Readers Write: Times Have Changed, Remove the Eyesore

Dear Editor.

I am writing to you regarding a great eyesore on Thirteenth Avenue, which is taking up valuable walking space from pedestrians on this busy thoroughfare. 

I am referring to the newsstand on 13th Avenue and 48th Street (outside Chase Bank), which has stood vacant for a few months now. 

Many of us are old enough to remember when the newsstand diagonally across the avenue still had a sign with the Yiddish “Tzeitungen” affixed outside. 

That was part of an era when Boro Park residents would begin their day by reading the paper (or two or three papers). Many would head over to the newsstand to get their paper, through which they would catch up on the morning’s news and opinion. 

But, in many ways, that golden era of physical newspapers is gone. 

Although our community still publishes an outsized number of weekly publications, and there is still one daily Heimish paper, the era is gone—and this is most likely behind the demise of the newsstand. 

Given this, is it too much to ask that the owners remove the newsstand, which takes up valuable walkway space?

I feel that it’s a matter of basic mentchlichkeit and basic consideration of the people busily walking in the area to remove it if it’s not being used.  

Sincerely,

Frustrated in Boro Park.