For Immediate Release (6/1/98):
-Contact: Robert Lederman (718) 369-2111
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
The following section, in brackets, is Quoted from: NEWSDAY 6/1/98 "More Vendors Curbed / Rudy aide: Food rules hit art, books, papers", by Dan Janison. STAFF WRITER pg A 23
[ "Controversial new restrictions on food vendors on many Manhattan blocks will also curb street sales of items otherwise protected by the Constitution, a top Giuliani administration aide confirmed yesterday. Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington said that barring food vendors from a block means that artists, booksellers and newspaper vendors, whose wares get special First Amendment protections and do not need to be licensed, also can be legally banned. "If you argue that a street is too congested to allow vending, then you can exclude all vendors," Washington said. "If you close a street, it's closed to everybody, but if it's open to the food vendors, you have to open it to the unlicensed vendors."...Those affected include sellers of black-oriented books from small publishing companies that are often not sold in chains but are popular with those who work downtown...Robert Lederman, who heads a group of street artists who have been fighting the city in court over free expression, also sees a ripple effect.... If granted by the review panel, those curbs would affect many artists who sell their work on Soho's streets, Lederman said. His group is looking to work in tandem with the food vendors' associations to press for changes in the city policies. In recent years, the administration has lost several key court cases in which it was found to have infringed on civil liberties by law or by policy." -Copyright Newsday]
Now that a top member of the Giuliani Administration has publicly admitted that the new vending restrictions are not just about food carts the media and the public might want to take a much closer look at the Street Vendor Review Panel. This is not just about hot dogs. The Panel, a key component in Mayor Giuliani's war on vendors, is virtually eliminating free expression from large areas of New York City's public streets. Newspapers, art, independently published books, bibles...the public's access to these fundamental elements of free speech and alternative expression is the next casualty in the Mayor's "quality of life" campaign.
Does the Mayor have an agenda to replace free expression on city streets with corporate expression, i.e. the Street Furniture Initiative's multi-billion dollar proposal for advertising kiosks disguised as planters, bus shelters, toilets and benches? Are street artists and book vendors who can set up for free without a license based on the First Amendment an obstacle to the corporate takeover of our public forum?
There is much more than just, "eliminating congestion" going on here. The Mayor has already developed a policy of virtually banning protest unique in New York City history. Under Giuliani, any demonstration no matter how peaceful or mainstream in it's goals can expect to be confronted by an overwhelming police presence and forcibly removed to a distant location under threat of arrest. Protest signs are being confiscated by the N.Y.P.D.. Holding a single cardboard sign (especially if it's a painting of the Mayor) in front of City Hall now leads to being surrounded by N.Y.P.D. Intelligence and told that you will be arrested. These officers have told me that, "Political expression is not allowed in front of City Hall". The massive effort made to prevent cab drivers from holding a rally in City Hall Park and the likelihood of mass arrests at the City Hall Vendor Protest this coming Wednesday may be the shape of things to come in the "new" New York.
* The New York City Vending Ordinance prohibits the vending of First Amendment protected fine art, books, religious materials (bibles, Korans, crucifixes, etc.), newspapers, political materials and all other written matter on any street where both food vending and general vending are restricted. Since June of 1997 when the U.S. Supreme Court denied Mayor Giuliani's appeal in the street artist case*, artists have the same rights as book and newspaper vendors and are correspondingly prohibited from selling on the same streets. The section of the vending law that pertains follows:
[Title 20-Consumer Affairs; Rules of the City of New York; 20-473 Exemptions for vendors who exclusively vend written matter. "...except that on any street where both general vending is prohibited pursuant to section 20-465.1 of this subchapter and food vending is prohibited pursuant to section 20-465.1 vendors who exclusively vend written matter shall not be permitted to vend with the use of any vehicle, pushcart or stand..."]
Wednesday's protest will feature a new series of satirical portraits of Giuliani by Robert Lederman to replace those illegally seized by police on 5/27 as the Mayor spoke at Cooper Union art school.
All Vendor Demonstration This Wednesday, June 3rd City Hall Park 9 A.M. Protest the Restriction of 144 Streets (Rain or Shine)
Contact#: Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) (718) 369-2111 E-Mail: <ARTISTpres@aol.com>.
*For more releases on this issue and to read court cases that pertain to vending (artists, food, books etc) go to:
<http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html>
Also see: Newsday 4/20/98 cover story "Under Giuliani City Has Repeatedly Stifled Dissent"; N.Y. Times 5/7/98 pg B4 "For Giuliani, A Different Big Picture"; NY TIMES 5/24/98, "Giuliani Plans to Prohibit Food Vending in Wide Area".; NY TIMES 5/31/98 "Vendors Face a New Round of Street Bans". Editorial: "the Big Chill" by Bob Herbert NY Times 5/31/98.
***For more information on the Street Vendor Review Panel contact Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington or Earl Andrews Jr. Chair of the panel at the Department of Business Services (212) 788-0120. Dept. Of Consumer Affairs (212) 487-4222/4112.