It's really annoying to walk past Union Square south or Central Park near 59th Street and have to claw your way through not only hordes of caricaturists and people selling the same cliched photos of Gay Street or the Dakota Building, as well as all the tourists who crowd around these artists. I don't think a special exception should be made for artists. If it's a free-for-all, then the tube-sock and churro vendors should be allowed to set up tables, too, but otherwise, they should limit the number of tables that can be set up. Let's not kid ourselves that these "artists" are somehow adding culture to the city's parks.

I'm sorry but I would hardly call the majority of these folks "artists" or 'artists', and freedom of speech is an extremely lame argument to support selling lame-ass reproductions of tacky crap.

I walk through U. sq. looking for the Art, and I just dont see it.

I am for limiting the numbers. Tell the rest of them to go to a flea market or something. It. Just. Is. Not. Art.

There should be unlimited art vendors and limited knick-knack novelty dealers. That said, the last time this subject came up someone pointed out that it's a bad idea to put people out of work during a recession. But this also isn't a free speech issue, it's a licensing issue.

unlimited art and knick knack vendors? Why? So New York will look just like Mexico City?

I protest Art Vendors' Crap!!!

You misread: Unlimited art vendors, limited knick-knack vendors. Art vendors are people who make crap themselves, at the loosest definition. Knick-knack people sell for others, make prints of stuff not their own, or buy to resell.

NYC does have a specific definition of 'expressive matter' material:

"Expressive matter" means materials or objects with expressive content, such as newspapers, books, or writings, or visual art such as paintings, prints, photography, or sculpture.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/rules_and_regulations/rr_1-02.html

As a person who makes crap myself, I do it to communicate and to make a living. 'Sculpture' is the vague term for me - you could argue a knick-knack is a sculpture, but again, we are talking mass-produced/manufactured vs individually hand-made.

Well, I think my definition is a little better. "Expressive" doesn't really apply if you are just buying something from someone else to resell.

Though I do think book vendors should get a pass, anything to increase the smarts of the city by even a bit.

Define 'art' versus knick-knacks..anyone can argue their items one way or another

As an art guy, I'd accept common sense in this case. Are you selling something you bought from someone else to resell? Was it made in China? Did you take a pre-existing image off the internet and print it out as a placemat and cover it in plastic? Are you selling a photocopied or digitally printed copy of something directly for another artist?

I think any of those being a "yes" would be sufficient to make someone buy a permit. You aren't finding sophisticated art practices in that place that demand a finer knife.

And let me qualify my position a bit further:

I'm a fervent believer in first amendment rights, and am totally pissed that these idiots are claiming those rights as defense for selling knick-knacks. I personally don't give a fuck IF you painted that stupid streetscape yourself, it's not SAYING anything that needs to be defended. You made that thing to sell, not to communicate.

However, I'm still happy wth the earlier question list above.