Spacing magazine publisher stickhandles drive to legalize road hockey...CAR!

Small magazines sometimes feel they're preaching to the choir, as the saying goes, and may feel they have little influence. But Spacing magazine is proof of the thesis that having their kind of "bully pulpit" can sometimes give influence far larger than their paid circulation.

Matt Blackett, the publisher and designer and general factotum of the urban affairs magazine seems to have tapped into a hunger in the mainstream press for someone to quote on a wide range of city issues. 

Not only has his vocal championing of mass transit got him appointed to the Toronto Transit Commission's new customer service advisory panel and the city's pedestrian committee, but now he's become a spokeperson for the legalization of road hockey. Plus he is quoted regularly in a wide variety of publications and website on other issues such as "guerilla gardening", cycling  and local politics.

This weekend, in the Globe and Mail, he was quoted on the allure of street hockey thus:

As childhood obesity creeps up and the city contemplates different ways to keep kids healthy, Mr. Blackett argues it doesn’t make sense to outlaw one of the simplest. He points to Kingston, whose city council added special provisions to its policing code of conduct in 2008 to permit street hockey.
"Our streets aren’t entirely utilitarian: They're an area that, I think, is somewhat social. ... They can be used in unique and creative ways."

 As I say, publishing a little magazine can make you a go-to source, sometimes on unlikely subjects. It's a measure of the influence that the hard work of publishing an indy magazine can give.