For the full story on this bill to destroy free speech see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/

leave the vendors alone

boy oh boy, this story couldn't be more slanted. the vendors will be in the midst of the district - each and every block. they will be along the adjacent side streets intermingled with BID businesses on these streets. these are busy areas - are they as busy as the avenue - in some cases absolutely YES.

even more - the sunset park vendors have an organization that has been representing them against police, sanitation and consumer afffairs tickets - many of which are wrong. these vendors already have been vending on the side streets. they have worked with the BID in developing the plan for the joint district - they proudly call it "Plaza del Mercado Unido".

the sunset park vendors are being invited into the decision making process. they are being given the honor and respect that every human being wants.

In addition, the plan (again, that they helped devise) will provide access to a huge array of services - business support, low cost loans, housing, health, legal services, language and communication services, and much more. not only do the vendors need these services, but the local retail stores - the members of the BID also will get access. Folks don't realize, our merchants, many of them - are first generation immigrants themselves. So they and their employees will also get these services.

unlike most laws that politicians create - where both sides are equal loser, we view this as a win-win-win situation for everyone - and so do the people in sunset park.

it is the hope, the expectation, that by embracing the newest sunset park residents - and giving them respect and power, it will empower them to demand their rights in local schools, and from city agencies and politicians. we expect that an entire generation in sunset park will "come of age" during their first generation in the U.S. - and not have to wait several generations like other groups in the past.

so who is against this? maybe the street vendors of manhattan - who this doesn't impact at all. maybe they see this as a weakening of their position - peace with the community.

will this plan work all over NYC - absolutely NOT. most other BIDs are fighting against the sunset park bid because they, like the manhattan vendors don't want to see peace.

maybe the success of this two year pilot program will lead to other agreements across the city - each designed for the needs of the local vendors & businesses. this is not a cookie cutter plan that can be used all over. but it might be the beginning of the end of the problem.

BIDs Exploit immigrant Vendors: Using Intro #846 To Destroy Vending Citywide

by Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. artistpres@gmail.com
(SEE: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycstreetartists/ for a detailed
analysis of each of more than 20 vending Intros now before the City
Council)

[B.I.D.s are Business Improvement Districts. Sunset Park is a
neighborhood in Brooklyn]

I just finished reading the Sunset Park BIDs 50 page proposal for a
new set of vending laws (also known as Intro #846). If passed into law
by the NY City Council, this BID would assume total control over all
forms of vending within a 26 block area.

But this BIDs agenda is far more ambitious than just that. Their
proposal describes Intro #846 as, "A model that will create the
positive momentum for a review of all citywide vending regulations and
the creation of a clear and fair set of regulations for the entire
city." All the BIDs are awaiting the outcome to see if they can apply
Intro # 846 to their section of NYC.

A PILOT PROGRAM TO DESTROY VENDING RIGHTS CITYWIDE

During the 11/14/08 City Council hearing on Intro # 846, Councilmember
Comrie, the Consumer Affairs Committee chair, called Intro #846, "a
pilot program for the entire city."

If this law passes, ALL the BIDs and their City Council puppets
absolutely plan to use it as a precedent for putting ALL vending into
the hands of the BIDs, including vending by First Amendment protected
artists, book vendors, disabled vets, food vendors and general
merchandise vendors.

Intro #846 gives this BID the right to assign all vending spots
including those used by artists and veterans; to severely limit how
many artists and disabled veteran vendors can sell there (it proposes
2 per block); to run lotteries to determine which vendors will be
allowed work, and to decide where vending will be tolerated (it will
only be allowed on side streets).

The proposal further describes it's plan for the vendors to themselves
become part of the BID, which would mean that they would have to pay
the BID it's assessed fee just as all stores do. In other words, these
immigrant vendors must finance the very BID that is marginalizing them
to side streets.

The BIDs proposal describes vendors in the Sunset Park area as not
paying taxes, creating filth, obstructing streets and sidewalks,
unfairly competing with businesses, selling shoddy merchandise,
cheating customers etc. Only a fool would believe this BID is trying
to "help" immigrant vendors.

THE BID AGENDA IS ALWAYS THE SAME: Get rid of the vendors

Most NYC BIDs were created for just one purpose: getting rid of legal
vending. For example, page 1 of the Sunset Park BIDs proposal states:

"For a decade, street vending has been the number one concern of the
BID and it's 500 members." Since the BID is only ten years old, that
means limiting vending has been their entire focus.

* A granddaughter of the founder of the Fifth Avenue Association BID
(the first in NYC) discovered a manuscript written by another relative
of that BIDs founder many years ago. It describes the Fifth Avenue
Association as being created to, "Keep Jewish peddlers off of Fifth
Avenue."

* The Manhattan BIDs initiated the city's street artist arrest policy
in 1993. While wrapping themselves in the flag at every public event,
these same BIDs have spent decades trying to eliminate a handful of
disabled war veteran vendors from Midtown.

* In the mid 1990's the 125th Street BID got Mayor Giuliani to
eliminate the entire community of African American vendors from
historic 125th Street. The Fulton Street BID similarly destroyed a
vital African American vending community in Brooklyn.
One could list every single BID and find that a local effort by their
area's leading business and real estate people to destroy vending has
been the main focus and in many instances, the only purpose, for each
BID existing.

BIDs are anti immigrant, anti homeless and anti vendor to the core.
The very nature of BIDs is antithetical to democracy, freedom and
civil liberties. Their essential purpose is to privatize all public
space on behalf of corporations and real estate interests. Freedom of
speech and the right to exercise it in public space is the necessary
target of everything BIDs do.

BIDs are far more of a threat to public safety than even the worst
behaving vendors could ever be. Every sidewalk obstructing planter in
these BIDs districts (there are thousands) exists, according to sworn
testimony by a top NYPD vending official, for the purpose of stopping
legal vendors from setting up in legal vending spaces.

These same BIDs wrote most of the proposed vending laws now before the
NY City Council. Today, many NYC Councilmembers are nothing more than
BID finger-puppets.

EXPLOITING IMMIGRANT VENDORS IN ORDER TO PRIVATIZE VENDING

For more than 100 years NYC BIDs and the business protection groups
that were their predecessors have demonized immigrants, minority
vendors, street artists, disabled veterans and book vendors. But this
time, they are taking a novel approach to the issue of vendor
extermination.

The Sunset Park BID has managed to convince a number of advocates for
Latino vendors in their area, that turning their fate over to the BID
will allow their abused clients to survive. Frankly, I'm surprised
that politically savvy activists like these would allow themselves to
be duped into aiding a plan as reactionary, undemocratic and elitist
as Intro # 846.

But it's not hard to understand how the BID accomplished it.

These Latino vendors have been brutally targeted by the BID, harassed,
arrested and had their merchandise confiscated on a regular basis for
years. No group of vendors gets harsher treatment.

Who is behind this excessive enforcement; is it mean spirited, racist
police? No. All the anti vendor pressure in Sunset Park is coming 100%
from the Sunset Park BID. Every single summons, arrest or confiscation
was done at the request of this same BID.

GOOD COP, BAD COP

The BID has played a very ingenious scam on these vendors, tricking
them into thinking it wants to create a vendor market like the ones
they are familiar with in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
First they played "bad cop," driving them to desperation by constant
harassment. Of course, neither the BID nor the police ever told the
vendors exactly who was ordering their arrests.

Then they approached the vendors and their advocates with "good cop"
offers of "compromise" and the notion that what the BID wanted was
just order and to "help the poor vendors" create the kind of vending
market they knew from back home.

What the BID is really up to is exploiting these immigrant vendors as
a weapon to make it appear that privatization of vending would be good
for all concerned. One proof that "helping the local resident vendors
from Sunset Park" is not the purpose of Intro # 846 is their stated
ambition of applying this law to the entire city. Everything the
Sunset Park BID is doing is intended as a legal precedent to later
apply citywide.

SHOULD WE BLAME THE IMMIGRANT VENDORS?

No one can blame these immigrants for being sucked up into this scam.
Compared to being brutally arrested every day, becoming subservient to
the BID might seem like a pretty good deal to anyone.
Being recent immigrants, they may not fully understand that in NYC,
vending rights are almost never "granted" by government officials.
Most of the vending rights in NYC were won when artists, vets and
other vendors resisted the city's anti-vendor policies, fought the
BIDs, sued in court and won. If it was up to city officials or BIDs,
vending would have been completely eliminated long ago.

The Mexican model of vending cooperatives working closely with local
government officials that the BID is pretending to be creating in
Sunset Park has no relationship to how vending works in NYC. While I
have no problem at all with these unlicensed food and general
merchandise Sunset Park vendors developing a system that works for
them locally, the problem is that their local area has nothing to do
with where this law is actually intended to be used.

It is ALL about creating a model for corporate control and
privatization of vending and then applying it citywide. Once in place,
this system would strip every artist, disabled veteran and licensed
vendor of their existing rights, turning them all over to their
traditional enemy, the BIDs.

WHAT GOOD IS A VENDING LICENSE WITHOUT A PLACE TO USE IT?

Once vending privatization as envisioned by the BIDs progresses, the
very last people who will be in a financial position to successfully
bid for the few remaining vending spots will be poor immigrant
vendors. Issuing them thousands of new licenses as is being proposed
by some Councilmembers will be meaningless if the BIDs control all the
vending spots, exactly as Intro # 846 would establish.

This is a cold blooded scam by the BIDs. They are exploiting the
sincere wishes of unlicensed immigrant vendors to become fully
legitimate members of the business community so as to destroy these
same immigrant vendors and all other NYC vendors and street artists.

WHO WROTE INTRO # 846?

I quote from page 2 of the Sunset Park BID proposal:

"The BID decided to try a new approach. They asked the consultant who
formed the BID to provide them with a new vision [Intro #846]."

In other words, the very same BID consultant who formed the Sunset
Park BID, wrote Intro # 846.

The proposal describes vending exactly as the Downtown Alliance's
frontman, Councilmember Gerson has done, calling it, "confusing,"
"convoluted," and "impossible to enforce." It goes on to quote vendor-
hating former NYC Mayor Giuliani's Department of Consumer Affairs
Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra describing vending law as a, "smelly
onion." Not coincidentally, Dykstra was the founder of the Times Sq
BID, one of the most virulently anti-vendor organizations in NYC
history. These are the kind of vendor hating "experts" the Sunset Park
BID looks to for guidance on this issue.

ARE THE VENDING LAWS REALLY UNENFORCEABLE?

What BIDs have against the existing 60 pages of vending law has
nothing to do with vending laws being "confusing," or "unenforceable."
Their real problem is that vendors have rights.

Artists and written matter vendors are protected by the First
Amendment. Both are exempt from any license requirement or park
permit. Disabled veterans have a NY State law that allows them to vend
on many otherwise restricted streets as a reward for their military
service. Food and licensed general merchandise vendors have slightly
different regulations. ALL vendors, including artists, have numerous
restrictions on the size of their display, as well as where it can be
placed on a sidewalk.

Anyone who can read can understand the vending laws. Any police
officer could readily enforce them. But the BIDs don't want the police
to enforce these laws. They want the situation to get worse, allowing
tens of thousands of unlicensed vendors to freely sell so as to create
a demand for radical new vending laws that will put all vendors into
the hands of the BIDs.

AN EXAMPLE OF THE EXISTING LAW

As an example of the vending laws being both understandable and
enforceable, let's look at the laws for street artists.

We are limited to a display no larger than 8' in length by 3' in width
by 5' in height. We must be 20' from a door, 10' from a corner. We
cannot attach our stand to any meters, hydrants or lightpoles. We can
only sell on a sidewalk that is 12' or wider. There is a Consumer
Affairs official list of streets we are restricted from selling on.
Because First Amendment vendors can sell on any street that any other
vendor is allowed to sell on, if a disabled vet sets up legally on an
otherwise restricted street, artists can as well. Lastly, we must have
a state tax ID.

That single paragraph is basically the entire vending law for street
artists. For each other category, there is a similar list of readily
understandable restrictions. How hard is any of that single paragraph
to enforce?

If an artist has a stand that is too large, too close to a door or is
on a restricted street, they can be summonsed, confiscated or even
arrested. There is nothing convoluted, confusing or impossible to
enforce about any of it. Every category of vendor is likewise subject
to arrest, summons and confiscation.

To protect public health, a food vendor obviously needs some different
rules than an artist. That there are different categories of vendors
with somewhat different rules is no different than the legal fact that
adults and children have different legal rules. Passenger cars and
trucks likewise have different rules. Handicapped people can park
where other drivers cannot. Police must deal with these rational legal
differences every day in every set of laws they enforce.

Should we toss out all these differences and just mash everyone into
one category so to simplify all police enforcement? If the
Councilmembers cannot understand the vending laws they themselves
wrote, maybe the problem is with them, not the laws.

SHOULD ARTISTS FOLLOW THE BID LAW or THE US CONSTITUTION?

What the BID wants with Intro #846, is to make one very simple,
unconfusing law: Whatever the BID says, that is the law.

This kind of fascist corporate-sponsored "law" is something all
Americans, and all immigrants to America, should reject. Putting
corporations and real estate interests in charge of deciding which
artists can sell art and where they can do it is to put them in charge
of free speech.

Will the US Supreme and Federal Courts decide free speech matters or
will McDonalds and the local real estate office that run the BID
decide?

The outcome will be decided with Intro # 846.

For the sake of every freedom loving person in NYC, vote NO on this
dangerous law.

FINAL NOTE: ARTIST supports the rights of all vendors, regardless of
what they sell, where they are from, how they got here or whether they
are licensed or not. We have no problem whatsoever with the vendors of
Sunset Park. Our issue is wholly with the BID exploiting these vendors
in order to destroy vending.

(SEE: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycstreetartists/ for a detailed
analysis of each of more than 20 vending Intros now before the City
Council. Most are as bad as this one. The BIDs wrote them all.)

WHY DOES THE NY CITY COUNCIL HATE FREE SPEECH? STOP HARASSING ARTISTS!
--------------------------------------------------------------

To Councilmember Comrie, Chairman of the NY City Council Consumer
Affairs Committee and the sponsors of Intro #846-A
re: the cancellation of the vote on Intro # 846-A,

Dear Councilmembers and staff,

I write you on behalf of the members of A.R.T.I.S.T.

Yesterday (5/5/09) you canceled a hearing and vote on Intro #846-A.
Previously you scheduled then canceled hearings on the earlier version
of this bill, Intro #846 four different times.

It seems clear that this controversial bill, which puts all vending -
including vending by First Amendment protected artists and disabled
veterans - under the control of private business interests, is giving
you considerable difficulty.

At the aborted hearing yesterday Councilmember Comrie addressed a
roomful of angry street artists and disabled veterans who had come to
witness "democracy in action" first hand, offering an explanation of
why the hearing for his pet project, Intro 846-A, was being canceled
for the fifth time.

He told us we would have to, "work with the BIDs" on determining the
future of our vending rights. In his remarks he erroneously conflated
the BIDs with "the City" and with "the people of NY."

We strongly disagree with all of his remarks.

It seems apparent that with one exception, Councilmember Barron, the
Consumer Affairs Committee still does not understand our position,
despite receiving so much correspondence and comment from our members.
Allow me to clarify it.

We are not seeking an incremental increase in the number of vending
spots where the BIDs will "allow" artists to exercise their right of
speech. Whether the number of "allowed" spots in your next rewrite of
this bill is one per BID, 100 or 1,000 makes no difference.

We completely reject the notion of any BID having authority over our
Constitutional rights.

The NY State Constitution, the Federal First Amendment and the rulings
in our Federal lawsuits grant us FULL First Amendment protection. That
is "protection" from the government abridging our rights as you are so
intent on doing.

We can assure you that we have no intention now or at any time in the
future of submitting to the control of BIDs, which are neither
"government," nor "the City." They are most definitely NOT, "the
people of New York City."

We willingly follow the existing NYC vending law, which comprises 60
pages of limits on our activities. These are more than sufficient to
address any legitimate concerns about public safety.

BIDs are apparently your main (possibly only) constituents and your
biggest campaign contributors. To us it seems a gross violation of
your responsibilities as elected officials to cater so exclusively to
one small segment of the community, but that will be an issue for the
next election.

That you have a tremendous affection for and subservience to BIDs is a
fact no one can fail to appreciate. However, it surprises us how
completely and shamefully in their pockets you appear to be.

Previously we have offered you a number of legal arguments about why
this bill cannot stand. Here's one you might want to especially
consider in light of the history of BIDs.

Historically, there are two groups that BIDs have fiercely targeted;
vendors and panhandlers.

In a study entitled "Cities Within Cites" BIDs have been accused by
the City Council itself of assaulting, harassing and otherwise
violating the rights of panhandlers and homeless people. [SEE Section
IV: http://www.tenant.net/Oversight/BID/bidtitle.html ] The NY Times
and various State Court cases also describe these efforts in detail.

The City Council study describes BIDs using "goon squads" to attack
the homeless within their territory. Similar "goon squads" of
untrained BID "police" wearing fake NYPD-type uniforms routinely
harass legal vendors throughout the City. We are all too familiar with
the BIDs techniques of "persuasion."

Despite decades of BIDs trying to ban panhandling, it remains a legal
right throughout NYC, in all 5 boroughs, in every neighborhood, on
every street, in every BID. In point of fact, panhandling, like
selling art, is protected by the First Amendment.

So long as a person is not obstructing a doorway, acting in an overly
aggressive manner or trespassing on private property, they have a full
Constitutional right to solicit passerbys for change. The BIDs cannot
set a limit of one pandhandler per block, or require a panhandler
"permit" nor can they demand that panhandlers join their BID.

Unsurprisingly, despite it being 100% legal, the BIDs continue to
pressure the NYPD to falsely summons panhandlers in naked contempt of
Federal Court orders.

[SEE: City Strives To Comply With Panhandling Law, NY Sun June 1, 2007
"A federal judge will spare the city from being found in contempt of
court even though it long ignored a court order to stop enforcing an
anti-panhandling law. In 1993, a federal appellate court found the
state statute against panhandling to be unconstitutional. Nonetheless,
in the last four years, the city has used the defunct law to issue
summonses more than 1,500 times and arrest and prosecute more than 50
people."

Police Charged Panhandlers Under Unconstitutional Law, NY Times June 10, 2005
"Even though a New York law against panhandling was declared
unconstitutional more than a decade ago, the police, prosecutors and
judges have continued to arrest, charge and punish people for begging,
officials acknowledged yesterday. The practice came to light in a
class-action lawsuit filed yesterday, and prosecutors immediately
agreed that the panhandling charges were improper and said they would
take steps to halt the practice."]

To our simple minds it seems that what is good enough for a panhandler
is good enough for an artist.

Likewise, BIDs will never succeed in limiting protesters, religious
proselytizers, political activists, animal rights activists, veterans
rights activists, gay activists or members of any other social,
political, religious or sexual orientation advocacy group from freely
using the public spaces within the territory of a BID for their lawful
activities.

Like ARTIST, these groups can hand out literature, make speeches, hold
rallies, sell buttons, take donations and otherwise communicate within
each BID without needing any permission, permits or documents of
approval from the BID. Similarly, musicians can perform and accept
donations anywhere in NYC, including on subway platforms and in all
parks i.e. anywhere on any public space within any BID.

This is the standard of constitutional law we intend to hold fast to.

You may indeed continue to do the biding of the BIDs. They are by all
indications your bosses. However, they are not our bosses.

If we find it necessary to go back into Federal Court on this issue,
we intend to challenge more than just Intro # 846 in it's countless
versions, ABCD etc. We intend to challenge the legitimacy of BIDs
altogether. Ironically, we may use the RICO Act, invented by none
other than every BIDs best friend, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

We see BIDs as a white collar criminal conspiracy, not much different
than the Mafia. Some Consumer Affairs Committee members and sponsors
of this bill appear to be public officials that they own. Intro #846
is just one piece of the very substantial evidence of your criminal
intention to violate the civil rights of artists, disabled veterans
and every other New Yorker.

Each BID carves out a piece of NYC for itself then demands "protection
money" in the form of BID fees from every business unfortunate enough
to be within it's territory. You are the beneficiaries of that money
in the form of political donations. The protection that is needed by
businesses is mostly from the BID itself, which attempts to
aggressively control numerous aspects of how each business operates.

Businesses resent being taxed by BIDs on top of the taxes they already
pay for sanitation and police security. They resent BID control of
their signage and other legitimate business activities. They resent
their elected officials being BID puppets. The assessment imposed on
each business by the BIDs is exactly what was meant by taxation
without representation.

The BIDs are controlled by the largest banks, real estate developers
and corporations within each BID. They were initiated by none other
than David Rockefeller. They are a fascist form of alternative
"government" that should be abolished in the interests of every
business and resident in New York City. Their only valid purpose for
coming into existence was the failure of the government of the City,
(that being you) to adequately clean the streets and provide for
public safety.

Here's a truly radical suggestion. Why not actually do what you were
elected to do, rather than turning every governmental function over to
the BIDs and privatizing every square inch of public space?

We may not succeed in totally winning a war with the BIDs, but I can
assure you that the street artists and disabled veteran vendors of NYC
will seriously tarnish the false public images of both BIDs and their
finger-puppets if we are forced to engage in this conflict.

Please do yourselves and those you answer to a favor and permanently
file all versions of Intro # 846 in the trash can where they belong.

Respectfully Yours,
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
artistpres@gmail.com

To visit the ARTIST website go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycstreetartists/
(only subscribed members can access the materials)

NYC Street Artist Videos
For videos about how we won our rights see:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=artistpres

ARTIST WEBSITE (current)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/

this is addressed to Robert. I am the "consultant" that created the Sunset Park 5th Avenue BID. I am a community resident. In 1975, out of work, I applied for a vending license - it was called a peddlar's permit back then. I got two things from the city for my license fee - a yellow button showing that i was a registered peddlar and a list of places i could not peddle. Upon viewing the list, i realized I could not make a living "vending". two years later, thanks to $125 a month rent I was able to open a store on 5th AVenue in Brooklyn. I learned how difficult owning a store was - you work for hours before the store opens - getting inventory and organizing it and you work for hours after the store closes - going over the receipts and keeping the books. you stay open on days of 100 degree heat with no customers in case one should come by - otherwise the word spreads that you are closed and no longer in business.

Through the years, I and my family have led numerous causes involving human rights and against government misdeeds or inadequacies. I have always volunteered my services.15 years ago, the business leaders of sunset park came to me and said the city had given them substantial funding to hire a consultant and create a BID. but the money was spent and they did not have a bid. they asked me to take on the chore without pay. I didn't even know what a bid was. I researched and found out that a bid would be great for sunset park. the local merchants group needed resources to fund holiday lights, street cleanings, removal of graffiti from private property and increased public safety. the all volunteer merchants group had trouble because many members did not want to contribute back to the community. they wanted to make their profit and run. when money was needed for holiday lights - they kept saying come back tomorrow. knowing the all volunteer group couldn't, they needed to be at their own stores. but in a bid, a fair formula, locally devised has all property owners contribute a fair share to the community. I am proud to say that the sunset park bid has worked not just for the businesses, but for the community, making sure that the businesses were responsive to the community and followed fair practices.

i was asked, years later to help the bid get rid of vendors - yes, they asked me to do what you are accusing them of. at first, i bought into the very good arguments - that a community needs its business district - it needs to be protected because it is the economic engine of the community - hiring young people and part time adult residents. a neighborhood's Main Street is its focal point. When my wife to be and I began dating (in ancient times), I would take her for walks on 5th avenue to window shop and we would stop to catch up with the latest gossip from friends and neighbors. I've seen neighborhoods die when their commercial strips die.

the main arguments against vendors included - they undercut the prices of stores because they don't pay rent, they don't carry insurance, they don't have to pay for sanitation carters, and they don't pay for utilities. also, many sell stolen or counterfeit goods and do not give receipts or guarantees (heck my daughter bought me a first run movie from a vendor for father's day and after two hours of viewing, the movie ended ten minutes short of the conclusion...lol)

other arguments are that vendors don't pay sales taxes or report income taxes. or that they leave their business litter in overflowing corner pails or the street. and that they hold parking spots all day keeping store customers from finding parking spots.

it goes on and on. and i was convinced to try to right this wrong.

my first discovery was that the city vending laws were confusing and convoluted. but i also found that people who wanted to vend with a license in most cases could not - the city waiting list for licenses was so long, they even stopped adding names to the waiting list.

i studied what other u.s. cities did about vending, i studied what was done in china and mexico and other countries with vibrant vending communities.

and i spoke to the vendors themselves and even to vending support organizations like Esperanza and the Street Vendor Project.

I was re-educated. I found that vendors were victims. I found that many of the stores were victims too. But I, as the son of immigrants, married to a woman who was the daughter of immigrants, and as the parent of children who lost much of their mother's side of their family to the Nazi holocaust it was hard to not clearly see the side of the immigrant vendors.

but i saw some very ugly things in the vending community. i saw immigrants, less than a week in the u.s. being sent out by "behind the scene fat cats" with fake licenses or no licenses. these men and women had to sell their day's quota and "eat" any tickets or fines each day to put food on the table for their families. it was the urban equivalent of the hiring of migrant workers for farming.

I also saw middle class, third and fourth generation americans - with full time jobs, health coverage and pension plans, coming out on the streets to vend just before holidays. And taking the money and running. imagine if our stores did that - you can get a haircut only when the barber feels like showing up.

But my heart was moved by the immigrant vendors of sunset park (and others who lived in nearby communities. Decent men and women - working under terrible conditions. many times being unfairly ticketed or even arrested.

The "evil" intro that you talk about was not written by the BID. It was written by me with the input of the vendors and vending organizations. I faced many difficulties from the bid because of this plan. in fact, a secret dinner meeting was held by some of the leading board members "to deal with the problem - "me"! fortunately some voices of reason held sway and the proposal didn't die that night.

the conservative faction of the bid hates this proposal. they feel that i sold out to the vendors - but i did not. i came up with a plan that works for sunset park and the entire business community - sidewalk merchants and brick-building based merchants. I told and retold the story of one brookyn community that suceeded in getting rid of the vendors and found that the business in their stores dropped by 44%. Vending in Sunset Park will bring customers from other neighborhoods and other boros. foot traffic will be increased and stores will benefit.

the intro, to my reading does NOT put the bid in charge of vending in the district. the only official role of the bid is to accept the applications and put them in a hopper. a blind selection (a lottery) will be used to give permits. the bid does not make decisions in this process, it follows directions.

but the full plan i wrote, that backs up the intro includes many things that the bid will do for not just the vendors, but for store owners and their employees - who also are first generation immirgrants and in need of services. and most of all, the vendors will have a say - an equal say in the business district they call "Plaza del Mercado Unido" - the united business district.

but what about artists and first amendment vendors? the plan does not restrict them. if i and the bid have our way, there will be unlimited vending in sunset park. I doubt that a single vendor of any sort will be turned away. i think we will have locations (good locations adjacent to the businesses and between side street businesses) for everyone who wants one.

I am totally against putting vending in the hands of bids - any bid, even the sunset park bid. but that is not what this intro does.

but don't ask me whether this is a good plan, come to sunset and speak to the vendors themselves. if they didn't want this proposal, i would not have volunteered the thousands of hours that it has taken. Robert, if you wish to talk to me face to face about this, i will be more than happy - i'll even treat you to a taco from one of our vendors.

Dear teegee,
Every story has many sides and it's nice to hear yours. I admire your honesty.

Nevertheless, you admit the literal truth of the basic point of my take on this law:

"I was asked, years later to help the bid get rid of vendors - yes, they asked me to do what you are accusing them of."

From such an origin what can anyone expect to be the fruit?

That you were once long ago a vendor does not in itself prove that you understand the vending issue or that you are any kind of vendor advocate. Park Commissioner Benepe was also a former vendor, and he is one of the most anti vendor people who ever served in city government.

In fact, your description of vendors is almost entirely negative:
QUOTE:
"the main arguments against vendors included - they undercut the prices of stores because they don’t pay rent, they don’t carry insurance, they don’t have to pay for sanitation carters, and they don’t pay for utilities. also, many sell stolen or counterfeit goods and do not give receipts or guarantees (heck my daughter bought me a first run movie from a vendor for father’s day and after two hours of viewing, the movie ended ten minutes short of the conclusion…lol)
other arguments are that vendors don’t pay sales taxes or report income taxes. or that they leave their business litter in overflowing corner pails or the street. and that they hold parking spots all day keeping store customers from finding parking spots.
it goes on and on. and i was convinced to try to right this wrong."

I've been vending since 1962. Most of what you describe as the usual complaints about vendors are lies promulgated by the BIDS.

The entire history of BIDs, from their predecessors back in the early 20th century, involves elimination and exclusion of vendors. It has a specific racial and ethnic component related to the eugenics movement of the 1920's and 1930's. Jews were the original target of most anti vendor legislation, so citing your families background (I'm Jewish as are many ARTIST members) carries no water with me as far as proving you are motivated by a love of the poor vendors. In recent years the Manhattan BIDs, led by Trump and other real estate tycoons, have waged a relentless war to eliminate a handful of African American disabled vets from "their" streets. Other real estate interests got the 125th Street BID (and other largely African American BIDs) to destroy their own Black vending communities so as to fit with their gentrification agenda.

That the Sunset Park BID is largely made up of small potatoes, ethnic origin family run stores, makes no difference. As part of the BID confederacy, they are doing the dirty work of the BIDs, which were started by David Rockefeller.

The Councilmembers behind this bill are literally BID fingerpuppets, identified with every effort to destroy street artist and vet rights.

Using the Latino immigrant vendors as the cover story for destroying vending is fooling no one outside of your BID meetings. You have pitted a handful of hard working immigrant vendors against the entire NYC vending community. It is a disgraceful exercise and if passed will be overturned in Federal Court.

That these vendors your own BID has mercilessly harassed and terrorized for years, are now so bent and beaten that they approved a bill banning them from the main commercial strip of your area, proves nothing about the goodness of the BIDs intentions or this bills "benefit" to any vendors.

All your BID has to do to "help" these vendors is to stop pressuring the police to get rid of them. No new law needs to passed. Feel free to reply to me directly at
artistpres@gmail.com

Robert,
Do you live in Sunset Park?
I do, and it sounds like Teegee has come up with a plan that tries to find a common middle ground - a compromise protecting the cultural and financial GOOD that vendors bring to our community without displacing or disenfranchising them.

Your reply to Teegee seems based on a personal anger towards BIDs fueled by conspiratorial ideas - which although MIGHT have been true in times past, or in other places - I can tell you now, a BID with THAT attitude would have not lasted long in OUR Sunset Park community.

Teegee honestly shared that opinions differ within the BID, as they do in any organization - and you even took his quote of "the main arguments" out of context - as if Teegee agreed with these common complaints, yet he clearly stated he was trying to "right this wrong".

It's clear to me that Teegee's plan is trying to implement some sort of "contextual" zoning that allows for the vendors to still occupy the area, yet not directly on 5th Ave. Many vendors, especially food carts do this now anyway - as 5th Ave.tends to get incredibly crowded on the weekends and it's actually to their advantage to be off to the side where one can easily see them outside of the main flow of people - and where one can also wait in line without jamming the already VERY BUSY avenue.
My main concerns are that the plan does not negatively effect the vendors in the park, and those who operate on the avenue in off-peak hours.

Your last line makes me think you might not frequent our community, because I have VERY rarely seen any vendor harassed by the police here.
One time I saw this on 8th ave. and I admit the officer treated the man with very little respect - threw all his wares (small statuettes) in the trash, smashing them in the process. So I'm sure some of your fears are well-founded, but I think Teegee is working hard to make sure things like this don't happen.
A plan like this could possibly afford the vendors more protection than to have no plan at all.

Mofofo,
I have lived in Sunset Park, which, last time I looked, was still part of NYC and still under the US Constitution. You seem to fully embrace the BID mentality of privatization. Most New Yorkers do not.

To be clear, the stores and buildings are private property which their owners can do with more or less as they please. They can "allow" or "not allow" whatever they like within that property. If the owners are foolish enough to join a White collar type Mafia, aka a BID, that's their business.

The streets, sidewalks and parks of NY are public property. BIDs do not own them nor can they lawfully control them. Their power is limited to cleaning up, hanging lightbulbs, threatening the homeless with imaginary laws and bossing around the unfortunate store owners who are bled by their assessed dues.

Street artists are not employees, slaves or guests of the BIDs. We are citizens of NY with the same right to sell art, display art, make a speech, hand out a leaflet, protest or otherwise use that public space as any resident of Sunset Park or any visitor to NYC is. As a local resident or BID member, you have no more rights on that public property than does someone who just got off a plane from Siberia.

That some local vendors with little understanding of our laws were intimidated into working with a BID to limit their own rights based on coercion and a false notion that what works in a town square in a totally different cultural setting can be transferred to here, is something they themselves will see the mistake of before very long. I'm in touch with numerous NYC Latino vendor organizations and they all completely reject both this law and your BID.

You are fooling no one but yourselves with this "helping the poor vendors" nonsense.

Your BIDs own proposal admits it was created to eliminate the same vendors you are "helping."

Your BID sets up more vending stands on 5th Ave, makes more of a mess, blocks more sidewalks and inconveniences more people than all the vendors in NYC put together. You have some nerve banning vending on 5th when the BID itself operates huge vending festivals there. Do you actually think any of this can stand up in a Federal Court?

As far as me quoting the author of Intro 846 "out of context" I quoted him word for word and totally in context. You seem to have, as he does, a paternalistic attitude towards "your" vendors.

The 1,500 street artists I represent do not belong to any BID. We sell anywhere in NYC and need no one's approval or permission; not the Mayor's not any BIDs not the City Council's not the community boards. We follow a law called freedom of speech
applied to us by the Federal Courts in our many successful lawsuits.

Unlike your BID, we have no intention or desire to control anyone but ourselves, and we freely share the public streets with you, your BID members and anyone else who comes along.

If this law passes it will soon be overturned. If your BID wanted to actually "help" the vendors it was simple. Stop calling the police so much on them. The only protection they need is from the Sunset Park BID.

I support A.R.T.I.S.T. I grew up right next to Sunset Park and swam in the Sunset Park city pool.
(Photos to prove my family went regularly.)

Seriously, some first amendment rights do not need a "middle ground". I support vendors. As a wheelchair user, it's much easier, fun and enjoyable to shop at vendors than face so many stores that are not wheelchair accessible. My grandmother was a vendor on the Lower East Side, long ago, selling her own baked bread from a pushcart. The widow with 5 kids under age 5, had the pushcart on Orchard St., lower E Side, with the kids on the top floor. (Luckily, my mom at age 1, didn't fall when my Bubbie yelled, "get the baby" from the street, who was on the window sill.) I talk with vendors on the street. It's my alternative to travel, which I can't do.
Leave the vendors and artists alone, NYC Council!

I saw how the NYPD removed the vendors from Broadway, in Manhattan, a few years ago in the 20s. Vendors who were here, from all over the world, many wearing clothing of where they were from. Vendors from uptown. Kids selling stuff on the street, too. People came from everywhere in the City and 'burbs to shop. I even met a guy from Australia. The stores complained. It had been a wonderful mix of people. People still come for the stores, but the streets are not fun like they were there before. I miss the vendors. You can't recreate that vibrant street life by shoving vendors into pseudo-legal boxes/categories.

The vendors clog the streets in already busy areas and they compete with mom and pop stores who are barely getting by because they have higher overhead. They also provide easy cover for video bootleggers and knock-off vendors.

Free speech? Give me a break. They're trying to earn a living, I know. But they have to accept some responsibility for the problems they create.

In my experience, shoppers clog the streets and when the vendors (who are at the curb) are gone, so are most of the shoppers. Shoppers of the vendors, also go into the small stores.

Mr. Gentry,
The "free speech" we are referring to is by street artists, not illegal vendors. Are you able to tell the difference? We won numerous Federal lawsuits establishing that we need no license or Park permit to sell our art ANYWHERE in NYC. We need a BIDs permission or approval even less.

We are sending the 50 page Sunset Park BID proposal all over the city to lawyers and civil and rights activists. They are shocked at the paternalistic attitude you BID folks have to the immigrant vendors you are pretending to "help."

The only help those vendors need, is help to protect them from the Sunset Park BID. Your BID is the entire source of their troubles.

As far as competition, are you suggesting that the Latino vendors selling tacos are competing with the dry cleaner, the real estate office, the hairdresser, the McDonalds, the shoe store, the clothing store, the plumbing supply, the travel agency,
the furniture store, the banks, the law office, the nail salon, the cell phone store, the dentist and the other 500 businesses on your Sunset Park BID website?

Or is it that they are "competing" with the giant street vending festivals and the sidewalk sales run by the Sunset Park BID, all of which take place on the same 5th Ave you want all legal vendors banned from?

Your proposal is the greatest piece of evidence against BIDs that was ever created.
We thank you on behalf of all vendors throughout NYC

My name is Barbara Morris -- widow of John K. Morris, a disabled veteran vendor who DIED with a broken dream of getting his "blue" license -- my beloved husband, was a victim of the two-tiered system -- he was 100% service-connected disabled had a "yellow" license, but was relegated to 2nd class in the early 1990's by the Fifth Avenue Association who control the BIDS.

I am fighting against this bill in his memory and for every disabled veteran vendor who served our country honorably! Mr. Comrie's PUBLIC comments about this proposal are ill informed and very suspicious!

Please don't trade the honor of our veterans for your own personal benefit. THE PROBLEM WITH THE VENDING COMMUNITY IS AN ENFORCEMENT ISSUE -- SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT WITH CERTAIN VENDORS ONLY HURTS EVERYONE. YOUR EFFORTS SHOULD BE CONCENTRATED ON PRESSURING THE POLICE TO DO THEIR JOB -- NOT TAKING AWAY THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS TO EARN A LIVING!

The history between the BIDS and the disabled veteran vendors began in the early 1990's -- lead by 5th Avenue Association -- created a 2-tiered system that destroyed the lives of many, many disabled veterans. PLEASE don't add to the horrors the disabled veterans already face. When this legislation was enacted, it helped only a handful of licensed veteran vendors who worked very closely with the Fifth Avenue Association to get their "priority number". In return, they received prime locations in mid-town. The rest were relegated to outside the mid-core where they earned a meager existence. The legislation ruined the lives of a great many honorable men & women. THIS PROPOSAL WILL BENEFIT ONLY A FEW MINORITY VENDORS -- Look at the history between the BIDS and the Disabled Veteran Vendors!

And, now look at mid-town -- the BIDS are beholden to the Fifth Avenue Association, and it is overrun with illegal vendors, including those with fake licenses or licenses authorized by Consumer Affairs which are highly suspicious. The police in mid-town and elsewhere need help in recognizing legitimate license holders. The City Council should do a comparison study to determine how many tickets given are to legally licensed vendors compared with those either have no license or are holding fake ones. Ironically, the illegal vendors in mid-town have nothing to lose -- so what if they get tickets! The poor disabled veteran vendor risks losing his/her license. Does this make sense?

The Fifth Avenue BID is using this proposal as a "pilot" for future legislation that would effectively control the vending industry. They are notorious and will quickly and cleverly rope in a few disabled veterans who will greatly benefit by their inside hook -- the vast majority will suffer -- from the outside looking in. The BIDs are nothing more than back-end cartels!

The City Council should expend its efforts ask Consumer Affairs to open their records to verify how many of those BLUE vendors are actually honorably discharged veterans with service-connected PHYSICAL disabilities, and how many of those WHITE licenses are real. The City Council should also look into the records at Consumer Affairs to verify the legitimacy of the licenses that are granted and the process by which it administers the "priority" lists. The City Council may be surprised!

Whether the number of "allowed" spots in your next rewrite of this bill is one per BID, 100 or 1,000 makes no difference. The disabled veteran vendors will NEVER support your efforts to eliminate their opportunity to work FREELY! We completely reject the notion of any BID having authority over our Constitutional rights! The City Council's attempt to create a pilot program controlled by a BID is despicable! The BIDS will NEVER be supportive of the disabled veteran! Intro 846-A will never work -- it will create chaos and demolish the rights of disabled veteran vendors currently licensed and regulated by NYS & NYC. BIDS are notoriously in opposition to vending and you can imagine the results if they wrest control over the disabled veterans! Please think this through very carefully and do the right thing by voting in OPPOSITION to this awful proposal that is crafted to benefit ONLY the BIDS at the expense of every disabled veteran who earned the right to his/her license!!