Read All About It!

The City of Tempe, in partnership with the Downtown Tempe Authority (DTA), solicited bids and awarded a contract to City Solutions Inc (CSI). for the placement of modular newsracks in a pilot area from Rio Salado to University along Mill Avenue.

And, we are happy to announce that Western Outdoor Times/Arizona Boating & Watersports is now proudly displayed in these upbeat newsracks along Mill Avenue in Tempe, Ariz.

The goals of this program are to reduce the clutter of individual newsracks previously scattered along Mill Avenue, ensure consistent maintenance of the newsracks, and eliminate newsracks that have been abandoned.

City Newracks LLC is a privately held corporation based in Santa Barbara, Calif. With regional management operations based in Indianapolis, Ind. The company was founded in 1997 by a small group of individuals with experience in publishing, public works, politics and manufacturing. This rather unusual combination of experiences enabled City Solutions to create something truly new in the market place - the modular newsrack.

Many cities were growing frustrated by the spreading proliferation of the hodge-podge of individual publication newsracks in areas of urban centers that attract both locals and visitors.

Over the past decade, more cities' points of view and publishers' understanding that the streetscape of urban centers are the heart of economic growth and vitality (and of readership) prevailed - hence, the idea for and implementation of the modular units. For more information and history, visit http://www.citysolutions.com.

The program is designed to preserve publishers' access to the public rights-of-way while contributing to a measured effort by the City of Tempe and the DTA to maintain a quality environment on this main street. There will be no advertisements on these newsracks.

This program is free to the publishers and will not impact their other locations throughout the City of Tempe. The City of Tempe has installed modular newsracks at key locations along Mill Avenue that are currently popular or have a history of use by publishers for distribution of newspapers and magazines. Once installed, the DTA will maintain these units and ensure that all publishers have access.

Publishers interested in participating must have thoroughly reviewed and returned details of application documents to CSI offices. All of the information requested has the intention of guaranteeing the fairness of the program based on historical data and existing usage.

There have been several surveys of all newsracks in the pilot area over the past year by the DTA. These surveys have established that there are a specific number of publication titles that currently maintain an individual newsrack (or participate in a larger multi-publication box) at a location that has been targeted for installation of a modular newsrack. The placement of these modular newsracks is based on these surveys.