Giuliani and City Council's "final solution" to
eliminate street artists, book vendors, general vendors
and food vendors  from New York City.

A draft of the City Council's proposed new version of the
Vending Ordinance has been leaked. The Council and the
B.I.D.s [Business Improvement Districts] have crafted a
law that will satisfy real estate interests, appear
constitutional when challenged in court and eliminate most
of the City's vendors. Under the guise of "reducing
congestion" and "protecting public safety" the City will
gradually transfer the right to use public streets for
expression and commerce from the general public to
private corporations and real estate interests.
                  The proposed changes are as follows:

1. LICENSE. A new category called Graphic Vendor will
replace book vendors and street artists. All Graphic
Vendors will now need a License. The existing license
exemption for book vendors and artists will be eliminated.
To avoid a constitutional challenge there will be no limit
on the number of Graphic Vendor licenses. The number
of General Vendor licenses will remain fixed at 853.
Graphic Vendor and General Vendor licenses will initially
cost $200 per year. If you have a single unpaid or
unanswered summons, or get more than two summonses
in one year, you will be denied a license. The license
does not mean you can work as a street artist or vendor.

2. PERMIT. All vendors, including Graphic Vendors,
will be required to have a Permit in addition to their
Vending License. The Permit authorizes use of a stand
or display. All stands, displays, carts etc. must be
standardized in design and approved by the
Commissioner of Consumer Affairs and the N.Y.C.
Arts Commission. No vendor will be allowed to use a
stand or display different from the standardized and
approved "official" stand. Permits will initially cost
$100 per year. Standardized displays are likely to cost
from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

3. WARRANT. All vendors (including artists), after
obtaining a license and a permit, must then get a
Warrant [warrant: To guarantee; to authorize; a
right]. A Warrant authorizes a vendor to display in a
particular spot. Only holders of both a License and a
Permit may apply for a Warrant. No one can vend
without first obtaining a Warrant. Only one [1]
Warrant will be issued for each block. None will be
issued on restricted streets. The Commissioner
decides which vendor is awarded the Warrant for each
spot. [Note: It's likely that the Warrant is a prelude to
making vendors bid for a spot on the street as they
presently do in N.Y.C. parks. This fits in with the
City's Street Furniture Initiative in which spots for
pay toilets, newsstands etc. will be sold based on
closed bids and function as advertising kiosks with the
City renting the space to the highest bidder. Desirable
food vending spots already sell for more than
$200,000 a year in N.Y.C. parks. It's likely that food
chains [Mc'Donalds], franchised merchandise
distributors [Disney] and major book sellers [Barnes
& Noble] will outbid today's vendors for all the
warranted sidewalk spots, if only to use them as
advertising spaces.

4. The list of restricted streets will be greatly expanded.
Any street where a majority of residents or businesses
sign a petition asking the Department of Business Services
to prohibit vending can be restricted. All residential
streets where commercial use is not permitted on the
ground floor will automatically become restricted on the
date this law is passed, i.e. no stoop sales, garage sales or
vending in front of your house.

                    How can we fight this new policy?
Lawsuits will be appropriate as soon as the new law is
passed and the police begin enforcing it. A possible legal
strategy is that street artists, book vendors, food vendors
and general vendors each make separate lawsuits while
sharing information, demonstrating together and
cooperating politically. If we street artists continue our
present pattern of resistance to the City's policies I
believe we can hold our positions in SoHo and elsewhere.
Success will depend on our willingness to sacrifice,
confront police, be issued summonses, hold
demonstrations, have our art confiscated and possibly be
arrested. It is likely that we can win in court with another
lawsuit because the proposed law violates First
Amendment rights and the Federal Court's ruling. It also
violates every persons' human right to make a living by
vending; a traditional and legitimate business. The City
hopes to break our will in the months or years that a
lawsuit will take and make us feel we'd better just fit in
with their system or quit. Ultimately, the City's strategy
is not based on winning in court but on intimidating us
with enforcement, dividing us against each other and
wearing down our resolve to fight back.

Some vendors will like this system. It eliminates
competition. It guarantees a spot if you can outbid
everyone else or  pay off a politician to get you a spot.
Some people will accept anything, no matter how much it
violates their dignity and rights, if they can still make
money. To fight this new law, all vendors need to
confront our common enemy, the City's real estate lobby,
boycott the new system [refuse to apply for a license,
permit or warrant] and do everything we can to expose
the corruption behind this.

Street artists and vendors have one extremely
powerful weapon, the First Amendment protected
right to picket, demonstrate, speak and leaflet. We
can and will use it to expose and embarrass our enemy
in order to successfully fight this new law.
               Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
              (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
                    [log in to unmask]  (718) 3692111
               http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html