City Aims To Slash The Number Of Street Vendors

Union Square Green Market also blocks sidewalks

Under new rules proposed by the Bloomberg administration, many street vendors will be banished from their usual perches. On Friday the Parks Department held a hearing on the proposal, which would cut the number of vendors in city parks by 75 percent. The rules would affect vendors wishing to peddle their goods in parts of Central Park, Union Square Park, Battery Park and the High Line—where there were some issues with artists late last year. While currently there is no limit, under the new regulations Central Park would be allowed 49 artist slots, Battery Park would allow 9, Union Square would allow 18, and the High Line just 5.

According to the NY Times, the new rules are expected to pass approval, and will go into effect next month. Parks commish Adrian Benepe declared, "everybody will adjust. This is not the end of art. It is just a very slight and strategic moving of where people can sell art.” He claims the change needs to happen because under the current conditions vendors are blocking sidewalks and creating safety hazards; he also added that they turn the parks into “year-round flea markets." In an editorial today, the Daily News applauds the city, saying "second-rate peddlers" have been "wrapping themselves in the First Amendment. In a few key park spots where New Yorkers and tourists tend to gather, a suffocating stream of vendors has descended like flies on a horse."

Robert Lederman, who has long stood up against such rules, says, “New York City is not a hospital operating room, yet Mike Bloomberg is continuing the sterilization campaign that Rudy Giuliani started in Times Square. And the parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, sees himself as a real estate agent who’s trying to get the maximum price per square foot for all of our public parks.”

Vendors would also be limited to designated areas within the parks, and have to follow new dimension guidelines for their stands. Joel Kaye, an artist at Union Square, tells us, "the most significant change is that First Amendment protected street artists will now be severely limited," and that the new way will pit artist against artist (who will have to work on a first come, first served basis). Kaye also sent along the above photo and points out that four days a week the Union Square Green Market "takes up much more space then artists. If these new rules go into effect why will artists be restricted to be in the very same spots that the Green Market sets up on non Green Market days?"

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on April 18, 2010 5:45 PM

Comments [rss]

squatch

i'd be willing to be that roughly 25% of the junk vendors that hide behind this first amendment argument are actually artist selling their creations, the rest are selling mass-produced crap that is virtually worthless from any point of view. i particularly hate those who pollute the high line, scarring one of the most interesting public spaces to open in quite some time.

i'll happy to see them go. let's hope it is forever.

puppets

I'm an artist and I completely agree that most of the street art is crap. I tried to sell in Union Square once and the "artists" around me selling mass-produced junk were very rude and hostile. I felt unwelcome and haven't sold there again.

How about street vendors "audition" just like performers do in some Subway stations? Removing about 75% of the vendors sounds about right to leave just the good and original ones, and probably attract some even better artists who would be otherwise turned be off at the idea of selling at these locations.

squatch

i'd be willing to be that roughly 25% of the junk vendors that hide behind this first amendment argument are actually artist selling their creations, the rest are selling mass-produced crap that is virtually worthless from any point of view. i particularly hate those who pollute the high line, scarring one of the most interesting public spaces to open in quite some time.

i'll happy to see them go. let's hope it is forever.

whatstheproblem

In an interesting turn of events, Bloomberg decides to increase profits across the city for fat cats and choke the the life out of the working class.

Artist beware.

jules1000

they should also ban the street vendors from the narrow sidewalks in Soho, especially Prince street. Countless pedestrians are walking on the street, usually on the bike lane of course.

cjstephens

Selling on those narrow sidewalks is already illegal. The city simply doesn't enforce the law there.

FDTW

I live directly across the street from where the "people forced into the street" are. The artists don't block the sidewalk because they don't have cars and trucks with them. All of those vehicles are attached to the greenmarket.

I have no love for the artists (and vendors) who make it a real pain in the ass to get to the subway, but don't blame the artists for what the the farmers' trucks do.

dr zippy

Again, the trucks from the farmer's market do not force anyone into the street. Virtually nobody walks on the sidewalk between the back end of the market tents and the street. When someone walks up or down Broadway between 14th and 17th there are obvious visual cues (tents, trucks, crates of produce and other market goods) that any rational, and most irrational, to alert pedestrians to walk on the sidewalk through the market or cross to the west side of Broadway. To claim that pedestrians walking along Broadway all of a sudden find themselves forced into the street is prima facie ridiculous.

FDTW

You give way to much credit to peoples' skills of observation. This area is like 80% tourists and 19% rushing suits on their cells on lunch break. Since you can start walking on the outer edge of the park by 17th and Broadway without noticing the truck and booth obstructions ahead, you can get "trapped" between a solid wall of trucks and booths and the street. It's possible, and considering the amount of foot traffic this area sees, it happens all the time.

That being said, USQ West is possibly the quietest street in the neighborhood, with numerous crosswalks and very little traffic. Even if you are dumb enough to get separated from the main walkway, you can simply cross the street and continue on your way. You may even be forced to (gasp) jaywalk, but honestly if you are stupid enough to get hit by a car on that street you probably deserve it.

ProudLiberal1947

This IS NOT about SAFETY this is about the Mayors Buddies getting CONTROL and RENTAL FEES in the name of SAFETY. Watch for the injured then trace all contact to findout who encouraged the IDIOT to violate Safety common sense under the guise, I didn't know or I was taking a short cut, I didn't see it. Yup! follow the money trail from the very beginning on the First protest of this way back when that is who is controlling and who is guideing this thing so the Market fails

bigmikebrooklyn

CXB..? did you make a new user name?

ribaldry

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN ALL YOU WHINING LITTLE ART CRITIC BITCHES WILL NEED YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS TO PROTEST GOVERNMENT ABUSES. THEN YOU WILL CHOKE ON YOUR WORDS. FINALLY UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF STREET ART AND PERFORMANCE. IN THE MEAN TIME. SUCK A DICK YOU FUCKING PUSSIES.

ProudLiberal1947

Either you are on Drugs, brain Dead or Stupid the choice is yours if you are capable. You have a mayor that is CHOKING the little guy and giving everything to the SOCIALIST CORPORATIONS, thats right these pieces of SHIT will come back in 6 months as Franchiceses and SELL the SPOT to You with THEIR PRODUCT, remember SOCIALIST CORPORATIONS develope NOTHING they STEAL DEVELOPED Ideas from others and use as in the case of your AssHole Mayor, the Political system to GAME the WORKING CLASS.

Now if that doesn't bother you might I suggest you find a tea baggr or republiCANT and offer to suck his DICK that way you are both happy with your heads buried in one anothers crouch.

ribaldry

PROUD I AM IN COMPLETE AGREEMENT WITH YOU. I MAY NOT HAVE BEEN CLEAR. I MAKE MY LIVING ON THE STREETS. THE BLOOMBERG PEDESTRIAN MALLS ARE BEING SOLD TO CORPORATIONS FOR 35 THOUSAND A DAY.

CR

Top o' the mornin' to you too Sir!

reedkorach

What a surprise.

horseplay

I can imagen this must be scaring the tourists out of nyc.. We should just close off all streets and sidewalks and make sure the tourists have places to walk, sit and take photographs. Forget NY'ers, its the tourists that are important because they create jobs and make nyc what it is today.. ???

kazubes

It would be nice if they focused on the 'dance crews' in the park who literally bring giant speaker boxes and drown out all the other performers and create big obstructions given all the space they need

whitecastlerock

Get rid of these fucking con artists already

dr zippy

Kaye is wrong about the greenmarket blocking the sidewalk and his annotated photo is disingenuous at best. Does he really expect any person with half a brain to fall for his dishonest assertion? There's a perfectly accessible walkway right through the market. It can be crowded at times, but it is no less crowded than the 14th side of the market where all the non-greenmarket vendors are located.

Why not have an arts and crafts market similar to the greenmarket on the days when the greenmarket is not in Union Square. Farmer's are vetted and visited by the CENYC to make sure they are growing their own produce and animals. If they meet the CENYC criteria they get to sell at the market. The city could do the same for artists and artisans. Vendors would get space but only if they could prove that they themselves made the artwork.