Underground Mag Gives Bohemian View

"The goal is muckraking really, something that's fresh, that's graphically unique, something that's not objective, that takes in its surroundings."

So said Alan D. Nidle, founder and publisher of The Street, an "underground" magazine dedicated to providing a conduit for the Cambridge homeless and artistic community to communicate and interact.

Nidle, a 28-year-old graduate of Clark University, seems to embody the magazine's purpose. A former homeless person, he currently lives in Cambridge and collects unemployment insurance. His unheated office in Central Square is littered with drawings, strange objects, typed manuscripts, and obscure publications from around the country.

Nidle founded the magazine over a year ago to present insider views on the homeless situation and conditions in the shelters and the mental institutions. Through the magazine, he also hopes to build a unified avant-garde community of musicians and artists.

"[The community] goes hand-in-hand with the paper-I'd like to see the arts community come together in a more formal way," he said.

So far, The Street has come out about once every two months, but Nidle said he would eventually like to see the magazine published weekly.

While the purpose of the paper is to "get the fringe--what's looked upon as the aberrations," Nidle also wants a broad readership. He said he believes a slick look will appeal to a wider audience and more advertisers.

"We want to couch that hard kernel of acid truth with pastry fluff. Once that poison is injested, maybe that will open new avenues of thought," he said.

Despite a low budget of between $2000 and $3000 per issue, The Street is able to include a color cover and clean graphics and uses high-quality paper, producing an effect similar to local fashion magazines.

But readers find the content of the magazine, which claims a circulation of 15,000, to be boisterous and daring. The latest issue featured an article by a former patient of Medfield State Mental Hospital which recounted mistreatment at that facility. Another piece detailed a conspiracyby Cambridge developers to put Latinos, a CentralSquare restaurant, out of business in order to useits liquor license for their own projects.

The cover portrayed President Reagan sitting ona toilet and shooting a hyperdermic needle intohis arm.

"There are certain things that might not havebeen picked up in other papers. Basically, it goodto take wild pot-shots at figures of authority.Sometimes they hit," said Nidle, who writes underthe penname Egg Al.

One case in which The Street "hit" was with thestory on Medfield State Mental Hospital. TheMiddlesex News, which covers the Medfield area,received a large response after reprinting thestory.

Mark Zanger, Op-Ed editor of the MiddlesexNews, said, "I think these stories are a realservice." He added that the administration of thehospital seemed more responsive since itspublication.

Not everyone would agree that The Street'sstyle is responsible, however. David Wiegand,editor of the Cambridge Chronicle, said he thoughtthe magazine is inaccurate in its reporting."They're kind of fast and loose with theiropinions. They clearly haven't gone out andchecked their facts," he said.

But Wiegand said he appreciated that The Streetwas willing to take risks. "It's feisty, it'slively...I'd like to see them survive," he said.

Neither Wiegand nor Zanger thought The Streetwas likely to survive long. "It's not a greatperiod for alternative newspapers," said Wiegand.

Thomas Bell, editor for the most recent issue,said, "The rule of thumb is that it takes $100,000or more to publish a magazine." He said The Streetcan make do with much less because it has almostno paid staff, it utilizes "the latest in desk-topcomputer publishing," and because of its uniquedistribution methods.

Copies of The Street are given free to homelesspersons who can hawk them on the streets and keepthe money. Additionally, free magazines aredistributed to area colleges and homelessshelters. Most of remaining copies are deliveredby hand to local businesses for sale, while othersare distributed by a commercial distributor.

Nidle said the next issue should be distributedthis week. He said that he will be emphasizing thevisual and graphical aspects of the paper and willbe introducing a funnies section of localcartoonists