racks was delayed Monday by a Las Vegas City Councilman committee.

Councilmen Michael McDonald and Larry Brown voted to hold the recommendation until Aug. 17 so that a study can be made of an old news-rack ordinance in an effort to combine that law with the proposed law.

"There is a 20-year-old law on the books that makes it illegal to put up news racks without permits," McDonald said. "What we want to do is sit down with the city attorney and the local newspapers and work together to make improvements to the law."

The $25 fee is now in effect along the Strip and other resort-zoned areas. The areas that would be affected if the measure passes are downtown arteries, including parts of Fremont Street, Las Vegas Boulevard, Charleston Boulevard, and Sahara Avenue and some residential roads.

McDonald said the measure is crucial to controlling illegal news racks that spring up on Las Vegas streets. A news rack is illegal if it has not been approved by the city and issued a permit.

"At last count there were 450 illegal news racks on Las Vegas Boulevard between City Hall and Sahara," McDonald said. "The Strip is the most famous street in the world, and naturally businesses will try to advertise and sell their products there."

The content of what many of the illegal news racks are selling is something that some Las Vegans would like to see addressed in the ordinance.

"Many of these magazines are garbage that show full frontal nudity," said, Tom Davis, a local business owner. "Many times the distributors pile these publications on top of the racks and I find them all over my parking lot.

"They are also by the bus stop where kids can easily look at them."

Davis, who owns two 7-Eleven convenience stores in the valley, said that news racks line the streets in front of his stores making it difficult to walk along the sidewalk.

"This measure was initially proposed to help regulate illegal news racks that are also taking up sidewalk space and forcing pedestrians into the street," McDonald said.

The Las Vegas Sun and the Review-Journal were represented at the meeting by Steve Coffeen, circulation director for the newspapers. The two separately owned newspapers have independent news staffs but share such services as circulation and printing.

"The newspapers wish to cooperate with the city in this measure," Caffeen said. "We want to make sure that legitimate businesses with legitimate publications remain posted."

When asked why the city does not enforce the 20-year-old news rack measure by simply removing the illegal racks, McDonald said that the city wants to make sure that they get the law right.

"We don't want to infringe on anyone's First Amendment rights," McDonald said. "That's why we will meet with the experts and get a strong ordinance that can be enforced on illegal racks, while not violating the First Amendment.