4/16/13 UPDATE Parks Dept Lying About Performer Ban The Parks press office is sending out a knowingly

inaccurate explanation about the park performer rule. The entire purpose of their statement is to keep anyone from accurately reporting that the rule amounts to a ban on performing in NYC Parks. They are claiming that most performers will not be affected because they are mobile vendors. This is a link to 2 internal PEP (Parks Enforcement Patrol) memos which were submitted in the Federal lawsuit Lederman et al v Parks Department. Both documents have been acknowledged in sworn testimony by PEP officials as legitimate. Both describe what the Parks Department considers mobile vending, i.e. holding art in your hands or performing while walking with nothing touching the ground. Mobile vendors are not allowed to stand in one place for more than 15 minutes. Document #1. Expressive matter enforcement plan re: mobile vendors http://www.scribd.com/doc/110305147/Expressive-Matter-Enforcement-Plan Document #2. "1st Amendment Summons "Narrative" http://www.scribd.com/doc/100819633/1st-Amendment-Summons-Narratives See: "Performance Artists" and "Mobile Expressive Matter Vendors" In depositions PEP officials stated that artists and performers who were in the same location for more than 15 consecutive minutes would be summonsed. The City is lying when it claims that performers in Washington Sq Park and elsewhere are "mobile vendors" and therefore will not be affected by the new rule. None are "mobile vendors" who walk around the park singing and performing for donations. All use a stand, guitar case, drum set, piano or props and all stay in the same spot all day. Many are selling CDs and are thus vending by any definition. Bottom Line: The rule IS a ban on performers. 4/15/13 Update: Parks Department legal department confirms performer ban SEE: http://youtu.be/Q0k3lWwOXvw This is a link to a recording made on 4/15/13. In the recording the office of the NYC Department of Parks Legal Counsel confirms that the Mayors new performer ban amounts to a total ban on performing in NYC Parks. Park Performers Banned Again! 4/11/2013 The Bloomberg administration has just passed a new amendment to the Park Rules that will result in most performers, singers and musicians being banned from NYC Parks -

again. A Parks Dept legal document about the amendment can be read at this address: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycrules/downloads/rules/p_dpr_02_25_13a.pdf Under the newly amended rules performers who ask for donations in Union Sq Park, Central Park, Battery Park or on the High Line must set up on one of the very limited number of 8 X 3 medallion marked spots for expressive matter vendors, aka artists. In all other NYC Parks, performers can only seek donations in locations that are 50 feet or more from a monument, statue, or fountain; 5 feet from a tree, bench, sign, wall, fence; and on a park path that is at least 15 feet wide, of which there are almost none. Washington Square Park (a prime example of the expression banning effect of this amendment) does not have a single area where a performer or artist could stand and simultaneously be 50 feet from any monument or fountain while being five feet from a bench, tree, sign etc. Performers are additionally banned from working on grass or on any planted area and they must be located by a curb. Regardless of which park they are in, performers can only take up a space no larger than 3 X 8 a rule which in itself precludes most park performers. The Parks Department held a secretive public hearing on the amendment on April 2, 2013 to which no media, performers, artists or representatives of performers were invited. For the past year lawyers for the City and the Parks Department had been trying to convince the Federal judge in Lederman et al v Parks Department (Richard Sullivan) that the Parks Departments non-enforcement policy towards performers was based solely on the Skyline ruling, a State Appeals Court decision about selling tickets to a virtual helicopter ride inside the Empire State Building. The Citys purpose in suddenly citing Skyline to the court 3 months after having changed the enforcement policy was an attempt to defeat a 14th Amendment equal protection argument involving the unequal treatment of artists vs. performers under the 2010 revised park rules. The Skyline ruling: City lawyers admitted in sworn testimony to the Federal Court on 7/20/12 that Skyline has nothing to do with parks, public property, artists or performers despite the City using it to justify the new policy. http://www.scribd.com/doc/135229061/Skyline-Opinion However, the Lederman plaintiffs presented compelling evidence (see Timeline link) http://www.scribd.com/doc/135227734/Timeline-Excerpt to show that City lawyers and Park officials had repeatedly perjured themselves. The Skyline ruling (dated 2/23/12) actually occurred 3 months AFTER the policy change, as proven by newspaper articles (see timeline link) describing it in the NY Times, Daily News and The Villager. The articles are from as early as December 2011.

In their legal briefs, sworn affidavits and in the actual 2010 text of the rules, City officials had initially claimed that performers seeking donations were vendors and thus were subject to the exact same rules as artists. In the Spring of 2011 they began issuing numerous summonses to park performers. Then, in response to a widespread public outcry about Mayor Bloomberg eliminating performers from parks, they suddenly reversed their position and had all the performer summonses cancelled. Performers seeking donations were now exempt from the artist rules because they, were not vendors. News reports about the policy reversal began to appear in December of 2011. None of them made any mention of the Skyline ruling. It was not until May 2012 that any official statement was made by Parks. See this recording of Parks Spokesperson Phil Abramson explaining the policy change dated 5/11/12. Note that there is still no mention of the Skyline ruling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo67l4_7gF0 When the Lederman plaintiffs brought the abrupt policy change to the attention of the Federal Court, the City then cited the Skyline ruling in a legal brief for the first time to explain their new policy of exempting performers. Previous to that the City had failed to inform the judge of the Skyline ruling or of any change of policy based on it. The Federal Court then ordered a hearing on the performer non enforcement issue for July 20, 2012. During the hearing the City insisted that the Skyline ruling had forced them to suspend all enforcement against performers. Now they have completely reversed their position yet again, based on the same Skyline ruling, making performers once again subject to all the restrictions that were enacted against street artists in 2010. Lederman et al v Parks Department is now before the 2nd circuit Federal Appeals Court. The performer restrictions will begin being enforced on May 8, 2013. The full text of the Park rules as amended in 2010: http://www.scribd.com/doc/110304750/Expressive-Matter-Rule (Note that the original 2010 text of these rules already included anyone asking for a donation while performing. See the first paragraph section 105-b (1)) Video of PEP officers in Washington Sq Park telling artist/performer Joe Mangrum that there is not one location that is far enough from a fountain, monument, tree, bench etc where he could legally express himself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b55iEv5qDg&feature=share&list=UUlf_OpLLVSb2DZzSLg-LeDw Robert Lederman, President of ARTIST 201 896-1686 artistpres@gmail.com