Next time you hit up one of New York’s newsstands, take a moment to look at the prices of the goods spread out before you. Besides the stand’s raisons d’être–newspapers and magazines–as well as MetroCards, phone cards, and cigarettes, you’ll notice that all of the prices top off conspicuously at $5.
That’s because of legislation that prevents the stands from carrying anything more expensive, but a new bill may change that. Speaking in front of a newsstand yesterday, Christine Quinn announced City Council would propose a new bill raising the cap to $10, because, as Quinn put it, “The $4 umbrella of 2002 isn’t the same as the $4 umbrella of 2012-13. The $4 umbrella in 2013 — you’re lucky if it’s going to get you to the corner.”
Besides paying more for what’s probably the same umbrella as before, you’ll also be able to pick up things like cell phone chargers and bigger packs of batteries.
(Photo: Andrew Smith/Wikimedia Commons)
