On March 24, 2010 The New York City Parks Department released a notice in The City Record announcing new regulations for artists and vendors who set up in public parks. The plan’s regulations, which will more than halve the number of artists and vendors that normally set up in the city’s parks, have many artists claiming the plan is a violation of their First Amendment Rights and an attempt by the city to privatize parks.
Parks says the new regulations will relieve some of the congestion created by vendor tables, making it easier and safer for the public to utilize park space.
"There are places where there are so many vendors that you can't get down the sidewalk," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR-AM radio show. Bloomberg added that he felt courts would be sympathetic towards the plan in parks where narrow pathways are an issue.
A lot of people feel that safety isn’t the motivating factor behind Parks proposed regulations.
"The Parks Department has been trying since 1994 to eliminate street artists,” said Robert Liderman president of the organization A.R.T.I.S.T (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) . “I've been meeting and negotiating with the Parks Commissioners since 1994 on these issues,” Linderman said.
Robert Linderman and the members of A.R.T.I.S.T. have won more than once against the city in First Amendment Federal lawsuits. Linderman feels the new regulations are all about concessions, corporate promotions and privatization—he openly expressed this in the testimony he submitted to The Parks Department on April 23rd’s Public Hearing.
The Parks Department earns $90 million a year from private concessions, revenue goes into the city’s general fund and is then redistributed after viewing the city’s budget. Private restaurants, The Green Market and The Holiday Bizarres all operate within the city’s parks at a fee. The city, however, makes no money off vendors.
On April 7, 2010 The New York Post reported that the Parks Department struck a deal with the Queens-based company Culinary Engineers, Inc. granting them a permit to operate a cupcake cart in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The deal will earn the Parks Department $108,000 for the company’s first year of operation.
“Almost a 100% of the people who opposed the artists on April 23rd were members of Parks or business advocacy groups,” Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates said. New York City Park Advocates is a non-profit, non-partisan watchdog group dedicated to preserving the safety in parks and restoring public funding. “The public seems overwhelmingly against the move,” Croft said.
April 23rd’s five hour public hearing held in a Chelsea gym brought hundreds of artists and public supporters who adamantly disapproved of the proposed regulations. Among the crowd of artists were several community board and neighborhood groups who felt the regulations would bring order to the city’s parks.
“Parks has been after the artists for awhile,” croft said referring to Robert Linderman’s numerous cases against the city. “ They’d make more money if they had their own vendors and concessions,” he said.
Under the Parks proposed plan the 300 artists that set-up in Union Square, The High Line, Central Park, Battery Park, around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Columbus circle will be reduced to 81 collectively, that’s a 75% decrease in vendor space. The way it has been proposed the plan will allow vendors to set-up daily on a first-come-first-serve basis.
"The city needs to find a better way to balance these interests," City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan), who is chairwoman of the committee that oversees the parks told The New York Times on April 23rd.
The drastic 75% decrease in available vendor space has artists has many wondering how the city plans to enforce its regulations and define "artist."
“There’s a lot of crap that is sold—DVDs’, stock prints,” said Esteban Kremen, 37, a painter and self acclaimed “street artist” who has been selling his wares in Union Square for two years. “The city needs to draw the line, only those who are selling their own original pieces should be eligible for a spot,” Kremen said.
Based on lawsuits that Lenderman and ARTIST won in 1994, under the city’s laws paintings, photos and sculptures, defined as “expressive matter,” and protected by The First Amendment, can all be sold in parks without a vendor’s license. DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes and books can also be sold without a vendor’s license.
As of the public hearing on Friday, April 23rd, New York City Parks Department has made no public comment on the approval or dismissal of the proposed regulations.
“Parks will now review the testimony from the public hearings and make any adjustments its feels necessary to the original proposal,” Vickie Karp in the press department of Parks said on May 3rd. “The rules are about balanced and fair use of the park, not content. “
