Good News! Amazing Upcycled Newsstands

While traditional street newsstands continue to close up, shut down and fade away, a few of the convenient kiosks have been reborn and that IS good news! upcycled newsstands 1d

Traditional urban newsstands have always been in the right place at the right time but the times they are a-changin’ and more and more city newsstands and kiosks are empty, abandoned shells.

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“There’s a reason they’re vacant,” explains Jim LoBianco, Executive Director of workforce development agency Streetwise. “That business model of selling periodicals is no longer sustainable.”

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Location still matters, however, and in Chicago at least some of those unsightly abandoned newsstands are being upcycled as E.A.T. Spots, urban eateries serving good food to citizens on the go.

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Backed by a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, The Artists Newsstand opened in May 2015 at Toronto’s Chester Avenue TTC subway station.

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Toronto artist Jess Dobkin signed a year-long lease to operate the former Gateway newsstand kiosk, and besides selling drinks and snacks, will also sell artists’ books, multiples and zines. Plans are afoot to host performances, screenings and other artist interventions in the small but cozy space.