by A.R.I.T.I.S.T. (received 1/29/96)
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
"They're vicious...and they don't represent the spirit
of the community...the Alliance has become the self-
appointed moral conscience of SoHo and the scourge
of potential restauranteurs...their current mission is
to keep the neighborhood safe from discos...eating
and drinking establishments and a growing population
of vendors". Village Voice 3/14/94
"Whenever a new development is proposed, whether
it's another hotel, outdoor seating at a restaurant,
stores leasing space in the neighborhood or a venue
for live music, myopic Tribecans can always count on
Freed for opposition...There's a certain snobbery at
work here among the enemies of economic progress.
Longtime residents of SoHo...are likely to protest
any addition to the neighborhood they think they
invented all by themselves. They're resentful of
people who moved there after the pioneer days."
New York Press 5/17-23/95
City Council Member Kathryn Freed on SoHo's bar
patrons:
"You get these roving bands of bar patrons at three
and four in the morning stumbling through the streets
singing and shouting and getting drunken, urinating
in the streets." Manhattan Spirit, 1994
Kathryn Freed on retail stores on Broadway:
"Council Member Kathryn Freed says she is
"especially incensed against the arrival of large retail
stores..." Villager, 11/29/95
Kathryn Freed on street artists: "They're parasites".
Christian Science Monitor, 7/14/94
Kathryn Freed on tourists:
"SoHo has hundreds of thousands of tourists. It's
suffering from too many people taking up too much
space. There isn't a square inch that isn't taken up on
the weekends." Christian Science Monitor 7/14/94
Kathryn Freed on First Amendment rights in SoHo,
N.Y.C.'s artist enclave:
"In a place like SoHo...there are higher concerns
than Mr. Lederman's right to sell his art". NY
Times, 1/24/96
"We hope the Councilwoman, being an attorney, is
aware that filing a false police report is a crime".
Housing Dept. spokesman quoted in Manhattan
Spirit, 12/22/94
SoHo Alliance Director Sean Sweeney on outdoor
cafes operated by "Europeans":
"It's cultural Imperialism...they think they can come
in here and strip our community...We're not
Appalachia. We're not a bunch of rednecks and if
they continue to try and do this we're going to use
our political power to stop them." New York Times
4/30/95
Mary Boone, art dealer and SoHo Alliance tenant on
tourists:
"I don't want a crowd in my gallery...I don't want to
be part of the bourgeoisie." Mary Boone, Village
Voice 3/14/94
"SoHo gallery owner Mary Boone has confirmed the
report that she will be moving off West Broadway to
somewhere north of 57th Street in an effort to escape
what she views as the tourist-destroyed essence of
SoHo". Villager 12/13/95
Kathryn Freed is the political power behind the
SoHo Alliance. "Working together" (N.Y. Times,
1/24/96) they are directly responsible for every
artist arrest in SoHo, every bar that lost it license or
was denied one, every confiscated table and chair
from an outdoor cafe and every attempt to discourage
tourism, stores, low income housing, vending etc. in SoHo.
Freed helped the Alliance make the area into a
special "artists only" district. This exclusive zoning
allowed "Alliance" members to cheaply buy up the
dilapidated buildings and develop them into highly
profitable rentals. Then they arranged to get the area
rezoned so that they could more profitably rent their
properties to non-artists. It's the Alliance itself
which transformed the area into a commercial venue.
By getting parts of SoHo landmarked, the Alliance
landlords avoid having to bring their crumbling
and unsafe properties up to code, which would cost
millions and eat up their profits.
They are now attempting to develop a Community
Court for SoHo [Villager 11/29/95] where street
artists, restauranteurs, homeless people and other
"criminals" would be forced to stand trial before a
judge appointed by and directly answerable to them.
Two First Precinct Captains have been transferred to
other assignments because they didn't arrest enough
artists in SoHo to satisfy Freed and the Alliance. Her
preoccupation with vendors and street artists doesn't
stop at SoHo's borders. She routinely pressures the
police to arrest Chinese immigrant vendors in
Chinatown, ticket produce stands and harass local
businesses. -Villager 1/24/96
Are Freed and the Alliance just overprotective of their turf, or is there a method to their madness? Every action of theirs can be directly ascribed to one goal: preserving the elitist image of SoHo and thus the astronomical rents they are able to charge. It's time an in-depth investigation of this gross misuse of public office to deny citizens' free speech and free enterprise was undertaken.
Robert Lederman, A.R.T.I.S.T. (718) 369-2111; e-mail ARTISTpres@aol.com
http://homepage.interaccess.com/~mar/nyc.html
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