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