Livable Streets

Nasty Newsrack Photo Contest Finalists

The Municipal Art Society will be announcing the winner of its Nasty Newsrack Photo Competition tomorrow.

By Aaron Naparstek

11:15 AM EST on November 12, 2007

The Municipal Art Society will be announcing the winner of its Nasty Newsrack Photo Competition tomorrow.

MAS launched the “OUTRAGE!!! Nasty Newsrack Photo Competition” to highlight the rampant legal violations of newsracks in New York City, and received more than 200 submissions. MAS is currently is exploring new newsrack policies and designs that have been successful in other cities, such as Houston, Dallas and San Diego. Unlike New York, these cities limit the number of newsracks at any given corner, have strict criteria regulating their design, and allow only steel boxes; plastic boxes are prohibited.

Check out some of the finalists and wonder to yourself: Is New York a first-world city, or what?

SW corner of Grand and W. Broadway

SW corner of 3rd Ave. and 35th St.

SE corner of 79th St. and 1st Ave.

NW corner of Lafayette and Canal

And my personal favorite: SW corner of 1st Ave. and 51st St.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.