The Critics Have Spoken – So Long Courier Life

A reader sent in these photos, with the following note:

These are pix of the melted Courier Life box on the corner of East 36 Street and Quentin Road in Marine Park.  It was a double-decker news box – Kings Courier on the top and Brooklyn Family on the bottom (you can see the Courier name on the back of the box).  This fire seemed to have happened a few days ago, but no one from Courier Life has collected the now useless box.  I always pass by this corner on my way to the bus so I can tell you that before the fire, the box was generally filled with people’s trash (empty soda bottles and fast food wrappers) and not actual newspapers.  As you can see in one photo, people are still using the burned box as a trash can.

Courier-Life, as you probably know, publishes Bay News, Kings Courier, Brooklyn Paper, and a slew of other neighborhood publications. Which is why I have to disagree with the reader when she says this is a  “now useless box.” Looks to me like it’s getting a hell of a lot more use as a garbage can than it did before.

Ohhh… burn!

But, really – this isn’t the first time this has happened. Someone set a Bay Currents box ablaze a year and a half ago. And look where that paper is now. Maybe it’s a sign of things to come for the Bay News?

Well, probably not. And, all jokes aside, this is a shame. Community news outlets of all forms are vital instruments of civic life and defenders of the neighborhoods they serve. Their property ought to be respected as much or more than any other business’, and the scumbag who turned this into some abstract art trash bin should be ashamed.

And that’s enough soapbox for me. Now here’s some more photos for us to make fun of: