1st Amendment Vending, NYC

The following is an email I received from Robert Lederman on April 6th, 2010, Mr. Lederman is President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists Response To Illegal State Tactics).

I (Ned Otter) am a dedicated member of the ARTIST group.

***1. NY Times coverage on Park Rules The Times did a reasonable job of covering the issue which included a link to very detailed high resolution scans of the maps showing the exact spaces where art displays will be allowed. Keep in mind that the NY Times is a huge promoter of BIDs, is generally hostile to street artists and supportive of virtually all anti-vending regulations. You can download the PDF here: http://www.mediafire.com/?hjozl3ahyzz

The Times article is here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/artists-and-vendors-bristle-at-proposed-limits/#comment-650461

***2. Parks Department hearing, ARTIST protest and submitting written testimony on the Park rules (VERY important!)

A. WHO DO I WRITE TO? Written comments regarding the proposed rules may be sent to Alessandro G. Olivieri, General Counsel, Department of Parks & Recreation, The Arsenal, Central Park, 830 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10065, by April 23, 2010. You may also write him at this email address: alessandro.olivieri@parks.nyc.gov and you should also send the same email to the Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe. His email address is: Adrian.Benepe@parks.nyc.gov

B. WHEN IS THE PROTEST and the HEARING? There will be a public hearing on Friday April 23, 2010 at the Chelsea Recreation Center, 430 West 25th Street, New York, NY at 11:00 AM. The ARTIST group will hold a large protest before the hearing, at 10 AM SHARP. Please be there, with a sign ON TIME so that the media can cover the protest. No street artist or art vendor should be working that morning instead of attending this protest.

C. WHAT SHOULD I WRITE? Here is a sample letter to use as a guide. Ideally, put it in your own words. If you can't, just use this as your letter. These letters will all become evidence in any lawsuit we end up filing to stop these rules, so please use common sense. No cursing or insults. Just make it very clear that you oppose the new rules. Get your friends, family and customers to write as well.

SAMPLE LETTER: Dear Commissioner Benepe and Mr. Olivieri, I am a NYC street artist and a member of ARTIST. I have read the proposed Park rules for artists and strongly object to them. No new laws or rules are needed. The existing NYC vending laws and the existing Parks Department rules are not being enforced. If there is a problem with vending in Parks, it makes sense to use the existing laws and rules. These proposed rules favor non-First Amendment vending concessions, Holiday Markets, corporate promotions and Greenmarkets over the rights of First Amendment protected artists. I ask you to stop harassing the street artists of NYC and to not pass these proposed rules. Sincerely Yours, (Your name and email or address)

D. WHAT CHANGES TO PARK RULES ARE BEING PROPOSED? The most significant change is that First Amendment protected street artists will now be severely limited as to where they can set up an art display in a park and as to how many artists can set up in each park. The Department of Parks has set a specific arbitrary numerical limit within each of the parks or park controlled areas around parks that routinely have artists selling in them, as follows: * Battery Park, only 9 artists allowed * Metropolitan Museum of Art (between 79th and 81st streets) 12 artists. * Fifth Avenue (between 84th and 85th streets) 12 artists. * Union Square Park 18 artists allowed. * Columbus Circle, 4 artists. * Wein Walk (near the Central Park Zoo) 8 artists * High Line Park, 3 artists * Central Park South, 5 artists * Grand Army Plaza (by Plaza Hotel), 8 artists There will also be severe new restrictions on the distances that artists have to be from trees, fences, garbage cans, signs, statues, playgrounds etc.

A. ARTISTS ARE ALREADY REGULATED IN NYC PARKS Contrary to the Park Commissioner's public statements, artists in the parks are not unregulated, nor can they set up wherever they like. There are specific existing limits on the size and placement of their displays and specific exclusions about what can and cannot be sold under the First Amendment. They are also already subject to all the vending laws that apply on the streets concerning public safety. The PEP officers have a memo that lists the restrictions that specifically apply to artists in parks concerning selling near trees, benches, pathways, park entrances, fences etc. It also specifies what can and cannot be sold. It is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=lmwuoam0nti The NYPD has a similar memo concerning restrictions on where artists can sell and what they can sell, as does the Department of Consumer Affairs.

***Claim by Commissioner Benepe that artists in parks have no rules: NY1 News 03/27/2010 "Vendors Critique Parks Officials' New Rules For Street Art "Certain parts of parks have become very overcrowded and people trying to walk to or through the park have to walk through a gauntlet of vendors who don't have permits, aren't required to have permits, but just set up pretty much willy-nilly, wherever they like," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe."

B. THE PROPOSED RULES CLEARLY VIOLATE EQUAL PROTECTION At the same time the Parks Department wants these excessive new restrictions placed on artists, neither the giant Holiday Vending Markets that the Parks Dept places in USP and Columbus Circle, or the various Greenmarkets or the hundreds of park concessions selling food, tee shirts and souvenirs have to follow the restrictions they now want placed on artists concerning distance to benches, trees, monuments, signs, garbage cans etc. This is a clear violation of equal protection. Compare the giant areas these non First Amendment protected vending businesses take up permanently to the relatively small areas temporarily occupied by artists.

C. THE PROPOSED RESTRICTIONS ARE NOT ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY These proposed restrictions are not about addressing public safety, which will cause them to be invalidated by the Federal courts. They are about enhancing the Park Department's concession revenue. The new rules are intended to eliminate as many First Amendment protected artists as possible in order to make room for more concessions, corporate promotions and non First Amendment vending. The activities preferred by the Parks Department over artists unquestionably cause far more congestion and public safety.

*Proof the Parks Commissioner wants vending concessions but not First Amendment protected artists in his own words and those of his mentor, former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern:

NY Sun August 14,2002 Parks Commissioner Planning a Crackdown On Venders of Artwork They're `Out of Control, `He Says "But Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says he sees the permits as a quality of life issue, not a First Amendment one. "The proliferation of private commerce in a public park has gotten out of control," Mr. Benepe told the Sun. "We're getting complaints from concessionaires who say their business is dropping."

Newsday 2/26/98 Artistic Licenses; City plans to limit art vendors outside Met While denying that the new permit policy has anything to do with creating additional city revenue, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern said: "These are extremely valuable spaces, and people who sell hot dogs there pay $150,000 a year for the privilege, and may not want to set up next to an artist who is there for free."

D. THE PROPOSED RULES ARE DESIGNED TO CREATE MAXIMUM CONFLICT AND FIGHTS OVER VENDING SPACES IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY PUTTING AN ART VENDING CONCESSION SYSTEM IN THEIR PLACE These rules are themselves a clear threat to public safety.

Excerpt from proposed rules: >> >>(2) Only one expressive matter vendor is authorized to vend directly behind the numbered Department decal and if multiple expressive vendors attempt to vend expressive matter at any one numbered Department decal, then all such expressive matter vendors at such spot will be in violation of this section and may be directed to leave the area of that numbered Department decal immediately. Any such expressive matter vendor failing to leave the area of the numbered Department decal immediately upon direction as required under the preceding sentence will be in violation of these rules.<<

In a park where there are 14 legal spots set aside (USP) as soon as a 15th artist sets up, the police will make all the artists leave. Also, any artist can "get rid" of any other artist just by setting up right next to them. Imagine the pressure to get and hold one of those marked spots and the fights over who was there first. Under these proposed rules, artists who get a spot will never leave, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The city will then claim that to stop the fights and to stop artists holding the spots permanently they are forced to create a lottery-permit system and then later to sell off all the vending spots as concessions. This is their real plan behind these proposed rules.

A number of years ago the Parks Department Legal Counsel described their intention to implement this exact system of art concessions in a NY Times letter dated 2/28/96

"We are considering a plan to allow art vendors to bid for eight one year permits. The bids for these permits are likely to be less than those submitted for year round concession stands." NY Times February 28, 1996 Parks Restrict the Sale of Art, Not Its Creation SEE: http://www.mediafire.com/?yekugddk4mc

Since the ARTIST group won Lederman et al v Giuliani in 2001 (the ruling overturned the Parks artist permit requirement) hundreds of artists have sold in parks without incident. That they do this based on free speech, rather than on bidding hundreds of thousands of dollars for each spot as hot dog vendors do, has led the Parks Department to engage in years of daily criminal harassment and false arrest against artists as well as numerous efforts to impose more restrictions aimed at driving most artists out of parks.

Link to the proposed rules with maps of the vending spots: A copy of the new Parks Department rules proposal (one document as WORD text and a separate PDF of the City Record notice with the accompanying maps showing the location of all vending spaces) has been posted at these addresses for your convenience: http://www.mediafire.com/?hjozl3ahyzz

http://www.mediafire.com/?nymijj0oc13

Contact info: Robert Lederman, president of ARTIST artistpres@gmail.com