1st Amendment Protected Vending in NYC

UPDATED November 11, 2008

Rabidly anti-vendor, anti-artist New York City Councilman Alan Gerson has proposed 19 amendments to the vending law in NYC. They have now been formalized, and have been submitted to the City Council.

The hearing on November 14, 2008 will be concerned with 8 of these. Four of them directly affect artists. The legal text and our objections to the proposed legislation can be found here. The explanation and response was written by Robert Lederman, President of ARTIST.

There is an urgent need for all those concerned about these proposals to contact the NYC Council members that are part of the Consumer Affairs Committee. Sample letters can be found here (also includes Council Members that are sponsors of Gerson's proposals).

For those of you who are interested in acquiring a working knowledge of the basics of 1st Amendment vending in New York City, please click here.

Current NYC vending laws can be seen here.

Articles on artists attaining 1st Amendment protection are here.