A court hearing is set for July 21 in the case in which the New York City Newsstand Operators Association is suing to block a city law aimed at replacing the city’s existing newsstands with uniform kiosks. The city hopes to bring in $400 million over 20 years from selling advertising on the new kiosks.

Some newsstand owners will be put out of business entirely. The new structures will have to conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act and will have to be at least 9 and a half feet from the nearest building. The city estimates that the new rules will wind up putting about 11 newsstands out of business, while the association says it is closer to 60.

“I think it’s a matter of making the stands more aesthetically pleasing, of having a better sense of order, because they will all be controlled by one entity,” said Tom Cocola, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, which is handling the new newsstands.

So the Department of Transportation — which hasn’t managed to paint lane boundary lines on the southbound FDR Drive or run the Staten Island Ferry without killing people — is now in the business of making newsstands aesthetically pleasing?

Better than a court overturning this law would be the City Council coming to its senses and repealing it. Newsstand operators are the kind of immigrant entrepreneurs that make this city great and that play a key role in distributing information vital to a working democracy. They deserve to be treated by the city as something other than a nuisance or a cash cow.